[APP][Pro] Beacon - Detect your presence with BLE beacons

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602

Since firmware v6 I too experience problems with the detection of my tile (2018) beacons. I did change the settings to 30 s timeout/30 s update interval. Also restarted the app and restarted homey. The situation remains unstable: beacons are repeatedly detected as out-of-range while they are inside.
I also tried to prolong the timeout up tot 60 seconds. However it seems that the app freezes if the timeout is longer than 30 s.

I am very fond of the beacon app as it gave me a very reliable presence detection. Many compliments to the author. I hope that these problems after firmware v6 can be solved.

Paul

4 Likes
603

I did some testing and adjustments too. Hereā€™s my finding. If I can do anything to check or test, please drop me a line.

I changed my settings to this:

"Interval" 32
"Discovery time-out" 31
"Verify in range": 1
"Verify out of range": 5

The flipping of beacon A has stopped. In fact these are the statusses now:
Beacon A: Out of Range and Detected 2 days ago (lies close to Homey)
Beacon B: In Range and Detected 2 days ago
Beacon C: In Range and Detected 2 days ago

  • Adding new devices quits every time after 30secs (default Homey time-out) without showing any available device. A few days back it discovered my Flower pins, now nothingā€¦
    .

I created this flow (ran once a day) it now runs every 5 mins. I cannot determine if it makes any difference to the discovery.

Logs of this flow:

2021-04-25 18:00.07		Pe_auto status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Pe_8chterdeur status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Lief status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "true " <> Gast status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "false " [Flow Beacons updaten > elke X min]
2021-04-25 18:05.07		Pe_auto status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Pe_8chterdeur status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Lief status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "true " <> Gast status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "false " [Flow Beacons updaten > elke X min]
2021-04-25 18:10.07		Pe_auto status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Pe_8chterdeur status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Lief status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "true " <> Gast status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "false " [Flow Beacons updaten > elke X min]
2021-04-25 18:15.07		Pe_auto status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Pe_8chterdeur status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Lief status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "true " <> Gast status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "false " [Flow Beacons updaten > elke X min]
2021-04-25 18:20.07		Pe_auto status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Pe_8chterdeur status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Lief status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "true " <> Gast status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "false " [Flow Beacons updaten > elke X min]
2021-04-25 18:25.07		Pe_auto status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Pe_8chterdeur status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Lief status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "true " <> Gast status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "false " [Flow Beacons updaten > elke X min]
2021-04-25 18:30.07		Pe_auto status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Pe_8chterdeur status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Lief status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "true " <> Gast status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "false " [Flow Beacons updaten > elke X min]
2021-04-25 18:35.07		Pe_auto status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Pe_8chterdeur status: "true " , Gedetecteerd: "false " <> Lief status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "true " <> Gast status: "false " , Gedetecteerd: "false " [Flow Beacons updaten > elke X min]
604

Same thing here. Changed interval and timeout both to 30 seconds but Iā€™m still experiencing problems since last Homey v6 update. Please help!

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605

Itā€™s a bit like the chicken-egg story.
Athom decided to enroll the new firmware, and then let developers update their apps if needed.
So, auto update is something I disabled.

From the newsletter:

So whatā€™s new in Homey v6.0?

Stability & Optimizations
Homey v6.0 is full of optimizations for Bluetooth LE devices. This makes the connection more stable, and they also work faster.

Bluetooth LE Notifications
Homey v6.0 adds support for Bluetooth LE Notifications. Developers can update their Homey Apps to take advantage of this feature.

Your Homey will automatically update to v6.0. You can also update manually in the Homey app via More (ā€¦) > Settings > Updates.

606

The problem is getting worse by the minute now. All notifications are doubled. This leaves me no other optionā€¦ paused the Beacon app and disabled Homey auto-update. I hope this get fixed soon!

Every time Homey gets updated, things start acting up. Maybe itā€™s time to get rid of Homey all together. This should be a smart home deviceā€¦ not a time consuming stupid home device. To be clearā€¦ Im not blaming developers for this. It is Athom who should get their sh#t sorted.

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607

Agreed there are lots of need-to-know tricks.
The auto update service was the first thing I disabled. Because of the ā€˜complaintsā€™ and errors of users passing by, on here and on socials.
If things seem sorted out, maybe Iā€™ll update.

The best ā€œAfter updateā€ tip is, to reboot Homey again or give it the 11mins of pulltheplug treatment.

