Why is mqtt room sensor a "sensor" and not a "device tracker"?

[Wim_L]

Its not possible to use room-assistant with the “mqtt room presence” sensor on the new “Persons” tracking system.

MQTT room presence

The mqtt device tracker cannot be used b/c of how room-assistant formats the mqtt message.

MQTT Device Tracker/Room Presence

I’ve got room presence set up with room-assistant on a bunch of pi’s pushing to mqtt. This is great using template sensors to track my location but is it possible to turn this in to a device tracker too? I’ve tried the MQTT device tracker but nothing seems to show, I’m not sure is this is suitable when the topics are bedroom, living room etc and not home/away.

It is ofcourse a “sensor”, not a “device tracker”. Is this an issue that pops up now b/c of the new system?
Or does this need to be changed into a device tracker?

[vasseurf (VF)]

I am also looking for a way to turn my mqtt room sensors into device trackers… I tried to use customize.yaml to change the device_class but no effect

[datamonkey (Roland)]

Maybe the composite tracker could help translate

pnbruckner/ha-composite-tracker

[vasseurf (VF)]

Thanks. But i think this component can use binary sensors, but not sensors… Still looking for a solution

[datamonkey (Roland)]

You could add a template binary sensor in between again. Adding another layer…

Template Binary Sensor

Sensor > template binary sensor > composite > person

Should work but it gets a bit convoluted

[vasseurf (VF)]

Thanks for this idea ! I didn’t know about template binary sensor, i will give it a try

[Wim_L]

For anyone still searching for an answer, you can also use device_Tracker.see service (bottom of the page) and use a simple automation to create a device tracker. Its not really well documented but works quite well

Device Tracker

[mikeage (Mike Miller)]

@Wim_L, would you mind posting your solution?

[Wim_L]

With the device_tracker.see service, you just make an automation. It takes a sensor and converts it to a device tracker.

Made a templated example in :

Merging trackers statuses with automation templating

So it’s what I feared. Ty. Solved it by simplification : - alias: any ble tracker state trigger: - platform: state entity_id: - sensor.rtagme - sensor.rtaghoney - sensor.rtag3 action: - service: device_tracker.see data_template: dev_id: "{{ trigger.from_state.name }}" location_name: "{{ trigger.to_state.state }}"

[mikeage (Mike Miller)]

Thanks a lot!
FWIW, I went with trigger.from_state.object_id instead of .name as the name had spaces, quotes, etc.