[monitor] Reliable, Multi-User, Distributed Bluetooth Occupancy/Presence Detection

benjimatt · March 3, 2019, 10:19pm

try
sudo journalctl --since "1 hour ago"
or
journalctl --since=yesterday

Klagio · March 4, 2019, 9:23am

Thanks almost, I found out. This creates a log.txt in the directory monitor

sudo journalctl --since=yesterday -f -u monitor.service > log.txt

jmbinette · March 7, 2019, 3:03pm

Is it possible to avoid having a “publisher_identity” ? If I leave it blank, it takes the name of my raspberrypi

So instead of : $mqtt_topicpath/$mqtt_publisher_identity/$addr
I would get : $mqtt_topicpath/$addr

andrewjfreyer · March 7, 2019, 7:10pm

No, this is not possible now to support the majority of users that use more than one node of monitor.

jmbinette · March 8, 2019, 12:47am

Ok thanks I found a way with my MQTT bridge config

FYI I sent you my code modification to make it work with smartthings.

Thanks !

Klagio · March 8, 2019, 11:02am

Anyone uses monitor also in garden?

BAsically detection in garden OR detection in house (OR of course none)

phipe · March 10, 2019, 8:17pm

@andrewjfreyer, it’s been a while since I followed the development of your great script, and perhaps this has already been implemented: In the later Home Assistant versions a new Person entity has appeared. It supports adding a list of device trackers to a Person, and wonder if it’s possible to have monitor.sh report into a MQTT Device Tracker or similar ? (e.g. having home/not home support and a device_tracker entity).

andrewjfreyer · March 10, 2019, 10:12pm

Yup! This was implemented shortly after the person component was implemented. See this FAQ.

Klagio · March 10, 2019, 10:15pm

will this work for multiple monitor instances (and one phone)?

keith-michael · March 12, 2019, 12:47am

I started using this as a test with two Pi 3. Testing worked great and then went “all-in” with three more Pi zero W devices.

The readme warned about 2.4 interference and I wasn’t concerned at the time. This morning I happened to load my Unifi console and noticed that many devices were having trouble. Once I stopped the service on all 5 Pi’s the Unifi reported things were okay again. 5 ghz devices had no issue.

The issue I experienced is documented and caused by hardware limitations. I was wondering if anyone else is having this problem and how they got around it. I can’t get rid of all the 2.4 devices installed yet. From what I read a wi-fi dongle can help but don’t want to go down that route if it can be helped.

phipe · March 12, 2019, 12:17pm

Brilliant news! - I’ll give it a shot!

Thanks!

Tinkerer · March 12, 2019, 7:35pm

Having finally got off my backside and tried out monitor, can I just say This script is awesome, I just wish I’d tried it out sooner…

It’s way more reliable than HA’s built in Bluetooth trackers, and by removing those from from HA my startup time just reduced by five (yes, five) minutes.

Now all I need to do is find a decent beacon device to drop in the car

andrewjfreyer · March 12, 2019, 8:00pm

@Tinkerer Thanks for the kind words!

For your car, if you have a powered USB port, some users have found good luck with a cheap USB beacon. I have one, but haven’t had the time to install.

shauder · March 12, 2019, 9:15pm

I canned the pi zero’s for anything bluetooth and switched to a wired pi 3b+. Not the answer your looking for I am sure.

benjimatt · March 13, 2019, 12:15am

@shauder did that fix your interference issues?

I like using this script, works out well but I want something a little more robust than a Pi Zero. Honestly id like to run this with a bluetooth USB 4.0 adapter using a separate VM in ESXI solely for monitor (overkill I know but dont really care). There are much better usb bluetooth adapters out there than the pi zero realistically.
Think this would be possible @andrewjfreyer

@keith-michael
I personally use the chromecast ethernet network adapter. I dont seem to have much problems. I have seen the documented wifi / bluetooth issues that occur from both pi zero an rpi 3.
I really think the best options are

USB Bluetooth adapter
- disable onboard bluetooth
USB WIFI adapter
- disable onboard Wifi
ChromeCast Ethernet Adapter
- disable onboard Wifi

To disable any onboard pi adapter
sudo nano /boot/config.txt

At the bottom add one of the following lines
dtoverlay=pi3-disable-wifi
dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt

Klagio · March 13, 2019, 7:12am

Hi may I know the purpose of the beacon in the car?

Isn’t the phone already enough as a beacon when you get back home?

Asking to check if your case applies to mine

Klagio · March 13, 2019, 7:14am

What’s wrong with the pi zero?

Klagio · March 13, 2019, 7:18am

Like which one?

keith-michael · March 13, 2019, 12:53pm

I had to power them all off since I was using both the wifi and the bluetooth features. It seems using both at the same time will mess with your wifi network - the 2.4 radio. The problem went undetected for a few days since my phone is on 5. To get around this I can either buy a USB wifi adapter or run ethernet to another device like Pi 3b+. Not sure what I’m going to do yet.

Klagio · March 13, 2019, 2:05pm

I do not experience interference, maybe because I have less monitor scans, or maybe I have less WIfi in my home?

I do have Zigbee and 3 WiFI AP though on same channel (plus 2 WiFi I can see from my neighbour), so not little. You may check your 2,4Mhz spectrum with your devices and those of your neighbour