Hi
just started with ESPHome on ESP32 for my presence detection project.
Just received the beacons using a nRF52810 chipset and simple on/off detection is working fine. Nevertheless I could not use ble_presence as binary sensor platform because the off-state isn´t published in time and could not find any detailed information. So realized by using ble advertisting and lambda this way:
But now it would be great also to get the battery level from the beacon to send an alarm for replacement but I´m not sure how to solve and could not find any examples. By logging level Very_Verbose I can see that there are additional service information but not identifiable as 0180f → battery service for me yet.
Do you know what to look for or have any examples how this has been solved?
The Pastebin link above doesn’t work any longer. I needed this example code, so I found it via the wayback machine. Pasted below just in case anyone else needs it. Credit to @Swamp-Ig
esp32_ble_tracker:
id: ble_tracker_id
scan_parameters:
interval: 10s
window: 1100ms
active: false
# Uncomment this to log the BLE advertisement data.
# on_ble_advertise:
# - mac_address: CA:9B:32:2A:47:84
# then:
# - lambda: |-
# for (auto data : x.get_service_datas())
# ESP_LOGI("main", "Data Update UUID: %s Data: %s",
# data.uuid.to_string().c_str(), format_hex_pretty(data.data).c_str());
on_ble_service_data_advertise:
# Use the above logging to find the UUID of the device and service. Will need to
# do an active scan, press the active scan button.
- mac_address: CA:9B:32:2A:XX:XX
service_uuid: "52XX"
then:
# I figured out it was x[1] by comparing the output from the above with the
# known battery data across two different buttons by the manufacturer's app
# One was 100% = 0x64, the other was %97 = 0x61. It was the only byte of
# state that was different.
- lambda: |-
id(mazda_battery).publish_state(x[1]);
binary_sensor:
- platform: ble_presence
mac_address: CA:9B:32:2A:47:84
id: mazda
name: "Mazda"
device_class: "presence"
on_press:
- script.execute: ble_active_scan
sensor:
- platform: ble_rssi
mac_address: CA:9B:32:2A:XX:XX
id: mazda_rssi
name: "Mazda RSSI"
entity_category: "diagnostic"
- platform: template
id: mazda_battery
name: "Mazda Battery"
device_class: "battery"
entity_category: "diagnostic"
accuracy_decimals: 0
# This script switches to active scan mode, waits 30 seconds for the data to arrive
# then switches back to passive. It gets activated every 6h, whenever the iBeacon
# becomes active, or when the HA button is pressed.
script:
- id: ble_active_scan
mode: single
then:
- lambda: |-
id(ble_tracker_id).stop_scan();
- delay: 2s
- lambda: |-
id(ble_tracker_id).set_scan_active(true);
id(ble_tracker_id).start_scan();
- logger.log:
format: Active scan started
level: INFO
- delay: 30s
- logger.log:
format: Active scan stopped
level: INFO
- lambda: |-
id(ble_tracker_id).stop_scan();
- delay: 2s
- lambda: |-
id(ble_tracker_id).set_scan_active(false);
id(ble_tracker_id).start_scan();
interval:
- interval: 6h
then:
- script.execute: ble_active_scan
button:
- platform: template
name: "BLE Active Scan"
id: run_active_scan
on_press:
- script.execute: ble_active_scan
Which beacon are you using? Ive been using BlueCharmBeacons. They are very configurable, have a button for triggering automations(which i still cant get dialed in) or it can be a motion sensor and broadcast UUID on motion.
If your doing room presence, Espresence is probably still the best. This repo has been useful to me for BT tracking things and getting battery level without using Espresence.
Thanks! That looks great. I’m using BlueCharm beacons as well. Mind sharing your code for them? I’m having trouble identifying the battery level bits. I’ve got one beacon in TLM mode and I’m getting the advertisement data. Right now the BlueCharm app reports battery level of 100%, so I’d expect to find 64 or 0x64 somewhere in the advertisement, but I’m not seeing that.
I don’t remember how I figured it out but I do know there isn’t any info floating the web for how to do it, atleast for Bluecharmbeacons. I made some posts in this Esphome home forum to share this information and posted my whole config there. He did warn me that polling for the battery level would significantly reduce the battery life and I did notice it start dropping after the first couple months. I think they hit in the 70% range… It’s not a major drain but, it’s not quite minor either.
Also, you might want to take a look at the Bermuda integration. I’ve just started using it with BlueCharm beacons and while it’s not perfect yet, it’s really easy to setup, and it seems to work really well. It also leaves your beacons open in esphome for whatever additional config you like.
Ya, i actually saw that here recently and meant to fheck it out but I forget. Thanks for reminding me.
The one I sent you as well is basically the same. Its BT room presence for esphome and doesnt make you dedicate the esp32 to a firmware like espresence.
It works pretty good for the most part as well. One thing that ive noticed is theres no setting or way to deal with walls/obsteuctuons like there is in espresence with the Absorption setting. If a beacon is within line of sight its very accurate. You shut a bedroom door between beacon and base station and the distance will double sometimes
The active scanning drains the battery. If you turn on and off active scanning like in my script as posted by sdholden28 above and only scan once an hour or whatever, then the battery life doesn’t go down that fast.
I scan the beacons in my car when the garage door gets opened or closed, do it a few times for like 10 mins then go back to passive.
Good idea, but I would add that you don’t need to check the battery level every ten minutes or even every ten hours. How about switching it to once every ten days?
Yeh, like use it as your use case requires. The active scan pings the beacon, what I actually want to know is is the beacon (and thus the car or my garbage bin) nearby or not. The battery information comes for free. The beacon will send out advertisements periodically, but the update frequency is turned down. For fast updates I do an active scan.
So you have the beacon half sleeping (saving lots of beacon battery power), maybe shooting out a broadcast every 5 seconds or so just to confirm it’s alive. Then when you really really want to know the rssi, you actively ask. That’s really smart!
I’m supposedly a beacon expert and have never thought of doing this before!
