iBeacon Device suggestions?

Hardware
1

Hi guys

I wrote this post this post to collect experiences and advice on iBeacon devices for position tracking.

Do you have any devices tested and working with HASS to recommend? Can you also post some sample configuration?

Regards

Franco

1 Like
2

I have Bluetooth USB dongles in each of the raspberry Pi’s that I have around the house. I have a python script that runs on startup and sets the iBeacon uuid, major and minor.
I will post the script later for those interested.

I use OwnTracks on the iPhone to track location for myself and my partner. I have OwnTracks Mqtt server running in a docker on my server.

3

I added a Social Retail (brand) iBeacon outside my home near my driveway and it has really improved presence detection. They’re inexpensive and you can get them on Amazon.

4

Thank You guys.

So did one of you use an ibeacon device to track Key or Car position? Do you have some sample configs?

Regards

Franco

5

Have any of you Dev types looked at the ESP-32 as an iBeacon alternative?

6

I’m using an iBeacon with OwnTracks and the accuracy and reliability has improved greatly.
My ideal solution would be to use the iBeacon only for presences sensing as I do not need to track our phones outside of the iBeacon range. I simply want to update presence when each phone is in range or out of range of the iBeacon.

Has anyone been able to do this? Is there support for this in HASS?

7

I know this is a very old thread now, but I took some other code to make any Linux based system with a Bluetooth 4.0 device (which includes the Raspberry Pi 3) and wrote it up into a simple to deploy Gist:

I hope this is helpful for someone

3 Likes
8

Hi! Just want to share some experience with BLE beacons.

  1. Fixed beacon with permanent 5V power supply (any USB) to improve owntracks positioning in case you use it. HM-10/CC2541 from any chinese shop. Programmable by uart with next commands:
    AT+RENEW
    AT+RESET
    AT
    AT+MARJ0x0000
    AT+MINO0x0000
    AT+IBE0bd1a0df0
    AT+IBE1bb5442a3
    AT+IBE29c258801
    AT+IBE3d334c333
    AT+ADVI5
    AT+NAMEsomename
    AT+ADTY3
    AT+IBEA1
    AT+DELO2
    AT+PWRM0
    AT+RESET
    this will give you beacon advertising bd1a0df0-bb54-42a3-9c25-8801d334c333, your name and some mac-address every half second

  2. Then I decided to get rid of owntracks, but in this case you need mobile beacon and usb bluetooth adapter to HA computer. The first option wasn’t an option as it’s quite power-hungry (really I tried… a lot of people tried:)), so I bought NUT-tracker (amazon sells it for approx 15$). Funny thing it doesn’t advertise itself in normal operation and have very fancy and insecure app to track stuff with this device and your phone. So recipe to make it advertise itself permanently as ble beacon - install the app NUT, pair tracker with the app, delete NUT app, done:)

2 Likes
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Maybe somebody know how to change advertisement interval of NUT tracker? =)

10

do not understand this part. You mean that if I do not uninstall the APP I will not see the ibeacon NUT ?

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Maybe you can just “unpair” the ibeacon with your phone, so it will broadcast again its uuid, and it will be detected. I’ve done with my Tile beacons and they’re working with my room-assistant stuff.

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I uninstalled the app, and did not work. Now I will try to “unpair” (delete the device from within the app)

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Hi Claudio, strange that it didn’t, try to upair maybe it will work for you. Can you actually see it during hcitools blescan? Home-assistant was not able to add it to known devices list automatically so I did it manually by mac address. Also after some time I’ve found that ble component of HASS was unstable in my config and I switched everything to room-assistant platform as mentioned above.

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yes UNPAIR worked (uninstalling the app did not work)

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I’m trying to get my two nut tracker mini to show up in hass but having no luck. I can see them with a “hcitool lescan” but they never show up as device… Neither can owntracks seem to find them.