Large Object Capacitive Touch
Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2024 1:01 am
Newbie here. I'm using an ESP32 to make an automated reading light that goes on when the person sits in a specific seat on a couch next to a light. There's a car seat pressure sensor in the cough pillow which detects presence, and the ESP32 can connect directly to a kasa smart plug that the light is plugged into. All of that works great. We also want to be able to use the light even when someone isn't sitting in that seat. The smart plug itself is out of reach, and we don't want guests to need access to the kasa app to turn the light on.
I need help creating an unobtrusive way to detect when the user manually wants the light on. At first I thought I'd connect the large metal light to a capacitive touch pin, but the output drops to 6 when untouched, 5 when touched, and there's just too much noise to make this reliable. Putting in a resistor (any size) with a 10 uF capacitor in parallel seems to bring the signal to a static 0. Any advice on how to either 1) make the capacitive touch sensor work well with a large metal object, or 2) how to otherwise creatively allow for a manual on/off?
TYIA
I need help creating an unobtrusive way to detect when the user manually wants the light on. At first I thought I'd connect the large metal light to a capacitive touch pin, but the output drops to 6 when untouched, 5 when touched, and there's just too much noise to make this reliable. Putting in a resistor (any size) with a 10 uF capacitor in parallel seems to bring the signal to a static 0. Any advice on how to either 1) make the capacitive touch sensor work well with a large metal object, or 2) how to otherwise creatively allow for a manual on/off?
TYIA