Track Objects Inside Your House with BLE // ESPresense & Home Assistant

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  • Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
  • On today's video, we look at tracking objects inside your house using BLE tags. We are taking a look at the ESPresense project and how to set it up with Home Assistant. This project is a great introduction to MQTT if you haven't worked with it already.
    You can use a tile tracker and a few ESP32s scattered around your house to track things like kids' backpacks, keys, and more.
    I even show you how to track Android and iPhones using the Home Assistant app. Check out this week's in-depth video.
    Big thanks to the developer of the project, DTTerastar, he and I collaborated on this video.
    ❓What future topics would you like me to cover??❓
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    ▶ Timestamps
    2:27 - Part 1: Hardware
    2:32 - 1. ESP32 Based Device
    3:12 - 2. BLE / iBeacon Tag
    3:51 - 3. Wifi Network
    4:02 - 4. MQTT Broker
    4:19 - Part 2: Install MQTT in HA
    5:01 - Note on Passwords for MQTT
    6:30 - Part 3: Flash Device
    6:54 - Note on Data USB
    11:48 - Part 4: Find Device
    14:02 - Connect via MQTT Explorer
    15:34 - Part 5: Add to HA
    18:09 - Add MQTT to HA
    20:43 - Part 6: Track Phones
    22:48 - Final Thoughts
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    3D Printable Enclosure for ESP32 D1 Mini: www.thingivers...
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Комментарии • 181

  • @ThisSmartHouse
    @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +7

    If you are looking for a great 3D Printable enclosure for the standard ESP32 (D1 Mini) that I featured in the video check out this from Thingiverse: www.thingiverse.com/thing:4871082
    I have printed them for my 6 sensors in my house and they look great and snap right together.

    • @daverosenblatt4902
      @daverosenblatt4902 2 года назад

      I don't have access to a 3D printer. Any suggestion where to get something that'd fit?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад

      Depending on where you live, some public libraries have 3d printers for use. You can also ask around and find a friend with one. You can also use a service like ShapeWays to order 3d printed items.

  • @stephennutt2565
    @stephennutt2565 2 года назад +1

    I just did this today. I have a dashboard on my phone that controls TV equipment in two different rooms using same buttons. However, I would have to flip a switch to designate which room I am in. Now, the dashboard knows what room I am in and controls the correct TV equipment. ESPresence with Home Assistant was easy to setup and super cool!

  • @waynenocton
    @waynenocton Год назад +3

    This seems to be a great video and ahead of its time, so much has changed I can’t follow along in the home assistant app, any thoughts about an update video? Still been super helpful even at two years old, thanks for your effort!

    • @wesleyvandenbraak2217
      @wesleyvandenbraak2217 5 месяцев назад

      the iPhone app works different then the samsung version. and the rollout option does not work with iOS 17+. So an update video would be nice indeed :)

  • @OMGTheCloud
    @OMGTheCloud 3 года назад +4

    Thanks for the great explanation of ESPresense! I came across this project recently myself, and have set up a full BLE tracking network in my house. I’m doing my tracking via an Oura Ring, which works fantastic for this! There’s a few tricks to get the Ring to consistently broadcast BLE pings, once that’s done, I get perfectly reliable in-house tracking! I’m producing a video on this as well :) Cheers!

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      That is awesome! I am working on tracking my MiBand 6. I really want an Oura ring, but maybe one day... Look forward to that video.

  • @simonburke6681
    @simonburke6681 3 года назад +1

    Thanks mate, I just got some generic tiles and this seems like the way to go. Well presented, cheers

  • @mice3d
    @mice3d 3 года назад +1

    Thanks for sharing, now to integrate it with picture elements to show where the items are :)

  • @wilhelmspeck5870
    @wilhelmspeck5870 2 года назад +1

    Thanks for your great Video. It saved my day. I tried 2 days to get it working without success, because the online documentation was faulty or misleading.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад

      Glad to hear that. If something was missing in the docs, reach out to the dev so he can fix it. He is pretty responsive.

  • @melliflousbufo
    @melliflousbufo 3 года назад +1

    Jeez, that's really powerful, but not easy to implement. Thanks for simplifying it!

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      You are welcome. Mostly credit goes to the developer, he did all the hard work.

  • @MarkGhali
    @MarkGhali 3 года назад +3

    awesome video! I'd love to see a part two with automations using esprencse.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      Great suggestion! What type of automations do you want to see? I did include the "virtual device tracker" automation on the blog post.

