I am looking to get a c7 Hubitat and I am hoping someone can answer a question I have. I have a son that has Autism. And I would like to set up a kind of safety monitor independently from intrusion alerts. It would be a motion sensor in his bathroom and a door sensor on his bedroom. I would like to be able to arm and disarm like alerts, but I would like to use a chime and not a siren. It can’t be set on a time of use because he does not keep to a sleeping schedule. It is hard for me to sleep because I have to be on alert at all times. This set up would really help in taking care of him. Can this be set up with Hubitat?
There are bed mat projects that will fit your bill too. Posted in the community. I think @MRobi or someine with an m has some. But maybe Mike will know. Tagged him.
You might also consider using recessed door sensors as they are relatively hidden. Also "Motion Switches" that combine motion detection and light switches.
The motion sensor in the switch might work. I would have to look and see how it is controlled. If it can work independently from the switch that would be a better option.
As for the sensor, that is the same sensor I was looking at.
I think you'll get used to a chime. I'd find something that will wake you up in the night. a bright lamp or something that has a bit more oomph to it. Maybe something that makes your cell phone right much liek a phone call so your body doesn't tune it out.
I use withings sleep sensors, formerly through IFTTT but there is now an integration for Hubitat for these that works quite well. (Note, it is not a local integration, it connects through the Withings API). This takes no more than 1-2s to receive an "out of bed" notification when someone should be sleeping.
I've also got a contact sensor on the door. During naptime, if the door is opened an Echo Dot outside the bedroom door makes an announcement to remind the child that it's still naptime and asks politely to go back to bed. For overnight sleep, it does the same but if either my sleep sensor or the wife's sleep sensor is on it also triggers an announcement in our bedroom to let us know the child is out of bed.
All of this could easily be done using a virtual switch as a condition instead of using times.
EDIT: Another thought, I've seen people use motion sensors mounted under the bed for similar situations. Odds are good their feet will touch the floor when they get out of bed triggering the motion sensor. The downside to this is a blanket sliding off the edge of the bed or a stuffed animal falling onto the floor can also trigger the motion sensor so it's a bit more prone to false alerts than a sleep mat would be. But significantly less expensive as well.
Not trying to divert you from adding a Hubitat Elevation to your home if that's what you want, in addition to your need. However, I really would like you to get what you need first and foremost, without having to spend time setting up anything that might be more than what you need.
I have a Ring Alarm system myself, and it has gentle sounds that will notify you of contact sensors opening and motion sensors triggering (although there is about a 2 min timeout before the motion sensor is ready after motion stops). You can setup notifications on your phone too.
You can definitely do all this and much more with Hubitat Elevation, but it's not going to be as easy to set it all up and have it work just like the Ring Alarm does, as simply buying a Ring Alarm would be. Your described needs fit what the Ring Alarm does, without having to be armed. I know from having a nephew with Autism and a neighbor with an Autistic son, there isn't a lot of extra time in your day for diving deep into the technical weeds.
Don’t want to do any motion or sound detector in the bedroom it self. My son snores and moves a lot while he sleeps. And if he stays in the room he is ok and I won’t need to get up right away.
As for the ring idea, I am trying to keep everything local. I did look into ring, but with HE I get more control and more options and it doesn’t put stress on the WiFi.
I am a tech by trade and this would also give me that project to play with and keep me busy on the long nights when I am sitting up saying “please go to sleep”!
Welcome to Hubitat! I have a grand daughter with autism so I can relate to the concerns you have. Like forum mentioned you should be able to accomplish what you are trying to do with Hubitat.
Here's a few other ideas you might want to consider.
I think most of us have accepted some form of cloud depency for the convenience of voice control and announcements. I find in our hosehold we bark out orders to Alexa more than we physically control anything now. "Alexa turn on the light" is so much easier than unlocking the phone, opening the app and pressing a button or worse... getting up and hitting the switch. And to be clear, you still do everything in HE you're just using your alexa for voice control or for TTS announcements.
You could also look at "Almond and Ada" on home assistant which is a 100% local voice assistant. You'd have to setup a device to run HA, configure the hubitat integration, then setup Almond and Ada on it. But it's a lot of work for something they come right out and say is not as good as google or alexa as a voice assistant.
I may be wrong here as I've never used them, but I believe Sonos may also be local and able to play a local mp3 file of your choice.
I did this for the same reason as you. You can create a virtual switch to turn the notifications on or off. You can also do it based on if a smart light switch is on or off. Really, there are many ways to do this. I recommend using pushover as well as you can have it alert with an urgent message on your smart phone. My son is older now and we've been lucky as he has gotten better about wandering off, but I can tell you this has given me more piece of mind than anything about his safety while I'm asleep.
I also used echo speaks and alexa devices for notification.... there really are a ton of possibilities. Just do your best to also have a backup solution, things fail (not necessarily because of equipment, but perhaps because of scenarios we don't think about). I do have to say though, my HE device had never failed me on this particular scenario, but don't make it your ONLY solution.
I thought I would add to this - I've also integrated BlueIris (camera dvr) with a camera in his room to HE. There are some nice apps to assist with this. It allows me to keep a monitor by my bedside which when alerted by my phone of movement, I can take a quick glance. I have varying alerts (different severity levels if you will), depending - like yours, he is fairly safe in his room, but I still like to know he is that much closer to making a run for it (really this is more in his past, its not as much of a problem anymore). I also use tinycam on an Amazon Fire for monitoring - it doesn't directly integrate with HE for me, but between the three, HE being most important, they all helped me sleep at night.
I want to be clear though, I put sensors on his door and every external door and window on my house. I wanted to know his path when he wandered. Being a tech, you're likely going to be adding motion and other automation, so I guess my point is, HE is an awesome starting point for you. When you purchase any z-wave or zigbee devices, do some research first. For example, you'll find a lot of lights are horrible repeaters and can actually harm an otherwise dependable mesh, but there are also lights that don't repeat at all which is a good thing when compared to being horrible. This community is a great place for your research, use it!
Thank you so much for your reply. Really nice to see someone has already been down this road and I am not alone. My son is 26 now and in the past he has ran out of the house a number of times. He has mostly grown out of this, but it is a scare you never get over. I have a cam that has motion detection on it but it tends to go off over every change in the room. Even if the light from the hall comes on. I use bells on the door and this helps, but even I sometimes don’t hear them if he is really quiet. Our new house is a little different and he will no longer have to pass my door to get to the living room. I am thinking of using a Zwave button to arm and disarm the door and having the motion detector on chime or voice to text all the time. Never going to get rid of the bells. It is always a good idea to have some good old tech in the house.
Can I use Alexa to do voice to text? Or do I need a speaker?
