This is great @djtimca! Working really well. I am facing this issue where Google Home’s access point name is not getting updated frequently. I’ve waited 15 minutes and no change. Don’t think this is the integration’s issue. The moment I open the Google Home app on my phone, the access point is updated there and that shows up on Home Assistant right away. So is there a way to speed up the polling time on the Google Nest mesh device itself?
You may need to reload the integration or restart HA. I don’t believe the names get updated as part of the polling.
Home assistant side of things work perfectly. But I feel it’s the Google Home not updating things on time. But let me restart HA. No harm checking that.
This was a real easy install!
Three questions:
-
How are you guys using the prioritize or reset a access point, do you create a custom lovelace card?
-
On the device tracker – since Google Wifi will show many duplicated devices, can this still be used in the way device trackers normally are used?
-
Anyone understand what these are for types of devices I have connected to my wifi?
wifi bulbs/plugs ? some of mine looke like that. the last few characters are the end of the MAC address (I think).
1 Like
Yeah you are right, the last two match their MAC address.
I loved the convenience of this integration. However, my Google Wifi main router freezes every day and I’ve had unreliable drops in signal. I deleted the integration 3 days ago and I haven’t had a single problem since. I do have a LOT of devices 130+ so maybe that plays a role.
Any chance this integration could have the ability to request the Google Wifi network to reboot?
It does. There is the ability to restart the network or just individual access points.
That seems to be an issue with a few installs. I actually have mine set to restart my network every morning at 2am for stability. But I had stability issues before building this.
oh I’m an idiot. I was looking for reboot, and not restart :doh: rtfm right lol
This is a wonderful integration, thanks for making this! I have a couple of questions regarding the usage:
- I’d like to setup an automation “prioritize my work laptop at 9 am & 1pm for 4 hours every weekday.” Documentation shows “Additionally there are two custom services to allow you to set and clear device prioritization.” but I can’t figure out how to prioritize a device using YAML. Has anyone does this or can point me to something similar?
- I was happy to see “connected_ap” attribute for each device. I’m planning to build a lightweight in-home presence (upstairs vs downstairs) based on the connected_ap value. I understand it may not be 100% reliable. Has anyone else attempted something similar using connected_ap?
I too have had reliability issues with my Google WiFi network since installing this into Home Assistant. I had no idea what the cause was, and looked at many things before finding this discussion. I’ve now deleted this integration and stability has returned. It is a shame, because the integration is very useful. If a solution is found that would be fantastic, but for now I’m going to have to live without.
Steve.
1 Like
Hmm. I think you might be onto something. I’ve had similar issues but untill yesterday, never thought to question the “measuring tool” … Might the the quantum nature of the Google wifi.
Integration enabled, I get emails about my Nest Cam offline daily (or more sometimes).
Integration disabled, no emails. Network rock-solid … Hmm.
Gonna leave it off for a few days … All I wanted was a list of nodes per point … and maybe automation based on which point I’m connected to … Guess I can do without for a bit.
Unfortunately that seems to be an issue on some networks - haven’t yet been able to isolate what creates the stability issue. I have some stability issues with or without it with 4 pucks and nearing 100 devices online. I actually use the automation to do a network restart every night at 2am as a way to help with the issues - seems to improve it for me (admittedly not the best solution but my next step is to replace the whole rig with something more robust given the # of devices I’m running).
I set up a ping sensor in HA to monitor the network so I have a record of when it went down, even if I wasn’t looking. Most days, sometimes multiple times per day. Since disabling this plug-in, nothing. Rock solid. I’m 100% convinced this is the cause, but how, I’ve no idea!
I have 3 pucks and typically about 40 devices, so not as busy as yours. Restarting in the middle of the night would annoy my son, unfortunately 
I really did like that I could build a dashboard that reassured me that all the important devices were properly connected. And that I could tell who was home from which mobiles were connected! But the unreliability is just too much to be workable, sadly.
Just as a final observation, as I said I set up a ping sensor in HA to monitor my network and count the occasions I lost connection. Here’s the graph:
Guess when I uninstalled the Google Wifi integration…
After I installed the plugin the network became unstable. This is a new installation of HAOS on Pi4.
Usual web surfing and application has no problems. When i do real time traffic like video conference or teams meetings, the connections freezes. I have tried refresh intervalls as long as 120 seconds, but still lost connections. Disabled the integration, and everything is back stable. Any tips @djtimca ?
Unfortunately some installs seem to do that. Mine stays stable although I do schedule a network reboot over night which solved my instability before the integration. But for some reason on some networks the instability seems to happen.
1 Like