You should be able to use an app like Beacon Scope to broadcast a constant address. I use it with my ESP32 MQTT Room project to broadcast a simulated iBeacon. You’ll need to restart the app occasionally, but it does a decent job.
Apologies, I haven’t used the ESPHome tracker, as I use my project instead. If you’re not using the ESP32 for other functionality and just want a BLE scanner, you can check it out here:
I don’t have an answer for that. Perhaps someone with more experience using the ESPHome component can offer some insight.
My project is aimed at room-level presence detection, where the native bluetooth tracker in home assistant isn’t looking at BLE advertisements, but instead is using the older bluetooth protocol.
i am also searching for a bluetooth presence detection setup using esp32 and esphome , so i was also trying if esphome ble can search my smartphones , but failed ,
is there any other monitor like method with esp32 and esphome with phones inbuilt bluetooth ?
It only supports devices that can broadcast BLE advertisements. Currently, it’s been tested with Android phones running an app such as Beacon Simulator to advertise as an iBeacon. Unfortunately iPhones don’t allow broadcasting in the background, so it won’t track your iPhone. I do not own an iPhone so cannot test/build for it.
I am looking around at presence and room presence detection at the moment.
I have a number of ESP32 dev boards running ESPHome controlling lights and I was hoping to add a few lines to use the same boards for BLE tracking.
Unfortunately, as I use these boards for other things, that eliminates ESP32-mqtt-room as an option.
Has anyone managed to get ESPHome BLE / beacon tracking to work properly?
I know I could make ESPHome simulate an iBeacon and work in reverse, but that doesn’t suit my purpose as I want to also track my pet by having a tag around her neck so I know what room she’s in