    • @MarkGhali
      @MarkGhali 3 года назад +2

      @@ThisSmartHouse great I'll check out the blog post. First thing that comes to mind is using this instead of motion sensors to turn lights on and off etc

  • @slimplynth
    @slimplynth 2 года назад +1

    Exactly what I was looking for, Cheers.👌👍

  • @gbadishomeassistant748
    @gbadishomeassistant748 Год назад

    You are great. Thanks from Andros island Greece

  • @LeberAdanek
    @LeberAdanek 2 года назад

    Great video. Thanks. As you said.. Things have changed a bit in Home assistant since this video but this really helped me figure it out. 👍

  • @doruk2000st
    @doruk2000st 3 года назад +1

    Thank you! I've got courage to commit fully to setting up this integration because of your video.
    Got myself an ESP32 Board and followed your instructions closely: Success! I now use my MiBand6 for presence detection
    Edit: It is a bummer that the ESP board doesn't detect 5GHz Networks.. I had to start broadcasting 2.4Ghz just for that

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      That is great! I was working on getting my mi band 6 functional but I just swapped over to the new Samsung watch 4. So I need to get it configured on Espresense as well.
      I don't think many of these chipset manufacturers are making 5 GHz chips yet. That is one of my main complaints about all iot gear.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +2

      This project now also supports sensors being connected directly to the esp32s. I'll make a follow-up video hopefully the next few months demonstrating this.

    • @doruk2000st
      @doruk2000st 3 года назад +1

      @@ThisSmartHouse Now I'll looking out for that! I've just gotta find how to disable power and connection led on my ESP board for the time being. Do you think a duck tape is a bad idea? :)

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      Not a bad idea in the least bit. I have to do the same thing for the one in my bedroom. I thought the developer was going to add the ability to turn off the blue led. But I think the red LED is hardwired on.

    • @seanmckinney2095
      @seanmckinney2095 2 года назад

      Loved the video!! Wondering if you ever got around to adding other sensors?

  • @innesmclean
    @innesmclean Год назад

    great video. I've got everything set up per your instructions. Now I'd like to get some specific guidance on the settings for the automations. I want the light to go off in my living room when the BLE sensor and my watch are > 4 metres apart. I just don't know how to create that automation. Help would be much appreciated.

  • @hathalud
    @hathalud 3 года назад +1

    This looks easier than trying to use Room Assistant. I just ordered myself some ESP32s to give this a try. I'd rather have a handful of devices that triangulate and with a little work in setup can decide via triangulation of the cluster what room a person is in, but I guess a room by room device approach is the best that we can achieve without having to code something from scratch.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      I have room assistant set up as well. This seems better for most cases. The only thing it can't do well is track guest Android phones. So I still have a few pi ws set up for that.

    • @hathalud
      @hathalud 3 года назад +1

      @@ThisSmartHouse Unless they are going to stay for an extended period, I'm not concerned with the system tracking guests for HA to respond to. And if that's the case, then adding them like the GF or myself shouldn't be a big deal.
      I got Room Assistant installed on my workstation, the server HA is on, and failed to get a working copy installed on my RPi that is my MQTT server (for reliability because the GFAF was low if my tinkering crashed/rebooted the server while she was up. lol) But I didn't like that it was really dumb. In theory between 3 instances it should be able to figure out which device I'm closest to (my pc and my phone are literally right next to each other) and having to tinker with rssi values and but it won't determine the location for the 4 main rooms I want covered? Or better yet the whole house? Just doesn't seem worth it in my book. Granted I was trying to cheat needing to spend more money by running the RPI to the other side of the living room for a little distance between it and the server for triangulation, but still. lol.
      Anyways, good video, though I do kinda wish that you broke out the MQTT stuff onto its own video, but thankfully you are using the chapters feature so I can skip that section when I set mine up over the weekend or next week.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      In my house we have various grandparents that watch our kids. So knowing they were home and keeping the house in home mode is important.
      Now room assistant does support the cluster feature. If that is enabled multiple instances can talk and figure out what room you are in. It works ok, when the cluster can figure out who is in charge.
      I was afraid that some people would already have mqtt set up but I wanted a full project video.

    • @hathalud
      @hathalud 3 года назад +1

      @@ThisSmartHouse Fair point, but if they're over that often I'd have them in the system. Currently we don't have any guests at all, so it's just the two of us.
      And yeah, I can respect the need to balance an AIO video project for the complete newbies vs those of us that are more setup with our systems. Thankfully it's not the bad old days of YT without chapters. Have a great day!