608

Although I appreciate your answerā€¦ I still think this is not how things should be. I donā€™t have time to check all apps manually to see if they are compatible with Homeys new versions. Homey should SAVE me time! Updates should bring functionalityā€¦ not take it away. If developers only have the option to update their apps afterwards something is structurally wrong. They can clean up the mess that Athom creates. There shouldnā€™t be a mess in the first place. Homey still feels like a big experiment. Grow the f#ck up. They advertise apps and/or devices in their newsletters that donā€™t even work for months on end. Athom is surfing on the wave that the community creates. If, for whatever reason, that wave stopsā€¦ Homey is dead within 1 month.

Nowā€¦ lets hope Koktail can create some waves again so we can keep surfing. Nothing but respect for you and your fellow programmers. :fist_right: :fist_left:

2 Likes
609

The app was set to paused by Homey tonight.
Didnā€™t change anything since last post

610

@NoX @Peter_Kawa

What beacon do you use? A beacon send a signal - pause and send a signal again. It goes really fast (ms). However some beacons have a way longer pause. It can be that your beacons donā€™t send the signals fast enough for homey to detect.

I understand your frustration, i once waited a year for Athom to fix a break in the BLE bindings. (V1 ā†’ V2). The BLE module got a major update in V6 and have a lot of improvement.

I also get some false readings now and then. I just made a flow that only change my home/away status when the front or back door of the house is opened. That resolves that issue fine.

611

@Koktail Iā€™m using 2 Tile Proā€™s. Both have full batteries. Yesterday I did the PTP trick for half an hour. Also changed time-out to 20s and interval to 30s. This seems to have stopped the double notifications. I can live with false notifications now and thenā€¦ just not 20 times a day :upside_down_face:

Your app worked flawlessly before the V6 updateā€¦ BLE has improved (according to Athom)ā€¦ how can this be happening? Andā€¦ how many other users have issues after the V6 update? The fact that you yourself made extra flowsā€¦ does that imply that the ā€œproblemā€ can not be fixed on your end?

Can you share your flow (change home/away status when the front or back door of the house is opened)? Are there certain settings in the app that minimises the issue?
Would it be helpful if I send you diagnostic rapports?

As of today things are reasonably quit. No false notifications so far. Maybe the PTP trick did itā€™s thing after all. :crossed_fingers:

@Peter_Kawa Did the app paused itself or did you pause it? Iā€™m asking because on my Homey sometimes the app pauses itself.

612

I bought four Chipolo Oneā€™s on Coolblue for presence detection on my Homey (firmware v6). Installed the Beacon app. But my Homey canā€™t find the the Chipoloā€™s.

Is there anyone who has experience with Chipolo and Homey an who can help me to add the beacons to Homey? Does Homey supports the Chipolo?

613

Yes, paused by Homey (I just edited my post)

614

First if all, no worries, Iā€™m not frustrated at all. It is just one of my 4 presence detection systems :crazy_face: I like to test and play with stuff.

I use ali beacons and after some tuning with the appā€™s times and settings they worked flawlessly for a few months.
Since v6 theyā€™re not detected in or out of range, I deleted one but adding again times out, it finds no BT devices at all. At first, at v6RC (i think) it did work and it also found my flower pins.

Yesterday i did a PtP for half an hour. No changes.

615

@NoX @Koktail
Edit Right after change the settings to 20, 30, 1, 5 my beacon flows started!
Adding a beacon works again also!
Thanks and fingers crossed

I thought anything below 30s is useless b/c of the 30s cache setting with the BLE software.

Iā€™ll try this 20s, and 30s now.
What is your discovery time out, and verification No?

My settings are now 32s, 31s, 1, 5
Prior to v6 they were 9s, 8s, 1, 11

616

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Btwā€¦ Iā€™m not frustrated either. Iā€™m mostly disappointed/angry that the support from Athom on their ā‚¬399 product is almost non existent. Other than that, life is good :partying_face:

617

Thx, entered your settings now.
My flows keep being disabled, while having delay timers of 1 and 5 minutes in between.
Iā€™ll carry on fiddling :crazy_face:

618

It depends if the Bluetooth data is publicly discoverable or not. F.i. the beacons by the brand Tile [type] 2020 are closed and cannot be paired. The 2019 and 2018 ones arenā€™t and can be paired.
An alternative is Ruuvitag, an open source project.

619

I just released a new version to test:
Many thanks for your contribution @Piero_F!

v1.3.0 - 29.05.2021

  • add support for ibeacon and eddystone beacons
  • prevent memory leak in log
  • ignore non-static address by default
  • deprecate the log trigger
2 Likes
620

Cool and thanks!
Nice to see the signalstrength right away.

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1 Like
621

Awesome! How does one upgrade to the test version?