Mastodawn

Bonsoir ! Depuis quelque temps j’ai une petite installation #HomeAssistant avec quelques appareils reliés soit en #bluetooth, soit via #zigbee, en appartement.
Je me demande si d’une façon ou d’une autre je ne pourrais pas couvrir la cave (2 étages en-dessous) et le garage (encore 1 étage en-dessous).
Je comprends qu’un ou 2 répéteurs comme l’AEOTEC ZI pourraient faire le job en Zigbee. Mais en existe-t-il qui font aussi Bluetooth ?
L’idée étant de connecter des appareils uniquement Bluetooth situés à la cave ou au garage à Home Assistant.
Une passerelle comme la NOUS E1 peut-elle être utilisée comme un relais pour cela ?
Merci de votre aide !

Let’s try in English…
For some time I have a #HomeAssistant network, with a few devices connected via #Bluetooth and via #Zigbee, in a flat (condo).
I was wondering if I could reach the « basement » ( 2 floors under) and the garage (1 floor under the basement).
I understand that 1 or 2 repeaters like AEOTEC Z1 might do the job via Zigbee. But what about bluetooth ? Do some repeaters allow to relay BT too ?
I’d like to connect some BT devices located in the garage and the basement to Home Assistant.
Can a bridge like NOUS E1 be used as a repeater for that?
Thanks for your help!

HerrRossihsGsg 10h ago

@YannnSud Hi, please look for the wording "Bluetooth Proxy", you will find many Tutorials and Videos for an easy to install ESP board.

@HerrRossihsGsg hi, and thanks for your advice!
I did find things about that, but, if I understand correctly, the BT proxy is connected to HA via WiFi. WiFi doesn’t reach the basement nor the garage. I would be surprised if it could detect Bluetooth signals from 2 or 3 floors under, no?

HerrRossihsGsg 7h ago

@YannnSud hm, ok... I don't know any Bluetooth repeater. Do you have a LAN available on other floors? There are also ESPs with ethernet. Or you need a WiFi Access Point also.

@HerrRossihsGsg no, no other LAN available. I’m not going to drill through the neighbours’ ceilings or walls for Ethernet:)

HerrRossihsGsg 4h ago

@YannnSud ok, then sorry, can't help here. BT is for short distance communicatin. How should this work without LAN or WiFi.

@HerrRossihsGsg that’s why my question was more or less how to bring some connectivity down there :)

Iznogoud 10h ago

@YannnSud maybe LORA? I have the same question.

@iznogoud LORA would be a different network than my home network where my HA is, wouldn’t it? I guess it wouldn’t connect to HA.

Iznogoud 10h ago

@YannnSud have not gone through that rabbit hole yet. Early thoughts would be around lora receiver -> mqtt -> home assistant

@iznogoud you mean that devices connected anywhere (even like thousands of km away) can be reachable via MQTT ? Using some form of cloud I guess? (Yes I’m a total newbie and MQTT isn’t very clear for me yet)

Iznogoud 9h ago

@YannnSud no. The distance jump you would do it with lora. Mqtt is just how you would connect to home assistant if no native integration. The mqtt server could/would just be on the same machine as HA

Iznogoud 9h ago

@YannnSud for example:
1. movement sensor (your garage)
2. lora end point (your garage)
3. lora end point (your condo)
4. mqtt server (your condo)
5. HA server (your condo)

@iznogoud yes that could work… it works with a sort of central bridge, and distant devices?

Iznogoud 9h ago

@YannnSud yes. Again, this is hypothetical, the main thing to figure out is if two lora devices could communicate with each other in your setup. Everything else is just piping.

@iznogoud if I understand correctly, LoRa has a very, very large range, up to tens of km. We are talking about devices distant of a few tens of metres. But indoors, meaning several walls and floors to cross. I guess it would make it?

Iznogoud 9h ago

@YannnSud well, that is the part that I do not know / requires researching. Urban spots are less friendly to radio waves because of concrete, faraday cages, interference from other devices / networks and etc.

@iznogoud here they mention hundreds of meters of range inside buildings. I only need tens :)

https://www.linemetrics.com/en/for-maximum-lorawan-range-positioning-gateways-and-sensors-correctly/

For maximum LoRaWAN range: Positioning gateways and sensors correctly

Poor positioning of gateways & sensors leads to unstable connections and shortened battery life. This is how it works properly >>

LineMetrics Smart Building Platform

Iznogoud 9h ago

@YannnSud then all systems are go 😎

@iznogoud :) I’ll try to gather more info about lora:)

Iznogoud 8h ago

@YannnSud there is also the response time: e.g. f you want an alarm, you should check the response times for your pipeline. And also forget cameras, lora is low bandwidth. Good luck with your tinkering!

@iznogoud thanks for your help!

Iznogoud 7h ago

@YannnSud welcome 😊

@YannnSud Get at least 1 M5Stack Nano and flash it to be a Bluetooth Proxy using ESPHome.

https://esphome.io/projects/index.html

They work great and use less than 0.5W of power. I've had a pair of them running for at least a year, and really I forget they even exist most of the time.

Ready-Made Projects

Install ready-made projects directly on your device.

ESPHome

@ZS yes i saw that, but I understand that the BT proxy needs WiFi to operate. WiFi doesn’t reach the basement nor the garage. I would need to use it in the flat. From there would it succeed in detecting BT signals from 2 or 3 floors under?

@YannnSud For Zigbee, basically anything that's mains/USB powered acts as a router, so extends the Zigbee network. Smart plugs are probably the easiest thing to use.

@ZS yes I could buy a bunch of Zigbee sockets… but not sure if it would make it to the basement.

@YannnSud You could use an ethernet Zigbee router then, I suppose. You'd end up with two zigbee networks, but that's fine on HA.

I've used this, and it works fine.

https://www.hgeek.com/products/hamgeek-hmg-01-plus-zigbee-gateway-universal-zigbee-coordinator-adapter-supports-network-port-and-wifi

HamGeek HMG-01 Plus ZigBee Gateway Universal ZigBee Coordinator Adapter Supports Network Port and Wifi

@ZS it’s a sort of range extender for Zigbee? “supports both Coordinator and Router modes” : it can join my existing Zigbee network I think.

Matthieu Oostveen 7h ago

@YannnSud if you can get some form of (local) network in the basement, you could setup a second homeassistant and use the “remote homeassistant” component to link the two.

Any entity in the basement HA will be available on your normal HA and can be used as if it were a local device.

That way you “only” have to extend Ethernet instead of all other networks used. Your basement HA would then take care of the local zigbee and Bluetooth networks.

https://github.com/custom-components/remote_homeassistant

GitHub - custom-components/remote_homeassistant: Links multiple home-assistant instances together

Links multiple home-assistant instances together. Contribute to custom-components/remote_homeassistant development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub