Motion sensor

Hardware Home Automation
1

Hi
I would like to make a smart motion detector. My idea is to count people in and out of the room by using an array of four PIR sensor.

Does anyone knows where I can get this pcb produced, is it feasible? Should I add battery to it? IS this something other openhab user would like?

For me it will be brilliant to keep the lights on as long as I am in the room, and only turn off lights if all people leaves the room. The way Motion sensors work today they only make sense to turn on lights in your living room if the light state is off, but for the garage, basement etc they are great.

2

There are many places to get PCBs made. I’ve used a couple - most recently Seeed Fusion. I’ve also used Olimex in Europe, but not for a while (and it looks like they might not be doing PCBs at the moment anyway).

3

Is there someone that also can solder them for me?

4

Hmmm - I’m not so sure about that… If you are making a large number, then I think Seeed and Olimex can manufacturer the complete PCB, including populating the components. However, if you’re just making one or two, then you might have more problems…

Hand soldering isn’t too hard and with a little care and ingenuity you can solder most devices (even surface mount). If you’re really not keen on this, then you might be better off with using some prebuilt parts that you can just plug together -;

5

I’m curious how you would deploy this so it will be able to count the number of people entering/exiting a room. Do you plan on putting them at the doorways so they only trigger when someone enters or exits the room? If so how do you distinguish the direction the person is going (i.e. entering or exiting). Is that achieved by timing differences between when the various PIRs go off (e.g. if PIR_3 goes off before PIR_4 the person is entering)?

I’ve not seen a configuration like this and am curious how it works.

6

Well, I would like 6 pieces, my brother 5 a colluge some, and maybe some of
you guys here would like some. I will make a nice aluframe to hold them,
like a downlight.

7

I will upload a paper on this topic when I get home. Principle with timing
is correct.

8

Here is the paper on PIR sensors.

I would like to make the hardware so that you either can hardwire it(ethernet connector) or stick on an esp8266 for wifi.

9

Look for a local hackerspace (you can find a list in http://hackerspaces.org/) and see if anyone with hardware knowhow might be interested in helping you with your project.

And don’t forget to make a donation to the hackerspace if you find help (it cost a fair amount of money to run one).