Suggestions for detecting when someone is laying on the bed?

Any suggestions on a ST compatible sensor to determine when someone is laying on the bed, to trigger the blinds closing, lights changing etc?

Thanks,

@ogiewon added support for FSR sensors to his ST_Anything project. I have these in use and my wife and I love this integration. More details and pictures are in the Hubitat Community but this will work with ST as well:

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Our bed is more like a hospital bed with the ability to go into a zero gravity position, Legs go up, knees go up and head goes up… It looked like these strips might not like the bending…

Thanks,

Usually the easiest way is a pressure mat. People use these for both beds and couches. (Samsung even announced one at one point, but it never made it out of the beta phase.)

The Nokia (formerly Withings) has an IFTTT channel and is probably the most popular.

You can also use a regular pressure mat. See the following thread:

United security pressure mat

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I’ve stayed away from IFTTT, just trying to keep things as simple and local as possible. But, I probably need to rethink how I do things. Do you know if it’s possible to create a scene or something based on input from IFTTT?

I also have a U by Moen Shower and Faucet that they say only speaks to ST through IFTTT so I need to look at it more.

Thanks,

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The main way to deal with third-party integrations, whether they are through Ifttt or Alexa routines or even MQTT Is to use virtual switches.

You have the integration turn on a virtual switch and then you have that virtual switch coming on trigger whatever you want on the SmartThings side. That way you can make mode changes or activate scenes or Whatever combination of things you want.

Similarly in the other direction, you set up the logic on the smartthings side however you want, and then have the end result be a virtual switch turning on or off, and then that’s what your integration triggers from. So it’s a very powerful option. :sunglasses:

If you don’t want to use Ifttt, then follow the last link in my previous post and just get a regular pressure mat and add a Z wave or zigbee radio to it and you can get direct integration with smartthings. Better integration, it’s just more work to get it set up, maybe including splicing some wires.

I second the Withings. I have two of them and expect to buy two more.

The complexity added by integration through IFTTT is more than overcome by the device capabilities. Fit, finish, and build quality is also top notch.

The virtual switches tied to the device through IFTTT typically responds within 5 seconds.

Theyre deployed across the box springs under the mattress at chest level so they would work in your adjustable bed use case. You’ll just have to do some creative cable management (line powered, not battery) to make sure the cables arent impinged in the mechanism.

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It’s a 1 inch wide strip you can place anywhere so it would work as you just need to place it where your weight is give ups and downs. But it is not an off the shelf the solution so you need to be willing to tinker.

If you go with the Withings it might be cheaper to go direct to the manufacturers web site with the code MODERNDAD.
It currently gives 20% off which makes the Sleep Ananlyzer 10% cheaper on the (UK) web site than on Amazon. Not sure of the saving this will give on the US site.
Not sure when it expires (but I think it said June 8).

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I just ordered 2 directly from the Withings US site and received a $40 discount using the code. I’ve been wanting these for a while, so thank you!!

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I am going to try the Withings solution. Amazon had the bundle of two on sale.

My thought is to set up a scene and have it turn on with a virtual switch. Or should I do something in webcore?

The scenerio would be, if the door is closed and Withings senses a load, shut the blinds turn off the lights and if its summer turn on the ceiling fan.

Does this sound right?

Thanks,

A basic automation will work if you don’t have a lot of conditions (your: except the summer do this instead) The more conditions you add, the more likely you’ll want something like WebCoRE. If you’re not to where you want to write your own pistons but still need flexibility, look at Bengali’s Rooms Manager smartapp. (you can create a room occupancy object and control states based on vacant, occupied, engaged, and sleep states)

I’ve created the rooms manager smart app, but get an error (haven’t done my troubleshooting yet) As I was loading the variables into the app it was unclear to me how I use it for fans and blinds. I’ve picked up a few more sensors to fill some gaps and will continue to play with it.

I like the idea of having a prebuilt framework to use.

My biggest challenge is having a reliable presence sensor capability (tried phones but have bad cell coverage here, tried Samsung presence sensor but chews through batteries and was inconsistent.).

post the error in the Rooms Manager thread - Bangali is extremely responsive…

And on the presence sensor… I’ve been doing this for MANY years - and I have YET to find one I consider reliable enough to use as a trigger. :slight_smile:

There’s a lot of trial and error in Geopresence. I rely on Bluetooth and Ibeacons which is very reliable, but quite short range.

FAQ: The Many Ways of Detecting Presence (2020)

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I went with the Withings bed sensor, mostly for the fun stuff it tracks… but I don’t see a way to have it work with SmartThings through IFTTT to control a scene or device, except Hue lights (limited configurability). I have one hue light strip, Which I could put under my bed and have it trigger actions. The use case is I go to bed check all the doors status, lock if open etc. I’m guessing I would need to use Webcore for this.

What have I missed on the IFTTT/Withings/SmartThings integration?

Thanks,

You should be able to use any of the devices connected to your SmartThings account that show up in the smartthings Ifttt channel as a “that.“

What many people do is create a virtual switch to use as the “that,” and then you can use that virtual switch coming on as a trigger for pretty much any automation in smartthings. So you could use it to change the mode, turn off the TV, trigger a scene, whatever you can control with a smartthings automation. :sunglasses:

So you won’t see your smartthings scenes in the smartthings Ifttt channel, but you can activate them from a virtual switch once you have authorized that switch to be used by Ifttt.

https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/211978466-IFTTT

Mine are setup exactly how @JDRoberts describes here. Each Withings has a matching virtual switch in my ST setup which are then used as my automation triggers.

Advanced use case:
I also have a third virtual switch which I use as a consolidated sleep sensor. Its based on the state of the two ‘real’ sleep sensors filtered on a bunch of different factors including time of day, my wifes work schedule, the airspeed of African swallows and migrating coconuts… Etc. So that i can do weird things like make sure it doesnt accidentally trigger morning wake up routines until we both get out of bed, not run the wake routines on weekends or vacation, etc.

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Thanks, for some reason (senior moment probably) I didn’t see the create your own when I was looking, I have it set up now. This looks way better than I was thinking…

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I rec’d my sleep mats and set them up with the 3 virtual switches as you did and it is working awesomely! And lickity-split fast too. The whole house is shut down before we can even get our goodnight kiss in. :slight_smile: Thanks for explaining how you did it.

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