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +3

      I can't imagine life before chapters...

  • @Johnsormani
    @Johnsormani 5 месяцев назад

    Setting this up within an hour sounds very optimistic. In reality it will take a lot longer to make install this because often there are hurdles to be taken. In my case, I couldn’t program my esp32’s on a Mac ,so i had to use a pc for that ( serial driver issue). A lot of Bluetooth pollution going on with several phones, iPads, wireless mice, keyboards etc. and automation is also difficult to test if you get false or no triggers. Then the home assistant docs are outdated somit you follow those you end up with an extra basestation with never gets connected but disturbs he setup

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  5 месяцев назад

      Unfortunatly things change. I actually had to stop using it due to the large number of BLE devices that ended up crashing my ESPs. I am still searching for a more reliable room presence.

  • @AlanBurchill
    @AlanBurchill Год назад +2

    Any chance of an updated version of this?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  Год назад

      I would love to go back and do an update. I know my ESPresense system has been broken for a while. With the large amount of BLE devices around, my ESPs crash. I will add it to my list!

  • @ducsue751
    @ducsue751 3 года назад +1

    I am testing this with one node setup. I noticed the devices are changing to not_home periodically even though they are a few feet from the node. Is there a setting I need to change?

  • @SBinVancouver
    @SBinVancouver 2 года назад +2

    On Android (13, anyway) and HA app 2022.10.2, the settings are under Settings/Companion App/Manage sensors/BLE Transmitter. The power settings are under there too.

  • @TatortWeb
    @TatortWeb 3 года назад

    The setup solution has been introduced open source by the Home Assistant Team some time ago, not by the tool developer. But it is really cool to make the install of ESP based projects much easier.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      You mean the web flasher? I assumed he didn't develop the plug in but he was the first I have seen that implemented it (I think WLED does as well).

    • @TatortWeb
      @TatortWeb 3 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse think the MQTT room tab in HA integration has some other projects using that but yes it is fresh. In your video it sounded like you thought the espresense developer did the way of installing ESP from web so I just wanted to clarify. 😃 Would be nice to see how you use espresense in a open room situation I have a problem atm where kitchen and living room are not separated by a wall and the signal is added to the wrong room. Even when limiting the distance the calculation shows it in the wrong room. Oh and the state topic does not need the device id, it works also without.

  • @jameswong3674
    @jameswong3674 Год назад

    Thank you for a great video! This works great if you have one floor, but if you have multiple floors, then the trackers flick back and forth, for example from garage to 4th bedroom, because the 4th bedroom is above the garage. Is there a way to distinguish it base on altitude?

    • @lorenzopt
      @lorenzopt Год назад

      Positioning of the base stations may help. I have a similar situation where a downstairs station is more or less below a bedroom station. Both mounted on the same wall, I moved the downstairs further down its wall. That has worked for me.

  • @randynaimon9015
    @randynaimon9015 3 года назад +2

    It appears that from a recent update to the companion app, the bluetooth sensor settings are no longer available. Is there a workaround to this?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      It is still there. If you are running the latest version and 2021.12 of home assistant things have moved a bit.
      Side Bar > Configuration > Companion App > Manage Sensors > Bluetooth Sensors (Header) > BLE Tramsmitter > Turn it on in a submenu.

    • @randynaimon9015
      @randynaimon9015 3 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse my app doesn’t have that path to those settings.

    • @randynaimon9015
      @randynaimon9015 3 года назад

      My app is 2021.12.1 and my ha is 2021.12.7

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      @Randy Naimon what settings does yours look like? You might want to join our discord so I can help you more interactively. tshouse.link/discord

    • @randynaimon9015
      @randynaimon9015 3 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse ok I accepted the invite but I’ve never really used discord before so not sure what I’m doing there.

  • @juliandsp
    @juliandsp 2 года назад

    Great video, thanks! I was wondering, the documentation says that the SmartTag is not compatible with the ESPresense, but you set used it with no difficult in the video, is there any workaround you made? Or it just works out of the box? I'm thinking in buy some of these SmartTags to my keys and pet. Would be great to hear your experience with this devices, looking for reliability. Thanks!

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад

      Which SmartTag? I use the Tile Tags (with the replaceable batteries). I have them added to the Tile app and they work just fine for me.

    • @juliandsp
      @juliandsp 2 года назад

      12:02 you used Samsung SmartTag for the example 😀

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад

      Ah. I used it right out of the box connected to my test esp. Nothing special.

