piBeacon: presence monitoring plugin discussions

[kw123]

@GlennNZ: please try v ..507
has the option for a fixed IP#, set it in rpi device edit

Karl

[GlennNZ]

Thanks Karl, I'll give it go.
Glenn

[GlennNZ]

Hi Karl,

Hope you have finished unpacking! (I don't think anyone finishes unpacking....)

Have a few feature requests/and/or bug /inconsisteny reports for you.

1. ADS1115 sensors device. Please consider adding a SPS setting.

Had an issue were my ADS1115 sensor values would bounce up and down and up and down. 400--31000 - making the particular sensor usable.

Tried the basic library as below and got different readings to some extent would also bounce .
But found if changed readings per second ADS1115 setting could stablise completely. Obviously seems to be sensor dependant.

Managed to setup mysensors.py and use ADS1115.py - using this simple library
https://github.com/ncdcommunity/Raspber ... on_Library

With that got stable readings: Wasn't sure why at the time - but it worked/job done.

Found and used mysensors.py (thanks for that and all was good)

Revisited it now - when a old sensor died and had to replace. Had the same issue, except even more bouncy.

Looking into it in more detail it comes down the the SPS/speed value; it would seem.
I have to set it to 16 or 32 readings per second - to get stable, accurate values.

It appears the ADSL11x5.py code defaults the sps to 250 readings/second - with no way to change?
Manually dropping this seems to stabilize my readings.

Now stable (yah!) but still not completely sure why different readings from these code bases ADS1115.py and ADS11x5.py but as long as stable/internally consistent not necessarily an issue.

With old library ADS1115.py - the below does seem to follow:

Code: Select all

Note: Set ADS1115 gain to two to read 0-20mA signals.
When resolution is set to 16bit
at 4mA the raw ADC value will be around 6430
at 20mA the raw ADC value will be around 32154.

mysensors.py using ADS1115.py above code = get a reading of 17983.0 (with quite a bit of accuracy) 2.048V/16SPS
vs
ADS1115 Device C=0,M=16,G=2048 (ADS11x5.py code edited for SPS of 16) get raw reading of 1122.44 for example


2. Add INPUTMax/InputMIN to mysensors devices

I think I just added them to the mysensor device subtype and your plugin code cleverly recognised and populated!


Thanks!

Glenn

[kw123]

Glenn,
I just have 3 RPi up and running, still unpacking things (rpi are not the highest on the list, still hanging lights and mirrors and pictures )

might take a little

Karl

[GlennNZ]

Thanks Karl.

[new2me07]

hey karl,

I have 3 pi's set up, everything looks like its working, if I set the right setting I find a million beacons, but I cannot find ANY iPhones, or apple watches.

Do you have any suggestions on troubleshooting?

[McJohn]

Hi,

For the Apple products you need to edit the Device/Model settings to: BLE-connect.

John

[kw123]

yes, there are millions of BLE devices walking and driving around.

use the option: menu/acccept new beacons and set to off. That should stop any new ones.

As for iPhones: they do not send BLE broadcasts. you must use BLEconnect:
1. create new piBeacon device type BLEconnect
2. enter the BLE mac number (you find that on the iPhone general/settings/about)
3. select the RPi you like to use.

This mode does a ping every xx secs to that MAC device. THAT WILL INTERRUPT the normal BLE listening process that tracks regular BLE beacons
and a RPI zero on wifi will stop working . The wifi module is used also for BLE communications.
I strongly suggest to use an extra BLE dongle. You can get them at amazon for 5-10 $. BUT most seller sell you BLE dongles with the same MAC number. That will create real issues in the plugin when there are BLE 2 devices with the same MAC#. That number is THE key index.
To be on the save side: if you need 2 get them from 2 different vendors, 3 from 3 vendors ..

And to find new BLE devices you can
A) set menu/ accept new beacons/ set signal to -50 (very strong signal required) and put the new devices next to the RPI. A new device is very likely your device
B) do menu/ detect new beacon tool on RPi, that will print a detailed report of anything BLE signal that the select RPI sees.
use that to find the BLE number of your new device.

hope that helps.

Karl

[new2me07]

I have set the BLEcoonect device correctly.... using the devices MAC. Im using a Pi4, Pi3A and a zero. Ill disable the zero, for testing and order a dongle. Shouldn't the 3A and 4 pick it up? I had all the Pi's looking for them but still wasn't working.

Thanks for the info!

[kw123]

Please use an extra dongle for each rpi.
That makes things MUCH smoother.

And the rpi4 has an an other issue: when booting with an external dongle it sometimes does not recognize the internal ble device. Adding the second dongle after boot works fine. I haven’t had the time to understand why.

and you don’t need all three rpi to track the iPhone.
Just try to make it work w one. I now have 2 ble dongles on each rpi.
One for beacons and one for ble connect. Bel connect is also used for sensors and switchbots


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[new2me07]

Yeah, I can't even get one to work. I got separated about 2 years ago and sold my house I have piceacons set up everywhere and really miss that functionality. Fing and unify aren't working for me so this is my last hope of implementing presence detection system I'm familiar with. Plus, I seen a demo recently that basically a pibeacon commercial solution with cellular added on top.

https://www.bastille.net

I never tried to use any of the mapping/plotting functionality but I'm getting re-motivated to try. Once I get the ble-connect working.

I have bench tested some rotary encoder, motions, temp/humidity sensors I had from my old shenanigans. That parts is working like a charm. Thanks again for that, all those years ago! If only I could find my 20amp 5vdc power supply I could get these Neo-pixels going.

On a side note: if you have any pi's not doing anything they are going for crazy $$ on eBay and amazon bc they're out of stock EVERYWHERE

[new2me07]

Apologizes if this has been covered before, I know its been touched upon but google is failing me.

I think bc BLE MAC randomization on iPhone that ble-connect isn't working for me, is there a deep down setting to toggle this off or a work around?

[kw123]

it seems that the new iPhone op-sys rotates BLE mac numbers like wifi ( but there you can switch rotation off)

Hence it seems that BLEconnect does not work anymore for iPhones.

sorry

Karl

ps I will continue to check, but there is not much hope.

[new2me07]

If it was actually paired to a Pi and not just passively listening to broadcasts would that work?

[kw123]

yes I believe that would work, but you would need to have an app on the iPhone doing that.

And the app would need to run all the time. and then also auto reconnect to the RPI when coming home.

And then it would be much easier to detect the iPhone through other means

Karl