Helper for device_tracker

Configuration
1

Hi all.

I am trying to create a helper that will show if someone is home or not but adding all the device_tracker entities from Private Ble. Anyone know if it’s possible. I have created similar before but that was based on sensor and not device_tracker. Can’t seem to find it if possible.

Thanks.

2

For now, as long as the known_devices.yaml is not deprecated, you can create one there by adding a dummy device with a self invented mac.

But for this particular use case, look at:

or do what the poster below says if you do not want to use custom integrations: just add all ble device trackers to the right person.

3

Just associate all the device trackers with that person entity in settings then the person entity will either be home or not_home based on the aggregate of the trackers… I’d that not what you are doing?

4

Quick question - I have it set up this way, but the GPS seems a lot more unreliable than the Wifi Binary Sensor. Ideally I would like the Wifi Sensor to always overwrite the GPS - problem with removing the Phone from my Person is, that it also removes the GPS tracking from the map.

Is there a way to keep the GPS tracking of a device active, while not using it for presence detection?
I think it would also work if I could set the source_type of the binary sensor to router, but that doesn’t seem possible?

5

Please open a separate Topic, so this OP don’t Get Off Topic, whether it’s short, it has nothing to do with OP’s question, which btw also is not “solved” yet

2 Likes
6

Thanks for the replies. What I want to achieve is to have the Bluetooth detection as it’s pretty instant. The private ble integration works pretty good. My family is added using the companion app, but I don’t think it’s fast enough to update.
So if I could create a helper called e.g someoneIsHome and add people’s ble entity then as long as someone is home i will run automations otherwise not.
If I add all the entities to one person it will ruin the information I have for that person. So perhaps a custom one is the way to go if you can’t use a helper to add device_trackers.
Will look at the link provided.
Thanks.

7

I don’t understand how anything gets ‘messed up’ You only add the relevant trackers for the given person.

I have 6 different trackers including my phone and a few BLE trackers tied to me and 4 more tied to my wife they all work just fine together.

If they don’t work then there’s something wrong with the way they are set up or with the way they’re being used.

Home presence sensing is designed to use the count of persons in the home zone.

So by adding the device tracker to the relevant person it ties the person to the correct zone when they’re in it.

The your trigger for someone is home is zone.home state >0

Note this doesn’t change the ‘speed’ of detection at all in fact it would be as fast as the base tracker. So adding Bluetooth to phone and network, the first one to note ‘home’ wins.

8

As I stated above, you can (it just isn’t a called helper per se) by creating the entity by editing known_devices.yaml and use device_tracker.see to set it. But do look at the custom integration as well, because it will probably take away much of the work needed.

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Thanks, I understand better what you meant now. I was not aware you could use the zone.home state was a thing until now.

I will try that thanks.

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I don’t mind custom integration at all. I will try and play around with it to see what works best for me. Thanks for quick assistance.