    • @juliandsp
      @juliandsp 2 года назад

      Oh nice, thanks, will try it ✌🏻

  • @jackywoo4975
    @jackywoo4975 3 года назад +1

    Thanks for this great video. Would you be able to let me know what is the approximate max connection distance between base station and beacon

    • @jackywoo4975
      @jackywoo4975 3 года назад

      oh, I do use Tile

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      I don't know what the theoretical maximum distance is but I think when you set up the ESP devices you set the max distance in software. I think the default is 16 m. A lot of that depends on how strong of a signal your beacon is outputting. I haven't done any conclusive testing in my house but I knew I had a dead zone before I turned the transmit power up on my phones.

    • @jackywoo4975
      @jackywoo4975 3 года назад +1

      @@ThisSmartHouse thanks very much!

  • @greggotcher9336
    @greggotcher9336 3 года назад +1

    I am wondering if you know if ESPresense is able to be flashed onto the ESP32-C3-12F chip? I have some of these on they way for a chip transplant in one device that I currently have.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      I am not sure on that one. You might want to put an issue in the GitHub. Maybe the dev would know.

  • @Tenly2009
    @Tenly2009 Год назад

    Okay - so I only watched the first 10 minutes of this so far - but will definitely finish it after I shovel the driveway. I’m planning to implement this - and have already received my first 3 ESP32’s and programmed one of them. But there’s something that’s got me scratching my head and I can’t focus properly on this video until I understand….
    The one ESP32 I have programmed is picking up dozens of signals that update every second. I see them updating through MQTT explorer - and Home Assistant has already auto discovered some. But if I multiply this by 7 or 8 rooms - that’s a lot of constant traffic/chatter on my network, and a lot of load on MQTT and on Home Assistant (isn’t it?). But it’s the Home Assistant load that concerns me the most. Wouldn’t it be better to send all of the MQTT updates to a separate “aggregator/triangulator” that could run in a container on another machine - and then pass on the resolved locations to Home Assistant? Does such a thing exist and I just haven’t found it yet? Am I worrying about nothing?
    Also - is there any way to train the system once all the ESP32’s have been placed? For example, walking around the house with an iPhone app open and tapping a button from the center of each room - which could then associate the RSSI’s from all of the in-range ESP32’s with an actual room in your house - taking all of the halls, doors and furniture into account.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  Год назад

      Hope you got your driveway finished! I can't wait until someone makes a Roomba for shoveling.
      I wouldn't worry about the traffic. That is what MQTT is built for, telemetry. I have 55+ Zigbee devices running on Z2M, they are all sending back data constantly. If you are concerned you can use the new filtering features to only send updates about your devices.
      As far as tuning, I don't think that is supported right now. You might reach out to the developer.
      My system is down right now due to a memory issue. There are too many BLE devices and my M5's crash all of the time.

    • @Tenly2009
      @Tenly2009 Год назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse Thanks for the reply. I had actually forgotten to come back and watch the rest! 🤦🏻‍♂️. I did just finish watching it though and am very surprised at how different things are now in 2023 compared to what this video shows. The features and improvements seem to be coming a lot faster than the documentation updates.
      Have you come across a good tuning guide that explains how to configure everything for maximum accuracy and least jitter? Also - how can I see more of my devices data than just the estimated distance? Like for example, how can I see (in Home Assistant) the RSSI from my device to all 6 of my ESP32’s simultaneously? Suppose for example that I wanted to create an automation that triggers when ESP32 #4 and #5 are the strongest AND #2 is the weakest? The only data I have been able to see in HA is the room it thinks my device is in - and how far from the sensor it is (in meters)

  • @jameswong3674
    @jameswong3674 Год назад

    How do I create a presence group to track if at least one person is home? I have these entities, sensor.james_iphone_ble and sensor.gwen_iphone_ble. The state of these sensors would be a location such as “living room” or not_home. Thanks!

  • @kjones-bouton7920
    @kjones-bouton7920 3 года назад +1

    Your video inspired me to order some esp32 dev boards and give it a go. all went well until after the web installation is done and I get a SSID and IP, I went to my android phone (OnePlus6T Chrome) and the SSID did not show up in my wifi list. What part have I missed? Thanks.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      Did you check the terminal? It is a link on his website to see the code coming from the esp.

