HopsIQ™: The Smart Home Sensor Nobody Knew They Needed

I’ve automated heating. Blinds. Security. Energy management, presence detection, multi-room audio. 13 years in the smart home space — I thought I’d covered everything.

Then on a Saturday evening in November 2024, with guests over, the beer ran out.

No alert. No prediction. No warning from my “smart” home.

That was the moment HopsIQ™ was born.

What is HopsIQ™?

HopsIQ™ is an ESP32-C6 based, Matter-native sensor that sits in the bottom shelf of your fridge and monitors your liquid inventory in real time. It doesn’t just measure — it predicts.

The built-in ML model analyzes your consumption patterns — accounting for weekdays, weekends, and guest evenings — and alerts you 72 hours before you run into trouble.

Technical Specifications

Property	Value
SoC	ESP32-C6 (Matter-native, Wi-Fi 6 + BLE)
Sensor	Capacitive weight sensor + IR proximity (temp-compensated)
Display	3 LED indicators (🟢 Full / 🟡 Running low / 🔴 Critical)
Power	2× AA batteries — estimated 2 year lifetime
Size	85 × 40 × 12 mm
Weight	34 grams
IP rating	IP54
Protocol	Matter 1.4 over Wi-Fi + BLE fallback
Compatibility	Home Assistant, Apple HomeKit, Google Home

Home Assistant Integration

Zero configuration. Scan the QR code, 90 seconds, done. These entities appear automatically:

sensor.hopsiq_level — inventory level in percent
sensor.hopsiq_temp — fridge temperature
binary_sensor.hopsiq_critical — critical alert

# Automation example
automation:
  alias: "Beer Alert"
  trigger:
    - platform: numeric_state
      entity_id: sensor.hopsiq_level
      below: 20
  action:
    - service: tts.speak
      data:
        message: "Warning! Beer inventory has dropped below critical level."
    - service: notify.mobile_app
      data:
        title: "🍺 HopsIQ Alert"
        message: "Level: {{ states('sensor.hopsiq_level') }}% — time to reorder."

Optional: automatic grocery delivery webhook when stock drops below 2 packs.