Help: TP-Link Deco M9 Plus Mesh Router Presence Detection

Hardware
1

Good Day All,

I’m just getting into Home Assistant and I’m getting things set up for the first time. It seems there is a lot of discussion around the Deco M9 routers and my experience so far is that they don’t integrate very well. I’ve seen some threads online that discuss some custom workarounds, but they’re mostly a year+ old.

I was wondering if anyone has some successful recent experience with using Deco M9 routers. Really what I would like to do is get presence detection working for the various household members via their phones connected to the home WiFi.

I’m not likely to get them to use the HA app on their phones, so a WiFi connection seems like the easiest way to go about doing this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. TIA.

2

hello,
this is the code to put in configuration.yaml
but in my opinion that this methode aren’t accured

# Example configuration.yaml entry
device_tracker:
  - platform: tplink
    host: YOUR_ROUTER_IP
    username: YOUR_ADMIN_USERNAME
    password: YOUR_ADMIN_PASSWORD
3

@Dzel thanks for the feedback. Pardon my ignorance, but how does that code help the situation?

If this isn’t a good method, is there something better I could use?

Thanks

4

the better solution is to download the app on each device, and after that you can make an automation using the phone entitie ex: sensor.dabbour_phone_wifi_connection

5

You’re definitely right on this. I posted about this here

Although the suggestion to use the tplink device tracker configuration works fine on other TP link routers, it won’t work for the M9 - I’ve tried without success.

Currently I’m using wifi connection to the M9 for location tracking for relatives that come over to override automations where I don’t want to install the smartapp on their phones, but I have to use IFTTT, which really is terrible considering this relies on the cloud instead of going through my house where the device is located in. I can’t believe there isn’t a local solution. I like the M9 as a router and the performance and range are great, but I would never buy a router again that relies on a smart app to configure it. The UI in the deco app is garbage and not only is it impossible to configure things that are simple on other routers, If TPLINK pulls their app or cloud service down, I have a glorified brick in my house.

Short of installing the Home Assistant App, other options include Monitor bluetooth tracking - but you have to obtain additional RPI’s and hardware to run it on. Creating an entitiy by pinging the phone’s IP might work if its not an Iphone (they go to a deep sleep). If Iphone, there is some sort of IOS integration through the Icloud I believe (not too familiar with it).

If IOS, someone on the other thread mentioned this Iphone detect option as well

1 Like
6

I also use the Deco M9, and this custom integration works great for detecting any device on my WiFi: GitHub - mudape/iphonedetect: A custom component for Home Assistant to detect iPhones connected to local LAN, even if the phone is in deep sleep.

7

Just wondering why you didn’t use ping (is it iPhone issues)?

8

Yes, they both have Iphones, so ping isn’t reliable as they go to sleep.

The last post mentioned a custom IOS integration, but it seems to not work reliably with newer versions of IOS and there are several open github issues with it, so I haven’t tried it.

I have to use IFTTT anyway for a few other things and am paying the $1.99 a month for it. IFTTT is working well for their presence, but still crazy to me there is no way to access this information locally in the Deco M9 itself.

9

I had an iPhone until recently and I found Life360 was reliable on it so used that for location tracking. All our phones are now Android so I use ping.

It was the change of IFTTT to a charge model that triggered me to look at HA. I found I could replace all my IFTTT routines with automations in HA (I use Node Red). And HA is so much more flexible than IFTTT.

10

The issue is I don’t want to have to install any apps on their phones. Its not like they’re here all the time, but when they’re watching the kids I don’t’ want the lights shutting off on them when me and my wife leave.

The only things I’m using IFTTT for still are

1- This Deco M9 presence automation with their phones
2- Realtime Blink motion detection from the cameras (blink integration can’t do that)
3- More instant/reliable MYQ door status vs the MYQ integration (which I believe relies on continuous polling for status)
4- Triggering it to find my cell phone through Alexa if I lose it

Once those blink’s are done I plan to replace them with an IP camera that will work locally, and the garage door opener will get replaced with a local solution some time in the future too. Then, I’ll likely ditch IFTTT, but I find it can be useful from time to time for an obscure device that lacks a direct integration into Home Assistant.

Absolutely no way I would pay the $10 a month for pro though, so if they raise it above 1.99 it would accelerate the replacement of those devices.

1 Like