Send BLE characteristic to MQTT broker via Theengs Gateway

m4biz · March 7, 2023, 4:59pm

Hi.
I’ve just configured a BLE ESP32 device that show battery level on a specifies pin (32):

At the same time I’ve a TheengsGateway that publish all on an MQTT topic:

Anyway if by means MQTT explorer I’ll take a look to this topic I don’t see anything about Battery Level UUID BLE characteristic 2A19 and its value.
What I see is only this:
2023-03-07_111722

Nothing about battery level characteristic.
Any idea?
Thanks in advance

DigiH · March 7, 2023, 5:09pm

Hi @m4biz,

this should be picked up by the Battery Service decoder

github.com

theengs/decoder/blob/development/src/devices/ServiceData_json.h

const char* _ServiceData_json = "{\"brand\":\"GENERIC\",\"model\":\"Service data\",\"model_id\":\"ServiceData\",\"tag\":\"08\",\"condition\":[\"uuid\",\"index\",0,\"180f\"],\"properties\":{\"batt\":{\"decoder\":[\"value_from_hex_data\",\"servicedata\",0,2,false,false]}}}";
/*R""""(
{
   "brand":"GENERIC",
   "model":"Service data",
   "model_id":"ServiceData",
   "tag":"08",
   "condition":["uuid", "index", 0, "180f"],
   "properties":{
      "batt":{
         "decoder":["value_from_hex_data", "servicedata", 0, 2, false, false]
      }
   }
})"""";*/

const char* _ServiceData_json_props = "{\"properties\":{\"batt\":{\"unit\":\"%\",\"name\":\"battery\"}}}";
/*R""""(
{
   "properties":{
      "batt":{

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could you turn on advertising/advanced data and show what data is being broadcast in MQTT Explorer then?

m4biz · March 7, 2023, 5:17pm

I’ve installed both TheengsGateway and Mosquitto on Home Assistant.
I don’t see advertising/advanced data .

DigiH · March 7, 2023, 5:24pm

Sorry, was in the OpenMQTTGateway mode there, for Theengs Gateway I think the debug levels might have the additional data included, but am not sure to be honest

m4biz · March 7, 2023, 5:39pm

Two questions:

is OpenMQTT Gateway the same than TheengsGatewy but more powerful ?
is there any Home Assistant integration for OpenMQTT Gateway ?

DigiH · March 7, 2023, 5:48pm

OpenMQTTGateway runs on ESP32/ESP8266 depending on what kind of gateway you chose to set-up. It also allows for RF, LoRa, IR gateways, whereas Theengs Gateway only decodes BLE devices.

And yes, OpenMQTTGateway also has Home Assistant integration and discovery, like Gateway does.

Just think of Theengs Gateway as the BLE side of OpenMQTTGateway which doesn’t require an ESP32, but can also run on your HA device.

No need you would have to change to OpenMQTTGateway for this, as showing the advertising/advanced data is also on the roadmap for Theengs Gateway. It would have just been helpful to investigate your above issue.

If you have an ESP32 lying around you could try it with installing esp32dev-ble on it.

m4biz · March 8, 2023, 8:31am

Hi digiH.
I think your work will be very useful.
There are infinite application of a BLE to MQTT gateway that is also an Home assistant’s integration.
I’ll wait for your investigations and for a major release available.