Passive BLE Monitor integration

Ernst · July 28, 2022, 3:48pm

Yes i will. But i know Paulus is very keen on adding ESPhome support, so dont be worried

kameleon · July 28, 2022, 7:32pm

@mhoogenbosch YEP bt500. Ordering a new one now. Thanks!

callekl · July 30, 2022, 2:40pm

I can’t get the add-on to find any devices, manually scanning with bluetoothctl finds a bunch of them. I mainly need the add-on for the MiFlora support which worked find before the lastest update. Adding the MiFlora sensor manually using the mac-adress doesn’t work either.

Using a RPi3 and the official image. Any tips?

Ernst · August 2, 2022, 10:54am

If you only have a MiFlora, my advise would be to wait one week till HA 2022.8. This release will add support for Xiaomi BLE sensors (not all sensors yet, but MiFlora will be supported (again)). This first official HA xiaomi BLE integration will add support for temperature, humidity, illuminance, moisture, battery, voltage, and some more measurements. The more complex ones, like locks, buttons, dimmers, binary sensors will follow later.

callekl · August 2, 2022, 4:12pm

Great news, I’ll wait for 2022.8

mundschenk-at · August 3, 2022, 3:48pm

There’s currently no support for forwarding BLE packets to the new integrations though (i.e. parse_data), or did I miss something?

paddy0174 · August 3, 2022, 4:02pm

@Ernst
Do you have any recommendations/tips/tricks for updating to 2022.8.0? Do we need to disable the “Passive BLE Monitor” and then update or should/can we just leave it and run the update?

TIA

Ernst · August 3, 2022, 4:08pm

No, not yet, but the devs have plans to add something to esphome, to forward data to HA, similar as is possible now with ESPhome Gateway and BLE monitor. But not sure when this will be ready.

Ernst · August 3, 2022, 4:15pm

I think BLE monitor and the new Bluetooth integration wont work nicely together, but I havent tried yet. So, you can first just give it a try.

If it doesnt work at the same time, my advise would be to make the move to the new Bluetooth integration(s) as soon as all your sensors are supported. If not, disable the Bluetooth integration and use BLE monitor till they are. Ill try to keep BLE monitor running till all sensors have been moved and BLE forwarding is possible.

Edit: it looks like they do play nice together if you enable active scan in BLE monitor

WhimsySpoon · August 3, 2022, 5:00pm

Do you know if there are plans to add iBeacon tracking (using uuid) to the new integration?

paddy0174 · August 3, 2022, 5:20pm

Thanks a lot! I just did the update for three Xiaomi LYWSDCGQ without any problems.

What I did:

enabled the new HA-BT integration
let it find the three thermometers
deleted the “passive BLE monitor integration” for these three
renamed the newly found thermometers (the HA ones)
works

Thanks a lot for your help in the last years, you did a great job with the integration! And to all others that contributed over the time. I’ll move on with all the stuff as soon as it is supported in core!

Thanks!

Ernst · August 3, 2022, 5:52pm

Thanks, so that means that both ble monitor (for the other sensors) and the Xiaomi BLE integration both works at the same time? That would be great news!. I’m not able to test it myself the coming two weeks unfortunately.

Ernst · August 3, 2022, 5:56pm

In the end, it will be, but nobody is working on it right now. I think it should be added to the ble tracker integration, I propose you make a feature request on the Home Assistant github (and explain that it doesn’t have a fixed Mac, but that the UUID is fixed and should be used instead.

paddy0174 · August 3, 2022, 11:41pm

Yes, in my case it was around five to ten minutes, but they did work without a log message or a problem, that could be seen right away.

I checked the last update time on the devices and they were updated after the enabling of the native BT component. So both integrations reported the same values at the same time.

I’m using an external BT stick, but I can’t name the make or model (if needed, I’ll happily look it up), hci0.

The “passive BLE Monitor” still runs with other devices that are not yet supported by the native integration. Hope this helps.

Motik68 · August 4, 2022, 5:45am

Just tried enabling the new core Bluetooth integration: it immediately discovered many (all? Haven’t checked yet) my Xiaomi sensors.

Did a test by enabling a LYWSD02 e-ink clock: the core integration correctly detects the temperature sensor only. No humidity.

I guess I’ll have to wait before I make the move…

robvandegoor · August 4, 2022, 6:17am

My Xiaomi Mi Flora sensors are found by the new Bluetooth integration.

What is the update interval? After I have added them no sensor updates are coming in.
In the previous BLE setup it worked.

Even after a power cycle of HA and disabling the old BLE no updated are coming in.

Calorian · August 4, 2022, 6:24am

I managed to enable the new Bluetooth and xiaomi integrations alongside other devices on the old Passive BLE and some how detected a LYWSD03MMC. (I haven’t managed to do detect anything else yet though!)

Initially the new setup looked promising as it reported temp, humidity and signal strength (No battery or voltage readings though.) however the readings only updated on connection and then did not change for 6 hours.

Anyone know if I’ve missed an update interval setting somewhere or something?

Edit: I did disable the old Passive BLE to check that they weren’t clashing and this did not seem to help.

Cheers

robvandegoor · August 4, 2022, 7:19am

I have the same issue but in my case with the Xiaomi Mi Flora sensors. No updates after first connection.

In the previous Passive BLE it worked when these sensors were connected to it.

I have changed in the old Passive BLE a setting: Put Active Scan on. After switching this on updates coming in on the new BLE.
It looks like that the Old BLE settings overrules the new BLE (without settings).

Conclusion: If you do not receive sensor updates when using the new BLE, put active scan on in the old BLE.

Ernst · August 4, 2022, 7:27am

Update interval should be the same, or shorter, as the new integration does not average the results over a certain period. Dont know why it isnt updating in the new integration.

Humidity should be working with the new integration.

Ernst · August 4, 2022, 7:30am

Thanks, that is a very important finding. The new integration have active scan on (cannot be changed), so it might need to be set in the same setting. Makes sense. Can others conform this?