Device tracker not updating at home

Configuration
1

I have setup my Samsung S10+ to be tracked via the known_devices.yaml as follows:

my_s10:
  hide_if_away: false
  icon: mdi:cellphone-android
  mac: 12:34:56:78:90:3D
  name: My S10+
  picture:
  track: true

But it is not updating at all, just says away and it is connected to the home wifi.
Am I missing something?

2

uh… that’s not how this works. An integration of sorts needs to track the device. The configuration for this should be done in the integration. You can’t just put something in the known_devices.yaml and expect it to be tracked.

3

OK had another look at that page and it does mention to use something like my netgear router to track it
I ma bit worried of putting my admin details in there though even with the secrets
Any suggestions?

4

You could use the nmap tracker?

I use this to track 3 phones and it works really well:

so this is how my config for device tracker looks (I also use bluetooth tracking in case we forget to turn wifi on):

device_tracker:
  - platform: bluetooth_tracker
    interval_seconds: 60
    consider_home: 0:05
    track_new_devices: false
  - platform: nmap_tracker
    hosts:
      - 192.168.0.115 #marksphone
      - 192.168.0.117 #philphone
      - 192.168.0.104 #svenphone
    home_interval: 10
    exclude:
      - 192.168.0.28 #Home Assistant
5

Why are you nervous? It’s your router. If your network is secure there’s nothing to worry about

6

Actually that’s not a bad idea with the bluetooth, but do you actually connect the bluetooth to something, to what?

1 Like
7

You don’t need to actually pair the phone with HA or anything. You just need to provide the BT MAC address in HA and as long as the bluetooth is switched on then HA will see the phone.

The difference is that in the Known_devices.yaml file you put the MAC in as “BT_XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX”.

8

Ok so since I am running Hassio on a pi4 which is hidden away in the attic, then it would probably have no chance of the signal going through the ceiling which has aluminium foil insulation on the back (kills all wifi at least)

9

Ah, probably not!

My Pi is in a cupboard in the living room so can pickup the devices.

I also have a 2nd Pi Zero W upstairs that I use to connect to my bluetooth thermostats and for device tracking and then connect to it with custom component remote home assistant.

As long as the device remains connected to wifi nmap should work fine.

I’m going to try disabling the bluetooth actually and see if nmap can do it alone reliably.

10

Will try nmap with the wifi, do you know if there is a way to exclude it picking up everything on wifi except phone’s wifi?
I know you can do exclude: but I don’t want to go through 50 ips of more to add there, can it be given just the list of 3 ips of which to track and then exclude all else?

11

Just specify individual IP addresses as in my above code.

I also excluded the HA IP. Not sure if this was neccessary but I did it anyway just in case.

12

That works great, thanks for that.