Low cost mmWave 60GHz radar sensor for advanced sensing • Hacker News Board

Re: Low cost mmWave 60GHz radar sensor for advanced sensing

#41

Post by brookst » Sun, Jul 27, 2025, 3:20 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #38

Animats wrote: post #18

What's cute about this is how far they went to make hobbyists happy. There's a way to connect it to Bluetooth and WiFi, and an Android app. There's compatibility with some Adafruit products. That's unusual for IC data sheets. This is a phased array device. Angular resolution 20 degrees, range resolution 1 meter. It's not a Doppler radar, so it can detect fixed objects. So if you're using it for people detection, you…

> What's cute about this is how far they went to make hobbyists happy. Professionals are using hobbyist tools more and more, since these tools are just so much easier to use and don't require wading through datasheets which is like filling out tax forms. Also IoT usecases require flexibility in connectivity.

Plus, rapid prototyping makes it easier / more likely to bring a volume product to market, and selling the same parts to hobbyists and manufacturers amortizes R&D costs more widely. It’s just makes a ton of sense all the way around.

Re: Low cost mmWave 60GHz radar sensor for advanced sensing

#42

Post by amelius » Sun, Jul 27, 2025, 3:22 PM UTC

ethan_smith wrote: post #40

amelius wrote: post #35

Can this be used to monitor people through walls? Could it be used as a "life" detector in collapsed structures after earthquakes?

60GHz is actually poor for through-wall detection as this frequency is heavily attenuated by building materials - lower frequencies like 24GHz or UWB radar would be more suitable for both applications you mentioned.

Why do you say 24GHz and not, e.g., 100MHz? (Apart perhaps from it being within a reserved band).

Re: Low cost mmWave 60GHz radar sensor for advanced sensing

#43

Post by mikewarot » Sun, Jul 27, 2025, 4:18 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #42

ethan_smith wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

60GHz is actually poor for through-wall detection as this frequency is heavily attenuated by building materials - lower frequencies like 24GHz or UWB radar would be more suitable for both applications you mentioned.

Why do you say 24GHz and not, e.g., 100MHz? (Apart perhaps from it being within a reserved band).

An antenna large enough to work at 100 mhz would be impractical. That's a wavelength of 3 meters, and incapable of reliable detection of objects less than about 0.7 meters in all dimensions (1/4) wavelength, not to mention the required size of the antenna array

Re: Low cost mmWave 60GHz radar sensor for advanced sensing

#44

Post by CamperBob2 » Sun, Jul 27, 2025, 4:36 PM UTC

progbits wrote: post #28

I got one of those cheap waveshare 60GHz modules with heart rate detection a few years ago. My goal was to build a sleep tracker - stick it under the bed pointing up, detect getting in and out of bed and falling asleep. Unfortunately even just pointed straight at me with no obstructions and nobody else in the room the data was more or less random noise... I wonder if now (after few more years of development, more rep…

Unfortunately even just pointed straight at me with no obstructions and nobody else in the room the data was more or less random noise...

What steps did you take to limit the detection bandwidth? SNR is often a bandwidth problem, not a sensitivity problem.

Re: Low cost mmWave 60GHz radar sensor for advanced sensing

#45

Post by yehat » Sun, Jul 27, 2025, 4:42 PM UTC

Thinking of starting a project to detect rainfall/snow/mist - has anybody used those mmWave sensors in a similar application? I've researched some of those and seems many are build for specific application, like a car rain sensor, which hardly provides broader output to apply further modeling.

Re: Low cost mmWave 60GHz radar sensor for advanced sensing

#46

Post by radicality » Sun, Jul 27, 2025, 5:02 PM UTC

Rebelgecko wrote: post #37

Pretty cool, I imagine it's only a matter of time until they're plug and play with Home Assistant

I don’t know how similar is to this board, but I’ve already had this 60GHz gadget running with esphome connected to homeAssistant for a few months! :)

https://www.seeedstudio.com/MR60BHA2-60GHz-mmWave-Sensor-Bre...

Re: Low cost mmWave 60GHz radar sensor for advanced sensing

#47

Post by fragmede » Sun, Jul 27, 2025, 5:22 PM UTC

belZaah wrote: post #11

transcriptase wrote: post #2

“Quick! How can we use this to gather data for ad targeting?”

Amazon with all its power and incentive still can’t figure out there’s a limited number of toilet seats I might need. Linkedin is still offering me (50ish male, 30+ years in it, 15+ years of teaching in universities, board member etc) jobs as a kindergarten teacher. If anything, I’m amazed they are still so bad at this.

> Linkedin is still offering me (50ish male, 30+ years in it, 15+ years of teaching in universities, board member etc) jobs as a kindergarten teacher.

What's wrong with that? It sounds like you've got plenty of relevant experience!

Re: Low cost mmWave 60GHz radar sensor for advanced sensing

#48

Post by IshKebab » Sun, Jul 27, 2025, 5:31 PM UTC

scoreandmore wrote: post #6

I’ve played around with this (the KIT-CSK-BGT60TR13C). It is a very interesting gadget and the kit doesn’t need much configuration. In an afternoon I made a car detector for my bike that detects the presence of an approaching car from behind. I thought I had a winning startup idea then found out this idea has existed for years. :(

Can it detect the distance of the car? If so what's the range/accuracy like?

Re: Low cost mmWave 60GHz radar sensor for advanced sensing

#49

Post by unturned3 » Sun, Jul 27, 2025, 5:33 PM UTC

reflexe wrote: post #14

Tie that chip to a beamformer (silicon labs have a few) and you have a phased array radar, which is a radar that does not move at all (pretty cool in my opinion) Also, 15usd is not cheap for this kind of chip. You can buy a full wifi 7 rf/modem or a 4 core arm64 soc with this kind of money.

You can't use an external beamformer with this chip; it has the antenna built into the package itself. The chip doesn't have pins for RF input/output to bypass the built-in antenna.

60GHz radar is very different from WiFi. 15USD actually seems about right for the functionality this chip offers.

Re: Low cost mmWave 60GHz radar sensor for advanced sensing

#50

Post by chasd00 » Sun, Jul 27, 2025, 5:36 PM UTC

obstacle avoidance for rc airplanes would be nice, maybe combine it with one of the autopilots out there. Learning to fly rc airplanes is pretty easy these days, the flight controllers can hold your hand through just about everything.