    • @kjones-bouton7920
      @kjones-bouton7920 3 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse The terminal on the website is where I saw the SSID and IP address. Once I had those I thought I was then suppose to be able to find the SSID listed as an available wifi point on my phones wifi settings - but it doesn't show up. ?

  • @J-rj9vt
    @J-rj9vt 2 года назад

    Thanks for the great video. I've been able to get everything working well but have a few questions. I've renamed some sensors in the yaml file and now the new sensors show up as well as the old ones with no way to get rid of the old ones. Trying to remove it under entities results in this entity does not have a unique id which I cannot add to the yaml as it's detected as an invalid option for mqtt_room. The other question I have is if you've tried detecting that a sensor is on the outside of a door for unlocking it vs inside the door hanging on a hook (tile on keychain?) It seems this could be done if analyzing the distance from 2 sensors vs looking at what room the sensor is in. Thoughts?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад

      I'm so glad the video was helpful!
      Are these MQTT sensors? Then they probably still exist in your MQTT broker. So you need to use an application like MQTT explorer to connect to your broker and find the sensors and delete them.
      As far as the idea of using two sensors to locate someone standing outside that probably won't work because with only two receivers you can exist in more than one location.

    • @J-rj9vt
      @J-rj9vt 2 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, they're tile sensors added manually (I know no other way) to the yaml. I've tried clearing things from MQTT Explorer and rebooting.
      Regarding triangulation, it seems that this setup only reports on the room you're in vs how far away from each esp you are. Do you know of a way to look at distance to each esp from an automation?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад

      So are the sensors in MQTT after you reboot? If they are out of MQTT but still in HA, then you might have to manually remove them. Do they show up in the entities menu like what this user recommends? community.home-assistant.io/t/how-to-remove-unwanted-entities/433103

    • @J-rj9vt
      @J-rj9vt 2 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse They seem to have been cleaned up after a full restart vs whatever the restart does under developer tools.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад

      Awesome!

  • @hamadalmarri2141
    @hamadalmarri2141 2 года назад +1

    Very cool . Thanks

  • @chenzejin
    @chenzejin 3 года назад +1

    Hello, how should automation be done after espresense has successfully joined HA?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      It depends on what you want to do. Once you have the sensors in home assistant you can use say your phones location to keep a light on. The possibilities are endless...

  • @erwinsanders407
    @erwinsanders407 2 года назад +1

    hello great video is there a other way to find android phone with installing the HA app i am using the nrf app on my android but i see a lot of device and the getting somehow evertime a other id do you know a trick to pinpoint the android devices

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад +1

      The home assistant app creates an Ibeacon. So any other virtual beacon creation app would work.

  • @briandurward
    @briandurward 3 года назад

    Thanks for the video. My Samsung SmartTag keeps disconnecting from my MQTT broker. Any thoughts?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      Is the esp losing connection?

    • @briandurward
      @briandurward 3 года назад

      No I don't think so. In MQTT Explorer my MiBand 6 continues uninterrupted. By comparison the SmartTag operates (well) for about 5 minutes then makes a beep noise and stops.

    • @briandurward
      @briandurward 3 года назад

      Yes sends 60 signals, beeps and then stops sending.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      Do you have it paired to your phone? Or are you trying to use it without a phone?

    • @briandurward
      @briandurward 3 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse Not paired to my phone. I have a MIUI phone which cant run the App for SmartTags.

  • @martynpriest7118
    @martynpriest7118 3 года назад

    Great tutorial and a great alternative too room assistant and so much easier to install. Do you happen to know if there is a way to reduce the time between sweeps to identify change in room quicker?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      I am not sure, I don't think he has any rate configuration set up. You might want to open an issue and ask him, he is quite responsive. github.com/ESPresense/ESPresense/issues
      I still have a few of my Pi's running room assistant (mostly to detect my Mother in laws phone) but yes it seems to work far better for BLE devices.

  • @naronaroyan323
    @naronaroyan323 3 года назад +1

    Is it posible to use existing WiFI devices to track?
    For example using 2 routers and the Pi to check network signal strangth and estimate where you are...

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      Well if you are wanting to do room position via WiFi then you would need to have the phone figure out where it is in relation to the access points. The APs don't get signal information back from the device, as it only connects to one at a time. There was a project that did this called FIND (www.internalpositioning.com/)
      I am not sure if it is still active but it did work ok. But you had to 1. Install the app on the phone. and 2. train the phone which room you were in.

