# Beacon to detect presence? **URL:** \ **Category:** Devices\ **Created:** [May 11, 2021, 10:13pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/beacon-to-detect-presence/47318 "2021-05-11T22:13:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CortoMaltese](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/cortomaltese/32/50317_2.png) [@CortoMaltese](https://community.homey.app/u/CortoMaltese)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 10:13pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/beacon-to-detect-presence/47318/1 "2021-05-11T22:13:05Z")
I am considering using a beacon to detect presence. Can anyone share his/her experience with such a device to detect presence? Can you recommend a brand and model? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Kawa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/peter_kawa/32/173848_2.png) [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 10:20pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/beacon-to-detect-presence/47318/2 "2021-05-11T22:20:59Z")
Hello, Please take a look here: > [@\[APP\]\[Pro\] Beacon - Detect your presence with BLE beacons](https://community.homey.app/t/beacon-an-app-for-presence-detection-using-ble-beacons/3550/1): > > [image] Beacon Links: Introduction This app integrate the basic flows for BLE beacons into Homey. Once the app is installed it will do a discovery of BLE devices, after a short adjustable timeout it wil keep discovering. After each discovery the app compares the found devices with the one paired. If the beacon is not found within the new “discovered list” the beacon is changed in state. For filtering out false positives there is a verification amount inside or outside the range available in… Lots of discussions about beacons 😉 Cheers ---
**Author:** ![CortoMaltese](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/cortomaltese/32/50317_2.png) [@CortoMaltese](https://community.homey.app/u/CortoMaltese)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 1:48pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/beacon-to-detect-presence/47318/3 "2021-05-12T13:48:36Z")
Hi Peter, I have partly read that thread. Indeed, that’s a lot of information to digest but I gave up after about 250 posts and couldn’t really get a definite answer to my questions. I hoped someone could share some fresh information on reliability and models to buy. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Kawa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/peter_kawa/32/173848_2.png) [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 2:34pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/beacon-to-detect-presence/47318/4 "2021-05-12T14:34:09Z")
In short, a beacon is a beacon in my world. Only the range varies between make and models. Beacons have to be publicly discoverable for use with the Beacon app. F.i. the Tile [model] 2020 and up are not publicly discoverable anymore… I use the [cheapest Beacons I could find](https://a.aliexpress.com/_9uPXr8), and they work fine. The Beacon app added support for Eddystone UID and iBeacons There’s also Ruuvitag, an open source app and beacon. ---
**Author:** ![Edwin\_D](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/edwin_d/32/136417_2.png) [@Edwin\_D](https://community.homey.app/u/Edwin_D)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 3:57pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/beacon-to-detect-presence/47318/5 "2021-05-12T15:57:10Z")
Up until firmware 6 Beacons were a reliable way to do presence detection, albeit the app leaked memory. There’s an easy workaround to restart the app automatically every night. No biggy as long as you have memory to spare or apply the workaround. Since then Homey pushed out firmware V6 really fast after V5, with lots of Bluetooth changes. They were thinking it is backward compatible, but that was not really true. Without much time for the users to check and for the Beacon app developer to adjust, it was pushed to production. So problems started popping up which the developer seems to be working on. That is what the fuss is about. Seeing they are on it, it may already be fine again. If not I haven’t lost faith in the developer (and Athom) just yet. So I suggest you keep track on the bottom of the post to see how far they are. I believe some have got it stable again, but maybe not all. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Kawa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/peter_kawa/32/173848_2.png) [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 4:10pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/beacon-to-detect-presence/47318/6 "2021-05-12T16:10:58Z")
True, but I believe it will get solved someday 😉 , and it still works for me here, just keep the polling intervals under 30secs. Someone here said Athom tests RC versions with alpha testers, but still official firmware is pushed to quick imho. I don’t know why they do that. Except if a major security bug has been found, I can’t think of a reason to push it “in a hurry”.