Off the shelf POE devices to use for Bluetooth Proxy

ESPHome
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I’ve ordered a few of these cheap Xiaomi BT thermometers/hygrometers and an ESP32 board to use as a BT proxy. I somehow thought that they would be supported directly now but HA only show me the new BT device, I add it, and then I see its signal strength - no temp nor humidity. Is that all really?

I know I can flash the thermometers once I have received the ESP32 board and will do that to get additional features.

Marius, would you mind listing the BT devices you bought and which sensors they report to HA? I’ll start with mine:

Brand: Xiaomi
Device info: LYWSD03MMC
HA name: “Temperature/Humidity Sensor 135C”
Price: from €6 (AliExpress)
Sensors (built-in): temperature, humidity, battery status, signal strength
Sensors in HA: signal strength
ESPhome support: yes, see 7th device on Xiaomi Mijia BLE Sensors — ESPHome

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I bought https://www.amazon.nl/gp/product/B086YX1MKB and Amazon.nl thermometers, and they are immediately recognized under their respective integrations (Govee and Switchbot), provided you have a BT adapter working ofc and the Bluetooth integration installed.

Also ordered a https://www.amazon.nl/gp/product/B08GC2JX1Q/ which is recognized as a HomeKit device, VOCOlinc door sensor from the Release party demonstration by Nick.
This is an ‘active’ device, and not yet supported on the BT proxies, so it relies on your main (and closest) Bt receiver adapter. Which in my case is the attic, so signal is -98db :wink: returned that and will await the support for active devices in core HA.

All of these show all sensors so not only signal.

https://www.amazon.nl/gp/product/B093PT1NL1 and https://www.amazon.nl/gp/product/B08LKNRMJM/ are still in the mail :wink:

Using BTHome, I do only see some signal entities, see my post in the 2022.9 release topic

but that was not really what my post is about. I am looking for ready made ESPhome devices, to act as BT proxies, not the ‘client’ devices that use BT

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Virtually every device that has a esp32 inside can act as a bt proxy beside doing it’s “normal” work. For example wall switches:

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Some random RF and IR controller:

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Or probably even that type of device here with a esp32-s3 inside:

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As well as any “smart plug” (or any other device) as long there is a esp32 inside :signal_strength:

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Sonoff S31 Power Monitoring Plug Configuration for Tasmota (this one is only esp82xx based :warning:)

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thanks!
I should probably have mentioned that Nick and Paulus explicitly advised us to use Lan devices, because of the heavy traffic those BT proxies would have to process.

I will check put all of these links, and hope to find some that can do that.
appreciated!

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That probably depends on the amount of bluetooth thingys floating around. The main reason to use a esp32 with lan is also not primarily of some “heavy traffic” but due to the fact that esp32’s have only one antenna that is shared for wifi and bluetooth. As by design they can not use the antenna at the same time it’s a shared resource and that can indeed cause a bottle neck :baby_bottle:

This device here is a POE device with a esp32 inside :tm:

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There is also plenty of esp32 (dev) boards with ethernet (and poe) available.

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yes! I had that already in my basket when I read Paulus’ comment on it in #dev_bluetooth on that device: Discord

iow, not recommended (for easy installation)

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Point taken, but isn’t the S31 an 8266?

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You are right - by the looks of it doesn’t feature a esp32 :eyes:

Weird because I browsed this list here and somewhat had the sonoff S31 open in the end. :thinking:

But that should have just been a place holder :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: anyways for other esp32 based plugs like this ones for example:

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changed the topic title to get things narrowed down a bit…
looking for POE devices, or at least Lan

right, so not looking for more dev boards (they are not off the shelf, with a nice professional looking case), and the others are not so plenty I fear… havent found a single one tbh.

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like before (with the old topic) I just browsed https://templates.blakadder.com/ and found this (possible) candidates which come with case and ethernet (the z-:honeybee: part can be ignored):

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Eachen eWeLink ZbBridge Pro Ethernet Zigbee Gateway (ZB-GW03-V1.2)

I didn’t found a poe device with a case on @blakadder’s site but it shouldn’t be very hard to just pack a random esp32 ethernet poe board in a case (which should not be metal) you like to get the job done. :gift:

Also there is no need to have these device visible actually - so maybe even a “ugly” case does the trick if the device is well hidden. For example I have one of my esphome nodes (which also does act as a ble receiver) just hidden in the wall were it is not visible :brick:

EDIT: Looks like m5 features the device you are looking for?

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Beside olimex got a good collection of ethernet (and poe) esp32’s including some cases for the boards:

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right! I wonder why that wasnt picked for the advised boards, I’ll ask the dev’s, thx

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Did you ever hear back from teh dev’s or test it yourself?

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I guess because of it’s specifications:

without integrated 3D antenna, does not support WiFi wireless function

looks like this device misses a antenna so beside no WiFi that also means no BLE :-1:

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well, I didnt pursue this yet, awaiting the POE control of the current Olimex boards I have. I believe there is ongoing effort undertaken to fix that.
as a matter of fact I. now see it was merged 8 hours ago: Can not adopt Olimex POE BT proxy in ESPhome · Issue #320 · esphome/dashboard · GitHub

fingers crossed this will work :wink:

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Following. I am keen to add a PoE ESP32 as a HA Bluetooth Proxy.

Found a link to this one on Blakadder’s site with a guide on how to flash it…

GL-S10 Bluetooth IoT Gateway | PoE Power Supply - AliExpress

The Best Home Assistant Bluetooth Proxy: GL.iNet GL-S10 | Blakadder’s Smarthome Shenanigans

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Hi Daniel
I just read your old post and wanted to ask if you got the Xiaomi LYWSD03MMC sensors working.
Here are instructions on how to integrate this into HA:

I did it over the holidays and my sensors are now working fine. 5 values, Temperature, Humidity, Battery, Signal Strength, VoltageBest regards
Patrick

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One tip with the xiaomi’s, its very easy to reflash the firmware, then you no longer need to mess around with bindkeys - GitHub - pvvx/ATC_MiThermometer: Custom firmware for the Xiaomi Thermometers and Telink Flasher

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Did you get this to work? I just got the GL-S10 rev 2.1. Flashing works, but then nothing happens. Not even log output in the console… I think they may have changes hardware, but not sure…

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Initially, I think so, yes. It appears as an ESP32 device in Home Assistant but I do not know how to test whether any Bluetooth devices are actually connecting through it.

My router has a “traffic analyser” which reports zero traffic for the GL-S10. :frowning:

Trying a cheeky tag of @blakadder in the hope they can point us in the right direction.

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Okay… you got further than I did… Trouble flashing the GL-S10 bluetooth gateway

Let’s continue there if you have any suggestions :wink:

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