    • @naronaroyan323
      @naronaroyan323 3 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse Well, you wouldn’t have to connect to the WiFi; it would just see how much signal you have. I guess kinda like BLE..?
      Or maybe you would need to put your phone into tethering mode so it works as an access point which tells all the devices how much signal strength it has and the cross comparison of the signals tells where you are.

    • @jupiterbelic5826
      @jupiterbelic5826 2 года назад

      Unifi integration could do this if you had AP in every room. Many devices don't like to roam though and often get stuck on a far AP.

  • @donvawter
    @donvawter 3 года назад +1

    In the IOS companion app I cannot find anything about managed sensors. There is a sensors tab but it is very limited.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      The iOS app doesn't support it. I found out later. The dev says you can use the room assistant app.

  • @axydas
    @axydas 2 года назад

    Hi. I setup the espresense project using 5 esp32-wroom-32u devices. The result is disappointed. Devices after flash have very very weak WiFi signal. Secondly most of the times does not recognise my Garmin watch or my mobile. And if it is recognised (very few times) it is extremely slow. I have the same issue with all 5 esp32 devices. Any idea what causes my issue?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад

      How far away is your WiFi access point? The ESPs only have a small wifi antenna so if your access point / router is too far away then you might have issues.
      With the watch, some watches stop broadcasting when paired with your phone.

  • @fredamn76
    @fredamn76 3 года назад

    Any idea on how to find my Fitbit Inspire. Fingerprints does not give any clue and.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      Can you find the MAC address in the FitBit app?

  • @pr19580
    @pr19580 3 года назад +1

    Thanks for a great video! Unfortunately ESPresence can't seem to reliably track my Apple iPhone and watch devices as their id keeps changing. Back to the drawing board!

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      Did you set up the Home Assistant app? From what the dev tells me, is that it fingerprints a device TYPE. So if you have an iPhone 10, it is going to track it and any other iPhone 10s. Now we are an Android family BUT it does track my dad's iPhone pretty well.

    • @darrellturner7618
      @darrellturner7618 3 года назад +2

      There are lots of different kinds of transmission types for iPhones. The ones that start apple:100x are usually the ones that you can use consistently. The bigger issue is if you have multiple iPhones that all transmitt via the same fingerprint/id. In that case all we can do is count the number of iPhones in a room.

    • @pr19580
      @pr19580 3 года назад +1

      @@ThisSmartHouse No, I missed the app! I'll give it a try at the weekend, thanks.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      Is it the last section. You can use the chapters in the description.

    • @thecphman
      @thecphman 3 года назад +3

      @@ThisSmartHouse but this applies to Android only right? There is no BLE option in the IOS app.

  • @MarkGhali
    @MarkGhali 3 года назад

    So does this automatically decide which tracker you are closest to? I know with Room-Assistant it was extremely fiddley to change all the signal strength's to get it to detect properly. Does this properly sort that all out automatically? looking to play around with it soon!

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      Yes it takes the projected "distance" from BLE and determined which is closer. I would say it also depends on how far away your ESP32s are. I have mine spread pretty well across the house. My biggest issue right now is that my living room is right over the basement, so it says you are in the basement if you happen to be sitting close to where the receiver is under you.

    • @darrellturner7618
      @darrellturner7618 3 года назад +1

      I have some plans to make it better. First we need to add some hysteresis to mqtt room in HASS. It should take some amount more closer before it switches rooms. Right now just being .000001m closer for .000001 second will swap rooms. That's clearly not great. Imagine if your thermostat worked that way. It'd be jumping around all day. The other is i'd like to calculate your position using the positions and distance to all the base stations.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      Oohh. That's awesome. Would that allow for something like triangulation? So you could have it guess if you're in a room. A room that doesn't have a receiver in it?
      I believe there was a project called find3 that did something similar to this using Wi-Fi

    • @MarkGhali
      @MarkGhali 3 года назад

      @@darrellturner7618 that sounds awesome! I haven't loaded it up yet but if I can help in testing I'd love to contribute!

    • @darrellturner7618
      @darrellturner7618 3 года назад +2

      @@ThisSmartHouse Yep, exactly. Triangulation is finding via knowing 3 angles. We know a bunch of distances to base stations, they call that multilateration. It's the same way gps works.

  • @mikesux
    @mikesux 2 года назад

    I can’t seem to find any tutorial of actually using these sensors in an automation. I can’t figure out how to use them to delay my motion sensors from turning off the lights if I’m in the room.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад

      The simple way of doing this would be to have the motion trigger the lights, but not trigger the off. So you would have the lights turn off if both no motion is detected AND the device is not in the room. Does that make since?

