Bluetooth Proxy - Nothing In Scan

[darthrater (Nathaniel)]

I picked up some ESP32 Wroom devices, followed this guide: BT Proxy Guide

But I don’t get any devices in HA. I also do not have a BT device plugged into my HA. It’s in the basement, well out of range of most BT devices. I thought the BT Proxy would enable the BT to Wi-FI bridge function so that I wouldn’t need a dongle directly on the box. Am I right about that?

[nickrout]

What devices are you expecting it to show? i.e. do you have any devices that have a bluetooth integration to HA. The bluetooth proxy won’t show every BT device under the sun.

[darthrater (Nathaniel)]

Ah. Maybe that’s my misunderstanding. But I do not require a BT dongle into actual HA with the proxy setup, right?

[indeeed]

@darthrater

ESP32 Wroom devices, followed this guide: BT Proxy Guide

Sadly the author uses the wrong scan parameter (for Ethernet connected ESP’s).

Best is always to stick to the docs:

Bluetooth Proxy

Note

For WiFi-based proxies, changing the interval or window from their default values may result in an unstable WiFi connection. Using the default values for interval and window will usually resolve any instability.

@darthrater

But I do not require a BT dongle into actual HA with the proxy setup, right?

Right, this is the whole idea about Bluetooth proxies. They are remote and use a solid WiFi or Ethernet infrastructure to communicate with HA

[darthrater (Nathaniel)]

Thank you, I had read some conflicting documentation. What kind of BT devices could I expect to see? My phone with the HA app installed?

[indeeed]

@darthrater

My phone with the HA app installed?

Don’t think so. At least not with the default settings.

[maddoglee]

Hi,

I had this problem as well but found that this thread helped. My Proxy now reports everything it’s detecting in the logs.

How to find new devices with esp32_ble_tracker when nothing appears in the logs

I recently wanted to add a new bluetooth device to an ESP32 and was stuck for a long time when trying to find the MAC address. The Setting Up Devices documentation says that you just need to add esp32_ble_tracker: to your configuration and increase the log level and you’ll see the device details appear in the logs after installing the new config. That worked for me a couple months ago, but after a recent ESPHome update, it was not working as described. The log showed that the tracker was scann…

[Karosm]

Are you trying to just find devices or actually read the advertising data?

[webodepava (ppp)]

Context: Had a RPi4 working perfectly and with integrations as intended. Moved to Proxmox, and can’t use internal BT anymore. USB passthrough is flaky at best, went with the ESP32 BT proxy way. Device flashed from EspHome HA integration, adopted, and showing as a ESPHome device in HA.

I’m having the same problem as OP. I want to read advertisement data with the passive BLE scanner (some xiaomi thermomethers)

[webodepava (ppp)]

So, seeing this YAML, do i need to add the devices with their MAC manually?

Devices are LYWSD03MMC thermometers with this custom firmware

[indeeed]

You can do it manually on esphome nodes like described in the docs:

Xiaomi Mijia BLE Sensors

But a Bluetooth proxy should make this obsolete and the decoding logic is passed on to HA.

Bluetooth Proxy

So if things work out you should find new devices explored in HA that you then just can add as an integration (xiaomi, bthome, …)