ESP32 BT Monitor

What is it?

This is a (at the moment partial) port of andrewjfreyer/monitor for the popular and super cheap ESP32 boards. For a more detailed explanation of how it works, visit the link above. But as a short summary: this software allows you to scan for known Bluetooth devices by MAC address on demand, by requesting their name. The beauty of it is that you don't need any special software running on the devices you'd like to track!

Building the project from source

Prerequisites

In order to build this project, you need to have Visual Studio Code installed, with the C/C++ and PlatformIO IDE extensions.

Libraries

This project relies on the following libraries:

• ropg/ezTime
• knolleary/PubSubClient
• RoboMagus/WiFiManager (Modified from tzapu/WiFiManager)

Build it

1. Clone this repository
2. Open the local repository directory in VSCode
3. Open the PIO Projects & Configuration tab and create an existing project.
4. Open this project from the PIO interface
5. In the sidebar, open up the PIO Tab and under PROJECT TASKS / Default hit Build Note: The first time opening this project, PlatformIO will take some time to fetch all the required modules before the list under PROJECT TASKS shows up!!
6. Once the build succeeds you can flash your ESP32 with the 'Monitor' compatible Bluetooth scanner.

Modifications: When building the project from sources, there are some things you may want to customize in platformio.ini.

• AP_PASSWD: The AccessPoint password for when the ESP32 is not yet configured to connect to your home WiFi network.
• HTTPD_USER: Username for authorization on the config portal when the ESP32 is connected to your home WiFi network.
• HTTPD_PASSWD: Password for authorization on the config portal when the ESP32 is connected to your home WiFi network.
• MAX_NUM_STORED_BLUETOOTH_DEVICES: Maximum number of known bluetooth devices that can be stored on the ESP32

By default PlatformIO is set up for flashing devices that are connected to your computer. If you wish to perform remote debugging or over the air updates using espota you'll need to uncomment the following section and fill in your device-ip:

monitor_port = socket://[device-ip]:23
upload_protocol = espota
upload_port = [device-ip]
upload_flags =
  --port=3232
  --auth=admin

Configuration

After flasing your ESP32 some initial configuration is required. To begin, connect your phone to the ESP32's WiFi hotspot. This will have a name starting with ESP32_bt, followed by unique characters based on the devices MAC address. The default firmware configuration requires the following credentials in order to connect to the AP: abc45678. When connected navigate with your browser of choice to 192.168.4.1 to open the configuration menu.

Now it's best to first enter the settings menu to start configuration there. Performing the WiFi configuration first will cause the device to restart and connect to your home network. You can still configure the device after this, it just requires some more steps to navigate to it's new IP again! The settings menu contains all settings related to the BT monitor application as shown below. The scan settings and BT devices can be skipped and configured later on. The important bits for now are the MQTT parameters to make sure the application can communicate.

In case you need to revisit the configuration pages you can do so by navigating to the ESP32's IP address on your home network. To prevent others from tinkering with your device any access to it's webpage once it's connected to your WiFi network is password protected! To log on, use username admin and password 1234.

Usage

web control

The ESP32 bluetooth scan status can be seen through the devices webpage by following the BT Monitor link in the main menu. This page will show you all configured devices by name and MAC address, as well as their away / present state. From this page you can also trigger various scans and update the page to load the new scan results.

Home assistant

Find some examples for sensors and automations in HomeAssistant here.

Features

Implemented:

• andrewjfreyer/monitor compatible MQTT scan reporting
• Arrival / Departure scan triggered by monitor/scan/arrive and monitor/scan/depart
  • 'Any' scan (scan for departure on present devices and arrival for away devices) triggered by monitor/scan/any
• Periodic scanning
• Setup known bluetooth devices through MQTT using monitor/setup/add known device and monitor/setup/delete known device
  • Send only MAC when deleting a device
  • Send MAC followed by its alias when adding devices
• Over the air update
  • through web interface
  • Using espota
• Setup through modified WiFiManager
  • Password protected web interface once connected to your home WiFi network
  • Bluetooth Scan status + scan controls webpage
• Logging over serial and telnet
• Monitor settings:
  • #Arrival scans
  • #Departure scans
  • seconds between scans within set
  • minimal time between scan sets
  • periodic scanning interval

ToDo

• Add passive scanning as is available in monitor
• Expand configuration options
• Add BLE iBeacon scanning support for room by room presence detection
• Strip away the core BT monitor logic to expose as a library
• Make an ESPHome component for it
  • Currently blocked by incompatible IDF v4.2 support used by ESPHome Core