Sensors

Sensors

This skill is for picking the right sensor and making it behave in the real world, not just on paper.

Use it when the hard part is reliability: noisy rooms, bounce, bad mounting, false triggers, threshold tuning, or choosing between several sensor types.

Workflow

1. Define the event or quantity.

   • presence, passage, open/closed, impact, orientation, distance, climate, occupancy, leak, smoke

2. Define the environment.

   • indoor/outdoor
   • noisy people nearby
   • vibration, dust, sunlight, reflective surfaces
   • battery vs mains

3. Prefer the sensor that directly measures the thing that matters.

   • impact -> piezo / vibration / accelerometer, not microphone
   • path crossing -> break-beam or switch, not generic ranging by default
   • open/closed -> reed / Hall / microswitch

4. Specify the signal model.

   • digital or analog
   • active-low or active-high
   • debounce, hysteresis, cooldown, baseline drift, edge detection

5. Describe failure modes and fallback options.

   • false positives from noise
   • missed triggers due to blocking code
   • calibration drift
   • ambiguous multi-sensor events

Decision rules

• If the environment is noisy, avoid microphones unless audio itself is the signal.
• If the event is a physical crossing, start with break-beam.
• If the structure feels the event, mount the sensor on the structure.
• If two sensors are viable, prefer the one with easier calibration and clearer failure modes.

Output rules

When recommending a sensor or architecture, include:

• why this sensor fits the environment
• why common alternatives are worse here
• wiring/interface type
• tuning notes: debounce, threshold, cooldown, sampling
• whether the project needs edge-based logic, not just level polling

When to load references

• Load references/sensor-selection.md when choosing among sensor families.
• Load references/signal-quality.md when debugging false triggers, debounce, or noisy data.
• Load references/home-automation.md when the task is about domotica, occupancy, binary sensors, or practical monitoring.

Resources

references/

• references/sensor-selection.md — selection workflow and concrete recommendations by use case.
• references/signal-quality.md — debounce, hysteresis, cooldown, mounting, and ambiguous-event handling.
• references/home-automation.md — binary-sensor style thinking and practical smart-home sensor patterns.