some of my ESPhome configurations.
this is an ESPhome version of a people counter sensor based on a vl53l1x time of flight sensor. since the people counting only works when passing the door opening complety, i also added kind of a light barrier sensor, that senses if someone is standing in the door openeing.
all the credit goes to @Lyr3x on whose Roode v1.0 project this is based. @Lyr3x reliable „smart home people counter“ uses a modified STM32duino_Proximity_Gesture library and an older version of the vl53l1x-st-api-arduino library (vl53l1_api). both were first used in a proof of concept by „kabron“ described here.
i copied those libraries into the lib folder of the target folder, into which ESPhome/platformio is compiling it’s code.
i did not find a better way to include the libraries than putting them into the lib folder, but putting them there makes ESPhome find all neccessary files and compiles fine.
if you rename the yaml configuration file, ESPhome will use another target folder and you’ll need to copy the lib folder into the new folder. you’ll also need to copy tof_people_counter/tof_vl53l1x_api.h into your ESPhome configuration folder.
i use this sensor to measure the distance rom the ceiling (where the vl53l1x sensor is mounted) to the toilet. of someone is sitting on it, the measured distance is noticably less.
this is based on @jardous ESPhome tof_vl53l1x implementation. since i get timeout reading from time to time, i added a timeout sensor and a way to re-initialise the vl53l1x if too many timeouts happen.
i also needed a way to switch off the measurements because our toilet is in a bathroom. steam from the shower seriously disrupts the vl53l1x sensor mesurements, so i use a home assistant automation to turn off measurements if a certain humidity is measured in the bathroom. if it’s dry enough the vl53l1x measure quite reliably, though it needs ocasional calibration which i do in home assistant.