    • @mikesux
      @mikesux 2 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse Yea...I think it does...I'll give that a shot a see how it feels.
      Thanks for the reply!
      Is there a way to access the position of the device in home assistant UI? or do I need to use YAML or NodeRed?

  • @tomekandrzejewski4608
    @tomekandrzejewski4608 3 года назад

    Can the device tracked by ESpresense (in my case miband 5) be connected to the phone at the same time, so as to keep the possibility of receiving notifications?
    Currently, when I connect miband to my phone, I lose espresense tracking.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      I think so. I don't really use my mi band for tracking anymore but I'm also not using the official mi app. I've got my connected through the mi notification app which allows a lot more functionality. I will do some testing and let you know.

    • @tomekandrzejewski4608
      @tomekandrzejewski4608 3 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse in my case the problem is that miband is not detected by Espresense or nRF application while it is connected to a paired phone. When I turn off BT on the phone, then everything returns to normal.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      Try with this app: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mc.miband1 it replaces the mi app.

    • @tomekandrzejewski4608
      @tomekandrzejewski4608 3 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse unfortunately this app didn't change anything. in the case of the wear os smartwatch, the situation is similar. watch paired with phone = espresense does not detect the watch. watch unpaired = espresense detects the watch.

  • @donpetties1817
    @donpetties1817 3 года назад

    can you do a video on your torque add on

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      It is in the queue. The short version is I have Tasker parsing the log file from Torque and then sending the data to Home Assistant via the webhook function of Nabu Casa.

  • @roystervi
    @roystervi 3 года назад

    Hi I copy the sensor and the binary_sensor from the HA setup page however only the binary_sensor is working. The sensor is showing up as "Not_Home"
    I use MQTT Explorer to copy the state_topic like I normally do but the sensor still not working
    any ideas thanks in advance

    • @darihoyos
      @darihoyos 2 года назад

      i have the same problem, can you fixit? i didnt see te topic espresense/devices .

  • @jorgeelima
    @jorgeelima 3 года назад +2

    Hello, I have ESPresence running but on my Home Assistant iPhone app I can't find the bluetooth sensors. Can anyone help? I can't find my ios device in the MQTT explorer

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      That is only available on the Android version. But look at the room assistant app. Apparently it can create a beacon.

    • @jorgeelima
      @jorgeelima 3 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse what is the room assistant app? Do you have discord so that you can help me please?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      This app: apps.apple.com/us/app/room-assistant/id1538642237?itsct=apps_box_link&itscg=30200

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      Yes our discord is: tshouse.link/discord

  • @telefoonjoost
    @telefoonjoost 2 года назад

    Does anyone know if its possible to automate the BLE transmitting phone setting via Home Assistant? Being able to turn off transmitting would safe some battery + would be more privacy friendly since you aren't transmitting anymore.
    So for example when home assistant sees I'm away from home based on gps, Bluetooth beacon transmission will be disabled. When in the home zone again the beacon would enable?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад +1

      I don't think it is possible to control the sensors from anywhere but that menu. But I don't see why it wouldn't be possible if the dev supports it.

  • @nics8040
    @nics8040 2 года назад

    My iPhone 12 keeps randomly showing not home. Do you know how to fix this?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад

      Is it going out of range?

    • @nics8040
      @nics8040 2 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse no it’s right next to it

  • @fluxsmith_
    @fluxsmith_ 2 года назад

    The HA app for iPhone does not have the ability to create an iBeacon. Does anyone have a good solution for adding one for iPhone (which can run in the background, I’ve found plenty of useless foreground only apps)?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад

      Have you tried the room assistant app, I think it works with ESPresence

  • @techydude
    @techydude 3 года назад +1

    There have been many commercial BLE-Beacon-based indoor tracking products produced over the last several years, and AFAIK, they all suck. 2.4GHz radio propagation and interference is just too unpredictable in the human-scaled world (wall & floor thickness, furniture, stupid placement, etc). Is this any better?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      I do think this is better but it is based on how many "readers" you have. It isn't going to be 100% accurate but it does do a pretty good job of tracking a few rooms.

  • @TheHellis
    @TheHellis 3 года назад

    In the developer tools there is a copy button on each entity.

  • @liminalnetworks7691
    @liminalnetworks7691 2 года назад

    Is anyone using Tile's with this? Did you add them to the app first? What do they look like in MQTT Explorer?
    Thanks

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад +1

      I'm using a number of tile trackers in mine. I did add them in the tile out first but some users have reported that once they're added they will get a new firmware update which will cause them to stop being tracked in ESP.

