Home Assistant Auto Discovery

[brizzik]

Hello,

I cant get the auto discovery working correctly for BLE sensors.

When i use this command:

python -m TheengsGateway -H IP -u Name-p Password -D 1

The sensors create a config file correctly in homeassistant/sensor:

Config example:

{"name": "BLE 1A:E9:D9:E8:6B:FC", "state_topic": "homeassistant/sensor/1A:E9:D9:E8:6B:FC", "unique_id": "1A:E9:D9:E8:6B:FC_rssi", "device_class": "signal_strength", "unit_of_measurement": "dBm", "value_template": "{{ value_json.rssi }}", "device": {"identifiers": ["1A:E9:D9:E8:6B:FC"], "name": "BLE Device 1A:E9:D9:E8:6B:FC", "manufacturer": "Unknown"}}

But HA is not regognizing this as a entity.
But BLE also found a electric toothbrush:

{"stat_t": "+/+/BTtoMQTT/7C010A590A99", "name": "ORALB_BT-state", "uniq_id": "7C010A590A99-state", "val_tpl": "{{ value_json.state | is_defined }}", "device": {"ids": ["7C010A590A99"], "cns": [["mac", "7C010A590A99"]], "mf": "Oral-B", "mdl": "ORALB_BT", "name": "BT Toothbrush-590A99", "via_device": "TheengsGateway"}}
Wich got added in HA the right way:

The config file looks completely different, the state topic isnt homeassistant/sensor/1A:E9:D9:E8:6B:FC like the other sensors, but is: "stat_t": "+/+/BTtoMQTT/7C010A590A99". Wich makes more sense because the actual data get published in home/theengsGateway/BTtoMQTT, and not in Homeassisant/sensor.

But when i change the topic to pt homeassistant/sensor it does publish in homeassistant/sensor. But still doesnt get regognized in HA.

Anyone can explain what im doing wrong, or is this by design? Thank you.

[DigiH]

This is not really a Theengs Decoder issue, but belongs to Gateway ;)

Nonetheless …

But when i change the topic to pt homeassistant/sensor it does publish in homeassistant/sensor. But still doesnt get regognized in HA.

The topic should not be changed to the topic of discovery messages - that topic really is only for the discovery messages which HA uses to then correctly discover an entity to the receive the actual changing values in the correct state topic along the lines of "+/+/BTtoMQTT/7C010A590A99".

Best to leave the default values for all the topic definitions in the Theengs Gateway config, then the discovery messages will be correctly defined in the homeassistant sub topics with their correct state topic of "+/+/BTtoMQTT/XXXXXXXXXXXX".

[brizzik]

@DigiH Thanks for the reply. Sorry i see now im in the wrong github. My bad.

When i do default values this config gets send:

"name": "MeshCore-Brizzik", "state_topic": "homeassistant/sensor/D885ACA95A69", "unique_id": "D8:85:AC:A9:5A:69_rssi", "device_class": "signal_strength", "unit_of_measurement": "dBm", "value_template": "{{ value_json.rssi }}", "device": { "identifiers": [ "D885ACA95A69" ], "name": "BLE Device D8:85:AC:A9:5A:69", "manufacturer": "Unknown" } }

Or this:

{ "name": "BLE 1A:E9:D9:E8:6B:FC", "state_topic": "homeassistant/sensor/1A:E9:D9:E8:6B:FC", "unique_id": "1A:E9:D9:E8:6B:FC_rssi", "device_class": "signal_strength", "unit_of_measurement": "dBm", "value_template": "{{ value_json.rssi }}", "device": { "identifiers": [ "1A:E9:D9:E8:6B:FC" ], "name": "BLE Device 1A:E9:D9:E8:6B:FC", "manufacturer": "Unknown" } }

As you can see it only gives state_topic homeassistant.
And no topic for the actual sensor information in +/+/BTtoMQTT/XXXXXXXXXXXX.

The only BL device that worked with auto discovery was the random Toothbrush.
All the other BL devices get recognised, send a config like the ones above. But dont appear in HA.

[DigiH]

I assume the devices you have are not fully recognised and decoded by Theengs Decoder/Gateway, or do you see actual broadcast messages coming in for them under the home/TheengsGateway topic, or is your device actually wrongly set to publish to the homeassistant/ topic?

To be sure you have all the default values just delete the theengsgw.conf file in your home directory and restart Theengs Gateway with your above mentioned command. Also post some broadcast messages from your dev ice as you see them coming in in. MQTT Explorer.

