Now that I have the BT devices listed in the known_devices.yaml what do I need in HA to use them? The devices listed are NOT enumerated in the Bluetooth section in Settings->Devices & Services
One is a Vizio Sound bar - I’d love to be able to announce alerts to this device.
Another is a BT keyboard - I’d love to use this as my keyboard when on the HA console.
Thanks for any suggestion. I’m new to HA and I need your help.
Known devices is just device trackers as far as I know.
The MAC adress is not enough to be able to TTS or use keyboard you would need some kind of integration.
A “hack” solution with the sound bar might be to have a phone connected to it all the time and use the soundbar as the primary sound output then TTS to the phone.
known_devices.yaml is a deprecated file for the device_tracker platform. That’s purely for here or not here reporting (or to be precise, home and not_home).
The device tracker platform doesn’t support playing media, or anything else, so you’d need another integration that supports them.
I’m not aware of any support for Bluetooth keyboards, and that wouldn’t even be a HA feature, but a HAOS feature.
What? Really? HA will track a keyboard moving from point A to point B? So is he Soundbar from point C to point D? My speaker now is the Google mini. When I installed HA, it automatically integrated the Google mini speaker. Why not a soundbar? Frustrating!
Because nobody has spent the time and effort in developing that.
If you think it’s frustrating that other people haven’t done so, feel free to do it yourself. How to develop an integration is well documented, you just need to learn Python, and then work out how to interact with the device.
Yes, I know. I’m used to it - researching. And asking the Community for help. Thanks for your input.
Only if point A is home and point B is not home.
Enough. Why track a keyboard or soundbar? Not much for a keyboard to use with the HAOS but a Soundbar would be nice - to announce alerts when unwanted people comes knocking at my door.
The point is that the device_tracker domain only does that, the file you mention is for that platform. You’d need something in the media_player domain to play audio over your Bluetooth speaker.
You have to remember that known devices is a old part of home assistant.
Long before may other tracking options came and one option back then was to use the Mac address of Bluetooth devices such as phones or headphones to know if you are still home or not.
I have the latest HAOS 2022.8.5 but why did it create the known_devices.yaml this morning after I followed the instruction to "keep scanning from IOS device until known_devices.yaml is created. What is in this version that utilizes the Bluetooth discovery?
Forget soundbar using Bluetooth. I connected it to my LAN using a RJ45 cable and added Vizio Integration. Both my Vizio TV and Soundbar are now available in HAOS>>>
This is not a satisfying answer but a true one…
it’s because that is what that specific integration uses for device trackers.
Bluetooth devices can be used for device trackers to tell you if you are home or not.
just like a wifi device tracker or a ping device tracker.
It just uses your phone bluetooth being connected or not to HA (or whatever your bluetooth device receiver may be) to tell you if you are home (or not).
The integration you used was likely never intended to provide full bluetooth functionality between HA and your bluetooth device, but instead just a simple “connected” or “not connected” function.
Got it. Thanks. Maybe I can use this someday with my pet hamster.
I don’t like the current Bluetooth integration. I installed 2022.8.6 but nothing new to Bluetooth. It’s tracking soundbar and keyboard! I have to un-install Bluetooth because it’ not making any sense to me, at this time. Below is a snippet of the logbook which shows the Vizio soundbar went away from home then came back!