  • @enesch69
    @enesch69 3 года назад

    The link for the guide to using this with automatons is not working. Anyone have a good example on doing automatons with room presence?

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      What link isn't working?

    • @enesch69
      @enesch69 3 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse Lets try this again, The blog link in your comments doesn't work, which is as you said to see examples in automation. Also the discord link in general is dead.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      I don't know why my rebrandly stops working. Here is the blog post: thissmart.house/2021/09/21/track-objects-inside-your-house-with-ble-espresense-home-assistant/
      Discord: discord.gg/sSaqyaXT2p

  • @rishabMehta7
    @rishabMehta7 3 года назад +1

    VMware t-shirt 👍🏻

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      Yes sir! I have two. Both from VMWorld 2005.

    • @rishabMehta7
      @rishabMehta7 3 года назад +1

      2005😱 I was in high school back then 😅

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      Did... did you just call me old? 😅😂

    • @rishabMehta7
      @rishabMehta7 3 года назад +1

      @@ThisSmartHouse 😂🤣😂

  • @Kiloptero
    @Kiloptero Год назад

    works fine, but when the esp restart lose the id/information of my phone..

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  Год назад +1

      I have been having all kinds of memory issues now. Mine crashes constantly. I am working on moving to an ESP with more memory.

  • @058Jacko
    @058Jacko 2 года назад

    Can this be done without MQTT

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад +1

      No, because you need to have somewhere to store the sensor data. MQTT is quite simple to set up. Where are you stuck?

    • @058Jacko
      @058Jacko 2 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse not stuck, just gone years without having to use MQTT and always wanted to keep it that way (just for less hardware & software)
      Think I'm going to use ESP Home with the BLE Scanner.
      I mainly wanted this for tracking some Samsung Smart Tags but the IDs always changed.
      Doing it this way, only gave me one Topic although there was two MAC address (FitBark)
      So it didn't distinguish between the two Bluetooth devices.

  • @hathalud
    @hathalud 3 года назад +1

    Your Chapter Titles are titled wrong btw.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад +1

      I will take a look I copied them from premiere.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      I think I know what happened, I cut the live stream announcement from the front of the video and now everything is off by 20 seconds. Just got it fixed. Thanks.

    • @hathalud
      @hathalud 3 года назад +1

      @@ThisSmartHouse You're welcome. Glad you got it sorted.

  • @michaelmenzie2806
    @michaelmenzie2806 Год назад

    way too many devices in my house to determine what devices i actually want to track. i dont own a Mac so i cant get the IRK for my wifes watch :(

  • @grommet20002000
    @grommet20002000 3 года назад

    You tube auto subtitles doesnt work it thinks your speaking vietnamese

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  3 года назад

      On this video? I just checked and it worked for me. Defaulted to english.

    • @grommet20002000
      @grommet20002000 3 года назад +1

      @@ThisSmartHouse yes its now fixed

  • @jordcoerse
    @jordcoerse 2 года назад

    Please calm your horses, you talk a bit fast sometimes :)
    Thanks for the tutorial, unfortunately i still can't get it to work. The devices won't show as a sensor in dev tools.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад

      It is a balance, if you talk too slow, people leave the video...
      What part are you stuck at? Do you see the sensors in MQTT explorer?

    • @jordcoerse
      @jordcoerse 2 года назад

      @@ThisSmartHouse my reaction came from my frustration of not getting the espresense to work. Next time I'll just pauze the video :)
      I've tested the the function of mqtt explorer by changing the settings on my phone's HA app. And mqtt explorer will recognize the device.
      Mosquito even recognizes my espresense esp32.
      The only thing that is left is getting home assistant to see the sensor. I've followed your steps by adding the sensors, tried both by adding sensor.yaml and binary.yaml and by the new defaults from HA to the configuration.yaml. but the proximity sensor from the beacon (my phone) never seems to appear in development settings.

  • @rebe7800
    @rebe7800 2 года назад

    SLOW DOWN!!! Listen to professionals how they speak. Your subtitles don't work. You didn't show the device. There are no product links.

    • @ThisSmartHouse
      @ThisSmartHouse  2 года назад +2

      There is this wonderful thing called speed control on the RUclips player. Because some people can't keep up or some people get bored. If I went at "professional" speeds my videos would be twice as long and even LESS people would watch to the end.