[brizzik]

@DigiH

I removed the theengsgw.conf. And started with python -m TheengsGateway -H 192.168.2.218 -u ... -p ... -D 1

This is how it looks now in home/TheengsGateway/BTtoMQTT/E7F7D0FC52A9:

{"name": "BLESmart_000000D6E7F7D0FC52A9", "id": "E7:F7:D0:FC:52:A9", "rssi": -78, "brand": "GENERIC", "model": "iBeacon", "model_id": "IBEACON", "type": "BCON", "mfid": "4c00", "uuid": "4e6ee6c362a64bdfb014b6281d46d25c", "major": 1, "minor": 1, "txpower": -60}

This is the config in homeassistant/sensor/E7:F7:D0:FC:52:A9:

{"name": "BLE E7:F7:D0:FC:52:A9", "state_topic": "homeassistant/sensor/E7:F7:D0:FC:52:A9", "unique_id": "E7:F7:D0:FC:52:A9_rssi", "device_class": "signal_strength", "unit_of_measurement": "dBm", "value_template": "{{ value_json.rssi }}", "device": {"identifiers": ["E7:F7:D0:FC:52:A9"], "name": "BLE Device E7:F7:D0:FC:52:A9", "manufacturer": "Unknown"}}

Still not getting recognised by HA:

I feel it has something to do with the state_topic in the HA config: "state_topic": "homeassistant/sensor/E7:F7:D0:FC:52:A9",
That should be something like home/TheengsGateway/BTtoMQTT/E7F7D0FC52A9 right?

[DigiH]

You are completely correct in your assumptions regarding the state_topic, apart from one point - iBeacons should actually not be discovered at all, for various reasons.

Do you still have the IBEACON entry in the discovery_filter list of your newly created theengsgw.conf?

What kind of iBeacon is it?
Does it have encoded information in its Major and Minor, or is it always 1 and 1 as in the example above?
How do you actually want to use the beacon in Home Assistant?
And lastly, but importantly:
Does its native app allow you to set your own UUID, Major and Minor?

[brizzik]

@DigiH I guess im looking at this all wrong. This was just a random config i grabbed to show. Im not sure that beacon is even mine. I got some old BT beacons laying around, but not sure if its that one.

My use case is to use our phones, and in ear headphones from me and girlfriend to check of we are home.
My assumption was that i could just start the BLE gateway and it would show me in HA when they are in connection with bluetooth (home) or not trough the RSSI. But reading your comment it looks like i assumed that falsely.

This is my config. I can see the IBEACON is added. But all my other devices like phones etc are not. I have to add them myself?
From reading in the docs https://gateway.theengs.io/use it looked like everything gets auto added. Even BL sensors that are not yours.

{
    "adapter": "",
    "bindkeys": {},
    "blacklist": [],
    "ble": 1,
    "ble_scan_time": 7,
    "ble_time_between_scans": 5,
    "ca_certs": null,
    "discovery": 1,
    "discovery_device_name": "TheengsGateway",
    "discovery_filter": [
        "IBEACON"
    ],
    "discovery_topic": "homeassistant",
    "enable_multi_gtw_sync": 1,
    "enable_tls": 0,
    "enable_websocket": 0,
    "gateway_id": "88:A2:9E:80:E8:EF",
    "general_presence": 0,
    "host": "",
    "identities": {},
    "ignore_wblist": 0,
    "log_level": "INFO",
    "lwt_topic": "home/TheengsGateway/LWT",
    "pass": "",
    "port": 1883,
    "presence": 0,
    "presence_topic": "home/TheengsGateway/presence",
    "publish_advdata": 0,
    "publish_all": 1,
    "publish_topic": "home/TheengsGateway/BTtoMQTT",
    "scanning_mode": "active",
    "subscribe_topic": "home/+/BTtoMQTT/undecoded",
    "time_format": 0,
    "time_sync": [],
    "tls_insecure": 0,
    "tracker_timeout": 120,
    "trackersync_topic": "home/internal/trackersync",
    "user": "",
    "whitelist": []
}

Im sorry, maybe im just not understanding the use case of this right. Hope you can shed some light on it.

[DigiH]

@brizzik

My use case is to use our phones, and in ear headphones from me and girlfriend to check of we are home.

Ok, really best to ignore the strange iBeacon discovery, if it isn't even yours and you don't know where it comes from.

In general Theengs Gateway only recognises, decodes and discovers devices it knows through theengs Decoder. They are listed at

https://decoder.theengs.io/devices/devices.html

Which phones and earphones do you and your girlfriend have?