#Bluetooth help please

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

south tide
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Apologies if this is a dumb question or in the wrong place (again), I'm very new to all this (HA and Discord) and trying very hard to learn rather than decide I have made a big mistake.

I have Home Assistant Green and decided to buy some bluetooth Thermopro thermometers having checked that bluetooth and Thermopro were both in the integrations list. However it appears that I need something else to connect to Bluetooth.

I have read the documentation, but as a complete newbie I do not understand the language. I need a dongle or a ESP32 but the list of dongles appears to rule out just about everything I can find to buy, and I am very wary of buying one that is not on the list. An ESP32 looks terrifying - I wouldn't know what to do with it if I had it. I've tried searching Shelly website for bluetooth but find it equally incomprehensible.

Am I best just giving up with this or is there an idiot's guide to bluetooth somewhere? The only things I have ever used bluetooth for have been auto-connect things like headphones and mobile phones.

Thanks in advance.

lean spade
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In my opinion, the M5Stack Atom Lite ESP32 devices are the easiest ones for beginners. There is an webinstaller available at https://esphome.io/projects/ (Bluetooth proxy).
After flashing via USB, they just need to be powered, set up with your WiFi credentials and placed nearby your (HA compatible) Bluetooth devices.
There is no need to install ESPHome itself, just add them as an integration when they are autodetected.

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Bluetooth dongles on the Green might run into range or stability issues. And my experience with the Shelly BT proxying were worse than the ESP ones.

south tide
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Thank you - I will try that and hopefully it will not be too difficult to set up.

south tide
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The M5Stack Atom Lite has now arrived. There are no instructions at all. It appears to have 2 ports, neither of which fits anything that I possess. Do I need to buy cable(s), and if so, what do I connect the other end(s) to? The HA USB socket? Does it need its own power supply (it hasn't arrived with anything)? Sorry to be so completely thick, but this is an alien world to me and I was expecting the device to have its own suitable connections. I am really struggling as I don't understand most of the language, so any help would be much appreciated.

lean spade
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It is a USB-C connection

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It is programmed and powered by it (yes, you need a power supply, like a phone charger).

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To program it, you connect the Atom Lite with a USB cable to the PC and start the flashing process, following the instructions at https://esphome.io/projects/ (Bluetooth Proxy - M5Stack Atom Lite). The browser needs to be Chrome or Edge. Configure the WiFi credentials during that process via the browser.
When all of that is completed, disconnect it place it in the area of the Bluetooth devices and power it with a phone charger and a USB-C cable.

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It show show up in HA to be integrated. Do that.
But if you are using the ESPHome add-on: do not aport the proxy there, unless you have a real reason to do.

south tide
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Thank you @lean spade I will get a USB C cable tomorrow. I charge my iphone with an apple plug which has an ordinary USB cable socket - presumably I can use this with a USB to USB C cable to power the M5Stack Atom Lite.

south tide
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Finally got the Bluetooth working having managed to find the correct cable at the 2nd attempt (apparently not all USB cables support data transfer). Thank you so much for your help @lean spade - I would not have got this working without it. 👍