Bluetooth in a larger home

Hardware
1

Hi all,

I’m wanting to integrate some bluetooth locks into HA, but they are too far away from my HA instance. Is there a solution for something like this?

Was thinking either some type of network connected USB/BT or a couple HA instances on pi’s close to the locks.

If I went down the separate HA instances route is there a way to make it look like one instance for client apps and automations?

Thanks!

2

2022.9 will have support for bt over usbip and also esp32 as ble beacons

3 Likes
3

Thanks, I’m not familiar with usbip, is that this http://usbip.sourceforge.net/ or something else?

4

There is another post somewhere that discusses the use of ESP32 devices

1 Like
5

Something like this might be of help, I have used this for 433MHz devices and it has worked well. The 433MHz option is just one of the options for the gateway, bluetooth is another option:

https://docs.openmqttgateway.com/

1 Like
6

Hit another blocker. I went down the remote HA route, which itself worked great.

The issue is the locks, Schlage Sense. If I pair them to HA via BT (HomeKit mode) I have no way to program the locks access codes as they don’t show up in the Schlage app. If they are programmed and then removed from HomeKit so they can be added to HA they reset their codes.

These locks do have a wifi bridge option, but I can’t find an integration into HA for it. So looks like an input_boolean helper with some HomeKit automation is my only route.

I was really trying to move everything into HA then hand it off to HomeKit and Google Home from there as I’ve switched over to an Android Phone and HA is just a better solution imho…

7

2022.9 should be released on Wednesday. You could just wait a few days and see what is new in it.

1 Like
8

For BLE at least (switchbot) i use a long distance bluetooth dongle, which seems to work well. Get coverage all throughout the house (3-4 floors).

9

I’ve updated to the beta of 2022.9

What do I need to do to enable the BLE beacons? Is it a special ESP Home code I need to install on my ESP32s?

10

Arent those lock Zwave also?

11

basically:

bluetooth_proxy:

is all you need to add to your ESPHome YAML.

1 Like
12

I am also interested to know how use this new feature and test it. I am on the Beta of 2022.9 already but cannot see yet how to activate/use that.

EDIT: Managed to install from @mobile.andrew.jones post. Thanks

1 Like
13

I installed this on my ESP 32s and was expecting a new integration or really anything telling me, “hey we have new bluetooth adapters” but this was more silent but efficient approach.

I scattered a few of these across the house and it seems like the bluetooth range was extended.

14

OK, on my test HA 2022.9x i enabled BT and added BTHome modules, and in three of my ESP32 devices i added “bluetooth_proxy:”. I have one physical BT dongle and 8 of Xiaomi thermo/Hygrometers. It seems that BTHome doesn’t work only with ESP32’s, you must have (at least one) BT receiver…

However, is there any way to see if these new BT receivers actually receive any of my BT thermometers? I mean, i’d like to check WHICH of my ESP32 is receiving WHICH BLE themometer to know if it receives anything at all.

15

I wish, but no. They are bluetooth only and can be setup in only 1 mode, either homekit or in their app via a bluetooth to wifi adapter. Once it’s on the wifi adapter it can’t be homekit anymore.

The issue I have, and not sure anything can solve this, is that once it’s paired to home assistant over bluetooth and homekit, you can’t program the lock codes via their app, it just doesn’t see the locks. That itself wouldn’t be too bad, but removing them from homekit to add to home assistant wipes all the codes from the lock, so you’re left with a lock you can’t program codes on. :frowning:

1 Like
16

I put one of these on mu bluetooth dongle and it helped. Made a pretty good difference.