How does Home Assistant handle a device seen by a strong Shelly Bluetooth proxy that doesn't support active GATT?

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I’m trying to understand how Home Assistant handles Bluetooth proxy selection in this situation.

I have an Eve Aqua (Gen 1) connected to Home Assistant via Bluetooth. I currently have both an ESP32 Bluetooth proxy and a Shelly mini gen3 device acting as a Bluetooth proxy.

The interesting part is:

  • When the Shelly Bluetooth proxy is enabled, the Bluetooth map shows the Eve Aqua as being detected/connected via the Shelly.
  • The Shelly has a very strong signal to the Eve Aqua.
  • However, as I understand it, Shelly Bluetooth proxies do not support active GATT connections.
  • The Eve Aqua therefore needs a proxy that supports active GATT for actual communication/control.

I’ve noticed that when the Shelly proxy is enabled, the Eve Aqua sometimes responds very slowly or unreliably.

  • RSSI reported through the other ESP32 proxy can be around -93 dBm.
  • If I disable the Shelly Bluetooth proxy completely, the Eve Aqua becomes very reliable and responds almost instantly.
  • I also tested the Eve Aqua indoors close to the ESP32, and the situation improved, but it still wasn’t as reliable while the Shelly proxy was enabled.

So my questions are:

  1. If a Shelly proxy has the strongest Bluetooth signal to the Eve Aqua, but doesn’t support active GATT, how does Home Assistant decide which Bluetooth adapter/proxy to use when an active GATT connection is required?
  2. Can a strong Shelly advertisement receiver somehow influence the Bluetooth connection selection, even though it cannot actually perform the GATT connection?
  3. Is the Bluetooth map showing the Shelly as the Eve Aqua’s connection/proxy expected behavior in this situation, or does that indicate that HA is actually attempting to use the Shelly for the connection?
  4. Is there a recommended way to tell Home Assistant not to use the Shelly for this particular device, while still keeping the Shelly available as a Bluetooth proxy for other devices?
  5. Would adding a dedicated Ethernet ESPHome Bluetooth proxy, such as a XIAO W5500, near the Eve Aqua be the recommended solution?

I’m mainly trying to understand what is happening internally before buying another proxy. The fact that disabling the Shelly makes the Eve Aqua immediately reliable makes me suspect that proxy selection or Bluetooth topology is involved, rather than simply poor Eve Aqua signal.

Thanks!

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Anybody familiar with this matter?
Would not order another Bluetooth proxy if this is no-go, so appreciate some input :slight_smile: