Distance Sensor DS1 For Home Assistant By Screek (VL53L1X + ESP32-C3 + ESPHome)

We are also offering this DIY sensor on eBay store for purchase: https://www.ebay.com/itm/186262881775

Document, Firmware Update: https://docs.screek.io/ds1

Join our community and explore new sensors: Facebook Group, Reddit Group.

The DS1 is a tof's sensor that has the property of using an emitted laser to determine the distance of an item in front of it. In the right environment, this distance is usually around 2m. It also has another interesting feature, partition detection, which distinguishes whether the target is going from the left to the right, or vice versa. This feature is officially used to describe a kind of body counter, which means that if you install this device sensor above the top of the door, the number will be increased by one when someone passes by. This would also be useful mounted on the side of the door, you can imagine that the light is radiated out into two areas and it detects from which direction it passes. But due to the inherent problems of this algorithm, this cannot be seen as an extremely accurate way, if two people pass by together and one is holding a child, that situation could result in an incorrect count, in which case the sensor provides settings to manually correct the count. But as some other applications, such as stores and so on counting the number of people entering, then it is very informative. We know that some people will be used in the room to detect whether someone has entered, so as to turn on the lights and other automated operations, which can also be regarded as a role. The most common role may be the distance detection, it can be used to detect the front is close to the object, through the safety of the laser reflection, it can distinguish between the target current distance from the sensor distance, which can be used as some of the proximity sensor. When a person is approaching triggers a certain condition, here it becomes possible.

 

We want to bring the advanced TOF laser sensor to HA, which means now we can do some automation regarding the proximity of objects, this sensor has an advanced anti-jamming laser sensor that works pretty well at a range of around 2m, just use a TYPE-C cable that has been optimized by us with the simple EPHome firmware, and it can be plugged in to HA in less than 10 seconds to do some cool automation. I hope you guys get creative and share with us some of the cool things you can do with it. The sensor itself (VL53L1X) can also be used for head counting, the English sensor can distinguish whether an object is from the left to the right or the other way around, this feature is not particularly ideal in our testing, it can be counted vaguely, but if more than one person is together it is still possible to be recognized as one. We will further develop this feature if we have the opportunity. For now, let's concentrate on the matter of detecting the distance to the target, which can be automated precisely with respect to the proximity, which is a new possibility.

Feature Description:

- Power supply: 5V USB-C powered

- Measurement sensor: VL53L1X

- Measuring distance: Maximum 4m, based on the complex impact of the environment, generally about 2M the most stable effect.