Garage door beam style sensor?

[scarlet grove]

Looking for a sensor like the ones used in garage door openers that prevent the door from closing when the beam is broken.

I want to use this as a “trip wire” style sensor to turn on lights. Yes I could just use a motion sensor, but I want the lights to be triggered at a very specific point.

I have an LED strip that runs down my staircase. The staircase is next to a very common walkway in my house so a motion sensor would just cause the lights to turn on even when no one is going up the stairs, just walking by.

Any tips/suggestions would be great!
Thanks

[little jackal]

You would need for example an infra-red LED on one side and a photodiode on the other. How you would integrate small circuits into your home assistant I wouldn't know. Might also need some small lenses to focus the beams.

That said, a pressure pad might be more practical.

[gleaming thunder]

Hi, what's the width of the zone you want to watch? As aaronouthier says, an infra-red detector can be a solution. But if the distance is less than 4 m, an ultrasound sensor with an ESP32 with ESPHome may be a solution too, and you will only have to install the sensor in one side of the door, because the ultrasound sensor have both sender and receiver. There are similar sensor via laser, it all depends of the distance and the characteristics of your door

[scarlet grove]

The distance is around 1.5meters.

This is a bit more advanced than what I've done up to this point, but I am excited to learn and do something DIY!

[scarlet mantle]

Why not use mmwave to trip it at that point? Radar sensors can trip at different zones. You can also shape the motion sensor

If using a PIR you can use different lens or block parts to change the angle

[gleaming thunder]

https://youtu.be/js2DtOCz5Ok?si=kLMzVHVBJOxTYOOP

[scarlet grove]

I have tried mmwave and have not been able to achieve consistent results.

@scarlet mantle

[gleaming thunder]

An example. You can detect whenever the measured distance is less than the width of the door, so something is crossing the door

[scarlet grove]

And I was hoping to find cheaper solution.

[scarlet mantle]

Which one did you use? Have you tried different angles or zoning it? I think you can do a time of flight sensor too. If I could get a picture it might help to show where to angle it. If you angle it away from the walkway it should work

[scarlet grove]

I’m using everything presence lite. Just getting a lot of false positives.

I’ll walk out of boundaries and it it will think I’m still standing right at the boundary line even though I’m not even in the room. Or just random false positives around the room.

Ghosts

[scarlet grove]

What’s a good source on learning how to use ESPHome with a ESP32 when it comes to writing code?

None of the videos I’ve seen for this project really walk through the coding process in depth

[gleaming thunder]

https://discord.gg/JHeXs8Ze

[gleaming thunder]

For sure there'll be good resources here 😉

[wheat temple]

The forum is another good source. E.g. https://community.home-assistant.io/t/esp32-build-an-optical-light-barrier/560170/9