Help! BLE Tracker for presence detection

Configuration
1

I’m attempting to set up BLE device tracker for presence detection, but I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I have followed the guide here Bluetooth LE Tracker - Home Assistant and from what I can see I have the bluetooth integration setup. I see discovered devices in the logs and being added to known_devices.yaml, but i’m not seeing the devices I’m looking for.

I’m looking for my android phones in the list, trying to search for their bluetooth MAC addresses, but they seem to never make it to the list. Any help pointing me in the right direction is appreciated.

Thanks!

2

I’ve also found Android phones a bit of a problem - I think because of the lengths manufacturers go to to improve battery life. Have a look at the companion app troubleshooting guide - there’s a section on phone settings.

In the end I gave up on mine (an Oppo) - now I keep a BLE tag tucked in the phone case and that works fine.

3

That’s unfortunate. Do you mind linking to the tag you use? I’ve been searching, but all I’m coming up with are pretty bulky, and I definitely do not want that.

4

It’s a Tile. Not small - about credit card size - but only about 3mm thick so it fits in the phone case neatly.

5

Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind while I continue to loom for a solution

6

I am having the same problem. I have a BLE tracker tag on my keychain made my Nutale. I downloaded diagnostics, searched and found Nutale in the log. I hoped the tag would be among discovered devices in the GUI for me to use for presence detection. Do I have to manually add it by coding? How exactly do I do that?

Below it the section from the diagnostics dump.

{
              "name": "nutale",
              "address": "A4:C1:38:68:75:E8",
              "rssi": -66,
              "advertisement_data": [
                "nutale",
                {},
                {
                  "00000900-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb": {
                    "__type": "<class 'bytes'>",
                    "repr": "b'\\xa4\\xc18hu\\xe8\\x16\\x01\\x00\\x01\\x01\\x01'"
                  }
                },
                [
                  "00000900-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb"
                ],
                null,
                -66,
                [
                  "/org/bluez/hci0/dev_A4_C1_38_68_75_E8",
                  {
                    "Address": "A4:C1:38:68:75:E8",
                    "AddressType": "public",
                    "Name": "nutale",
                    "Alias": "nutale",
                    "Paired": false,
                    "Bonded": false,
                    "Trusted": false,
                    "Blocked": false,
                    "LegacyPairing": false,
                    "RSSI": -66,
                    "Connected": false,
                    "UUIDs": [
                      "00000900-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb"
                    ],
                    "Adapter": "/org/bluez/hci0",
                    "ServiceData": {
                      "00000900-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb": {
                        "__type": "<class 'bytearray'>",
                        "repr": "bytearray(b'\\xa4\\xc18hu\\xe8\\x16\\x01\\x00\\x01\\x01\\x01')"
                      }
                    },
                    "ServicesResolved": false,
                    "AdvertisingFlags": {
                      "__type": "<class 'bytearray'>",
                      "repr": "bytearray(b'\\x06')"
                    }
                  }
                ]
              ],
              "details": {
                "path": "/org/bluez/hci0/dev_A4_C1_38_68_75_E8",
                "props": {
                  "Address": "A4:C1:38:68:75:E8",
                  "AddressType": "public",
                  "Name": "nutale",
                  "Alias": "nutale",
                  "Paired": false,
                  "Bonded": false,
                  "Trusted": false,
                  "Blocked": false,
                  "LegacyPairing": false,
                  "RSSI": -60,
                  "Connected": false,
                  "UUIDs": [
                    "00000900-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb"
                  ],
                  "Adapter": "/org/bluez/hci0",
                  "ServiceData": {
                    "00000900-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb": {
                      "__type": "<class 'bytearray'>",
                      "repr": "bytearray(b'\\xa4\\xc18hu\\xe8\\x16\\x01\\x00\\x01\\x01\\x01')"
                    }
                  },
                  "ServicesResolved": false,
                  "AdvertisingFlags": {
                    "__type": "<class 'bytearray'>",
                    "repr": "bytearray(b'\\x06')"
                  }
                }
              }
            },
7

My debug log of the iBeacon integration also contains the string “nutale”.
I am certain my nutale is visible to the Bluetooth integration and the iBeacon integration. I have added the UUID to allow.

I would just like to configure some kind of action based on whether my nutale is responding or not.

2024-11-18 18:35:12.969 DEBUG (MainThread) [bleak.backends.bluezdbus.manager] received D-Bus signal: org.freedesktop.DBus.ObjectManager.InterfacesAdded (/): [‘/org/bluez/hci0/dev_A4_C1_38_68_75_E8’, {‘org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable’: {}, ‘org.bluez.Device1’: {‘Address’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘s’, A4:C1:38:68:75:E8)>, ‘AddressType’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘s’, public)>, ‘Name’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘s’, nutale)>, ‘Alias’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘s’, nutale)>, ‘Paired’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘b’, False)>, ‘Bonded’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘b’, False)>, ‘Trusted’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘b’, False)>, ‘Blocked’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘b’, False)>, ‘LegacyPairing’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘b’, False)>, ‘RSSI’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘n’, -54)>, ‘Connected’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘b’, False)>, ‘UUIDs’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘as’, [‘00000900-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb’])>, ‘Adapter’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘o’, /org/bluez/hci0)>, ‘ServiceData’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘a{sv}’, {‘00000900-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘ay’, bytearray(b’\xa4\xc18hu\xe8\x16\x01\x00\x01\x01\x01’))>})>, ‘ServicesResolved’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘b’, False)>, ‘AdvertisingFlags’: <dbus_fast.signature.Variant (‘ay’, bytearray(b’\x06’))>}, ‘org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties’: {}}]