Combine Device Trackers by supporting multiple values for mac

Feature Requests
1

Bluetooth tracking, and nmap tracking both use the mac value of a device in the known devices to keep the device updated.

Right now you can combine nmap device tracking and gps tracking with owntracks by just adding the mac address to the named device that you make with owntracks.

forte_davidspixelxl:
  hide_if_away: false
  icon: 
  mac: AC:37:43:A7:xx:xx
  gravatar:
  name: 
  picture: 
  track: true

And this works well, it combines the two methods into one device to track and just uses whichever update is the most recent. And in the UI it just

You can also do the same with Bluetooth tracking. But if you try to combine both together by doing this…

forte_davidspixelxl:
  hide_if_away: false
  icon: 
  mac:
  - AC:37:43:A7:xx:xx
  - BT_AC:37:43:D8:xx:xx
  gravatar: 
  name: 
  picture: 
  track: true

Then they don’t work. Nmap and Bluetooth both ignore it and creates new entries to track it seperatly leaving only.

I know I’ve heard of way to use a binary sensor as a way to join them together functionally, but the way nmap device tracking and gps tracking with owntracks combines, you should be able to combine other device trackers like this as welll.

2

You’re probably better off using a group to do this. The problem with combining the device trackers is that the state is based off of the last action. So if its, say, Owntracks + BT, then if you go out of range of BT, that state changes, and you are now “not_home.”

If you use a group, then it works like this:

  • If any of the trackers in the group are home, the group is home
  • All of the devices must be not_home for the group to be not_home

This gets rid of a lot of false positives.

3

That works as a workaround to make it work now, but it would be better for that kind of grouping to be natively supported by HA. And since it works combining OwnTracks and NMap, it should be able to work with adding bluetooth into the mix too.

4

Its not a work around though. Its actually more functional that way. I use GPS Logger, Bluetooth, and Unifi trackers, each 100% independent of each other. Then I create a group with all three in them for each person. I have had zero issues with this method for a long time.

Like I said before, a super-combined tracker would only be as good as the weakest tracker. Every time you would go outside and lose wifi or bluetooth would result in you being away since its the last tracker to update the device tracker status.

5

Well, as mentioned, I already currently use a combined NMap and Owntracks device tracking, and it’s working flawlessly.

From a normal user’s point of view they don’t want their one cell phone to show up as three different devices. People like having their presence detection at the top of the screen, which wouldn’t be possible when they’re 3 technically separate devices just grouped together.

Your way works for your use case, but it’s is a work around in the context of what I want to accomplish.

1 Like
6

+1 for this.

The use case here: Notebooks that move around. Sometimes they will use cable, other times WiFi. 2 MAC-addresses for exactly the same device.

2 Likes
7

It would make the Known_Devices file less hellish to manage.

1 Like
8

+1 for devices with multiple network interfaces (as @Saturnus says)

another use case for me is wifi extenders. the one I have (tp-link WA860RE) replace the real mac address of any connected device with a fake one

1 Like