Can Switchbot Sensors help you automate the boring stuff?

Switchbot has a Contact and Motion sensor in their lineup, but can it help you Automate the Boring Stuff?
If you are using Amazon or Smartthings the answer is for sure yes. But it's not perfect. And if you are a Home Assistant fan....things are a bit complicated.
If you have seen these Switchbot sensors, and are curious how they might fit, I hope this video helps.
If you want to grab one of these sensors or any of the Switchbot devices, use the code 10truelove between now and Feb 14 2022.
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My Name is Jeff. I am an DIY-er and Automator of boring things. And, of course, a huge Home Assistant fan. Oh, I also live in a house that tweets.
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[@dfgb2411]

I‘m using two SwitchBot Curtains with Home Assistant over the SwitchBot-MQTT-BLE-ESP32 Integration and the Mosquitto Broker. You can find more details for this integration on Github (strangely I can’t post a link here on KZbin). It‘s completely local and works very reliable. This Integration also supports the SwitchBot Sensors. Maybe worth a try!

[@SlackerLabs]

Nice. I will definitely give that a try.

[@FrankGraffagnino]

I appreciate that you mentioned the caution at the end over people relying on devices that need cloud crap to function. Switchbot should have an API exposed locally and not make their cloud api the only option.

[@jamaicaigot9335]

Awesome vid! Could you get the audio version of it on audea? I listen to most of my audio there would love to hear this on there

[@SlackerLabs]

I hadn’t consider that option. But I will check it out

[@chrisrosenkreuz23]

hey are those sensors you mentioned still not integrated properly in home assistant today in Aug 2022?

[@SlackerLabs]

Not really. Bluetooth doesn’t work as well. I’ve been using my echo as a bridge.

[@cslink23]

Hey Jeff - Thanks for the good review. Since you mentioned SmartThings; What is the future of the SmartThings using the hub? I don't see the aeotec hub available at the time via Amazon so wondering if their new integrated (ie refrigerator) type hubs are the only way to use the hub from here on out. I use the app (alone) and it is very unresponsive at times.

[@SlackerLabs]

From what I have seen I think Aeotec wants to keep making the hub. I think it might just be a temporary supply issue. But I haven't seen anything that would make me think Aeotec wants to abandon it. Not long ago Smartthings said they had 62 million active users. Thats a pretty big slice of the smart home pie right now.

[@Moon-Raven]

While there is an official Home Assistant SwitchBot integration, it has issues. I for example have the issue when I restart HASS, but not the OS, all of the devices are unavailable. This can be fixed by restarting the Home Assistant OS. Moreover, you need to be in bluetooth range to use the devices. If they're too far away, you can't use them through the integration. I'm also not sure on if the sensors are supported. Perhaps you can use the SwitchBot API to get the sensor data, but that'll just be too hard for most people I think.

[@SlackerLabs]

Yeah. I mean official in that it was built or managed by Switchbot. The current built in integration leverages the pySwitcbot library I believe which is using local bluetooth as as far as I know not being officially sanctioned. I do think we might be able to leverage the API, but I agree. That is a lot of work to add these devices when easier methods cost the same or cheaper. Which is a shame, because I think having a contact sensor with motion or at least the ability to determine which way a person was headed is huge.

[@Moon-Raven]

@@SlackerLabs Yeah, you're right about that. I also wish they would put effort in something official, even if it is through the cloud (with a bluetooth variant through HACS). I can see having the direction available being useful as well. Let's hope they'll make something soon.

[@AndrewDanne]

So SwitchBot is Bluetooth, can you read SwitchBot from any of the ESPHome Bluetooth gateways or do you have to use the SwitchBot hub?

[@SlackerLabs]

I actually haven't tried with the ESP Home, but I will add that to my list of things to try. I grabbed some board so I could start playing with it so we will see.

[@Tntdruid]

Did you try ESPresense?

[@SlackerLabs]

I have not yet. But I do have some ESP32s and hope to get into that project soon.

[@jmr]

Dear Switchbot, no access to all the sensor data no sale! I'm even actively looking for motion sensors with light sensors built in. A real shame!

[@evgeniybelov202]

Aqara motion sensors have illuminance sensor.

[@jmr]

@@evgeniybelov202 Yes, but no access to it unless you use their ecosystem.

[@evgeniybelov202]

@@jmr I'm using it with Home assistant with a cc2531 Zigbee dongle. It's entirely local and doesn't interact with anything external.

[@jmr]

@@evgeniybelov202 Do you have access to the light sensor data that way?

[@evgeniybelov202]

@@jmr Yes, there's a separate illuminance entity and it measures in lx.

[@Sebastian-xf8je]

My Switchbot Bot is 10ft away from my raspberry pi and it's still pretty slow and unreliable :/

[@SlackerLabs]

Yeah, I found the direct bluetooth connection to the devices from HA/Rpi to be unreliable. However, using the devices in HA linked through smartthings it seems to be solid in terms of responsiveness. Not sure why the cloud path is better versus the local one but it could be something in the radio.