Billed as a “Breathing and Heart Rate Sensor (reference MR60BHA2)” this new device from Seeed has me excited…. the device arrived in a well-packed large box maybe 10cm*9cm*13cm. Inside, a small box (9cm*2.5cm*2.7cm) containing the sensor and a double-sided business card pointing the buyer to “building sensors with Seeed Xiao modules” on one side and an ad for their manufacturing service on the other.
Time to open the box – why am I excited? Because I’ve just been griping about “presence” sensors which fail to notice when I leave my office and movement sensors that can’t handle me sitting dead still to watch YouTube tutorials – maybe this?
The unit (3D-printed early production case – but WELL MADE – doesn’t LOOK 3D-printed) came without instructions – and when I plugged it into USB power – a white light appeared briefly on the unit before going out. I saw nothing new appear in Home Assistant. Dumb… I know. Maybe I was expecting some Bluetooth magic.
It wasn’t until I checked my phone WiFi and noticed a new access point available that I realised the unit was on and it seemed to be working… “seeedstudio-mr60bha1” appeared as an available access point on the phone so I selected it… “Connected without Internet” said the phone – so I looked at the access point settings – manage router.
I was then given an option to connect the device to my nearest WiFi access point – I did.
That done, back in Home Assistant I saw a notification saying a new device was available. “check it out”. I did.
And from there I noted the controllable LED light and a host of sensors – in this case “a picture is worth 1000 words” – so – I added the light and sensors into Home Assistant – let me show you some pictures.. starting on my phone as the device’s access point is utilised to let me set up my network SSID on the device and hence add it into the network and make it available to Home Assistant (effortlessly).
You’ll note on the right that it shows up as 192.168.4.1 on my phone until I tell it about my network – anyone who has used Tasmota or other ESP-based devices will recognise this.
With the WiFi set – the device became discoverable in Home Assistant.. All I had to do was hit ADD in HA and (optionally) tell it which area the device was in.
And with that – I could look at the Light control (just like a normal RGB light) and the sensors and the log…
Armed with that information it took me minutes to add the sensors to my Home Assistant dashboard. The very FIRST thing this is going to get used for is an HA automation to RELIABLY turn on and off my office lights depending on if Im in or out. More on that once it has been tested to death.
Meanwhile here’s the first attempt to add the SEEED LED and sensors to my dashboard.
As always I used a Mushroom card for the light. Short-press for on-off, long press to access colours and intensity… The wording on the panel on the right is mine.
I’ll make this a lot more compact once the novelty wears off. I think a loud bell in the living room if I stop breathing while still being in my office 🙂 I might even use appropriate icons 🙂
But not before it’s well and truly tested – my wife would have a fit if there was a false alarm…
BUT: There’s always a but… day 2: last night I went to the pub and on testing the sensors I noted 1 person, 60cm away from the sensor – heart rate 80bps, respiratory rate 1 breath mer minute… and it wasn’t changing. When I got up this morning – same value.
I disconnected the unit and reconnected the USB (at the unit end) and all was well. I left it to do some work in the garden (on my solar lights – see upcoming article) and on my return, frozen again – and the light would not turn on.
I repeated the disconnect/reconnect being careful to fully insert the USB lead. I’m assuming this is down to early version issues.
Day 3: I’ve contacted SEEED to let them know and already received an answer about updating- link here.. and here are a couple of links they sent to me – about presence sensors and about Home Assistant hardware. And finally a product link on AliExpress. Not checked personally but I use AliExpress all the time.