Also, JR, for your reference, this is how I set up the HA side of things to create an automation that runs when the beacon (or virtual beacon in your case) gets within a certain range or leaves range of the scanner (in my case, the rPi base unit running HA):
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for reaching out and try to help.
I’ve tried (in the past) the virtual beacon app from another app, can’t remember its name now, and no luck. However, you remind me that I did not tried it with esp bt proxy. In any case, I can find the virtual beacon (from third part app or ha companion app) using a scanner on my phone or laptop Bluetooth. I tried (send and receive) with android and iphone, works between them but never received by the HA. That lead me to believe something was wrong with my dongle (ha runs on a miniPC with external dongle), the dongle is in the list of compatible devices and works with bt thermometer around the house. I am still not convinced that it is not the dongle, but seeing so many people with similar behaviour around leads me to believe that the integration is, at least, not clear in its documentation.
Anyway, I am running some tests with esp bt proxy, so I will take the opportunity to do more extensive test on the bt dongle as well. One thing catching my attention is the logs from ha, the Linux kernel does not have the proper firmware files for this dongle and it warns that on boot. However this is a flaw of ha kernel, my laptop does not produce the same error. I will signal that in the hassos ticket system. But even without the firmware files available, it works with ble thermometers…
I’ve ordered another dongle from Amazon to have comparisons
Thanks again
Jose
So I’ve had my phone broadcasting via the HA app for nearly 3 weeks now. From what I found on Google, it sounds like Android cycles through MAC addresses daily so it SHOULD have been plenty of time for the ‘10 addresses’ that the docs say are required. Nothing has ever shown up.
I previously tried a dedicated beacon app with no luck (and confirmed with another device it was broadcasting correctly), but didn’t let it run for the 10 days. Anecdotally, it seems that every post I’ve read of someone who got it to work is on an iPhone. I’m wondering if there’s something about Android (or at least certain versions, since it’s so fragmented) that keeps it from playing nicely with HA.
Finding this integration very mysterious!! Previously I’ve used monitor.sh and I’ve TOLD Monitor.sh the MAC address of my bluetooth beacon and it’s instantly found it.
The way this works is confusing me.
I can see my beacon appearing in the debug logs but so far it’s not appeared as a device_tracker.
However, if this has a “killer feature” of being able to detect iphones with their randomised BT MAC addresses that would be amazing!
An additonal data point that seems to point to something specific to the HA Companion App. I’m not using the HA iBeacon integration. Using a Shelly, I’m scanning and printing out all BLE advertisements. I can see a PawScout beacon and BlueCharm beacon but I cannot see the beacon from the HA app. However, from another Android device, I can see the HA beacon using a number of different apps. With the nRF Connect Android app, I’m not only able to see the HA beacon advertisement but I can also clone it. When I readvertise that cloned beacon from the nRF Connect app, I am able to see it from the Shelly.
Has anybody found an easy solution?
The CSR8510 A10 bluetooth dongle I am using has no issues integrating some Govee bluetooth lights. After loading the iBeacon Tracker integration no devices show up there… (espicially no the BLE transmitter of the companion app).
However using the bluetooth_le_tracker I have no issue discovering my the BLE transmission of my phone/companion app…
I had the same issue as you. My HA server is not detecting anything in the iBeacon tracker. Although the iBeacon monitor in the android app is showing beacons…
They have a bug report there: https://github.com/home-assistant/core/issues/80357
Not sure if this will get fixed or if this is brought to maintainers attention.
There are so many issues (2.2k+) opened there, and this is just one of them.
An iBeacon from somebody else got integrated showing everything works fine. Just not integrating my phone.
Do you have an iPhone? My wife’s iPhone is not picked up by HASS, but my Google Pixel 7 works fine.
Maybe a really stupid question… But do I need to keep my Bluetooth on my phone enabled for this to work? Or is it enough yo have the BLE transmitter enabled in the companion app settings?
Yes if you turn it off the state of the sensor will tell you to turn it on.
I have the same issue… and for what it’s worth:
According to the documentation:
“The system will not automatically create iBeacon devices for beacons that do not broadcast their name to avoid inundating your system with transient devices.”
My bluetooth proxy log shows:
[23:14:45][D][text_sensor:064]: ‘BLE Devices Scanner’: Sending state ‘{“timestamp”:1407,“address”:“51:CA:83:B0:D4:EB”,“rssi”:-82,“name”:“”}’
[23:14:45][D][text_sensor:064]: ‘BLE Devices Scanner’: Sending state ‘{“timestamp”:1407,“address”:“39:41:F1:2E:5C:28”,“rssi”:-89,“name”:“”}’
[23:14:45][D][text_sensor:064]: ‘BLE Devices Scanner’: Sending state ‘{“timestamp”:1407,“address”:“0B:94:93:C2:96:1E”,“rssi”:-68,“name”:“”}’
[23:14:45][D][text_sensor:064]: ‘BLE Devices Scanner’: Sending state ‘{“timestamp”:1407,“address”:“51:CA:83:B0:D4:EB”,“rssi”:-83,“name”:“”}’
(there are others WITH a name, but those are TVs and other devices)
My point is… It looks like the HA Companion App doesn’t broadcast a name and thus isn’t detected by the iBeacon tracker
add it to the allow list
one line below it says
To explicitly allow a list of UUIDs to be added even with an empty device name, add them via the integration options.
If it helps anyone… I found (and am now using) the following plugin.
This plugin allows me to create automations based on the location of my beacons (bedroom, livingroom, garage, etc). the default iBeacon plugin doesn’t (seem to?) support that.
Added bonus is that this plugin also shows all the beacons it sees.
Thanks, I was aware of that… My issue was just that I assumed the HA App would broadcast a name. As a result I assumed that my BT in HA wasn’t working properly. Turns out it did, it’s just the Companion App that seems a bit counterintuitive.
Hi @tozz
I am trying the Bermuda plugin you suggested but having a hard time getting it to work, unfortunately the documentation is not helping much either. What I understand is:
- I need a ESP32 with BT proxy (Done)
- Next I installed the plugin (Done)
- I enabled the BLE sensor on my Android phone (Done)
Now I am not sure what to do! do I need to configure iBeacon? I get alert on HA that iBeacon is found, but it is asking for UUID (which I guess I get from the app) ? but some say you only need iBeacon for Apple devices? Can you please give me some high-level guidance? Thx!
Cheers,