Home Assistant How To - use Ping for presence detection and monitoring

[@Novation681]

Raise hand anyone who start to look for a HA topic and again realize that BT already done a great video about it! 🙂

[@BeardedTinker]

Thanks for that! :)

[@Claudiu.]

Such a simple idea and easy to use, no need for 3rd party apps. Thank you for sharing it.

[@BeardedTinker]

Glad it was helpful Claudiu! Thank you!!

[@MapleQuasar]

your the man, best person doing these tutorials on youtube. (thumbs up)

[@BeardedTinker]

I appreciate that very much! Thank you!

[@MapleQuasar]

@@BeardedTinker no problem, thank you. Can i ask what plant sensors you are currently using?

[@BeardedTinker]

@@MapleQuasar I', using HiGrow boards from LilyGo - with custom firmware by Pesor (it used MQTT). I have 2-3 videos on this here. But I'll also (hopefully soon) test new ones, that are Zigbee boards - DIY project more or less.

[@tomytomytomy3188]

Clearly and easy explained... perfect. Thx.

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you Tomy!!!!

[@neilausten9404]

In answer to your question the error message was: "The value of "data" is not supported by UI editor, we support "Object" but received m (ie I started to write message). Also advice I could configure message in Yaml.

[@BeardedTinker]

I think you've discovered a bug 😀 What version of Home Assistant are you running? I've tried it just now on 0.114.3 and got same result as you do. Something changed since 0.113.x when this was recorded and now. If you type "message:" in line below data:, you can once again use UI editor, but yes, I get the same error as you do now.

[@ramanathantitotitannadar6524]

Cheers, this will solve my current issues on tracking

[@itvanced8824]

Thanks, helped me a lot!

[@BeardedTinker]

Glad to hear it!

[@chaddean9280]

My device tracker hosts will not load. They don't show up at all. The Binary Sensor for my router works fine, but not the device trackers for the ping platform. Any ideas?

[@BeardedTinker]

Are there any errors in Home Assistant log file when you restart Home Assistant? Also, depending on the vendor/type of the device/phone, you may not be able to use this platform for device tracking. For Android phones this should work (most of the time), iPhones can have problem with this as they block those requests. Can you try and use ping from your computer and try to ping IP address of the phone? What replay do you get?

[@chaddean9280]

@@BeardedTinker thanks for the quick response! I use android phones. I will check the log files again, but when I checked previously, there were no errors. Will the tracker not "install" unless it can ping the phones? I've worked in IT for 20+ years now, though still a noob for home assistant. Everything else in doing with it, including Alexa integration without using the cloud app works great. This is the last piece of the puzzle for me to get figured out.

[@BeardedTinker]

It should create sensors with the name you specified - that's why I'm asking if you have error or not. For example, I have two of them in this video - hotsone hosttwo. Even if unavailable, they should have been added to HA. You have to make sure that this is under: device_tracker: - platform: ping hosts: hostone: 192.168.1.110 hosttwo: 192.168.1.123 Also make sure lines are indented correctly (2, 4 & 6 spaces before the code starts).

[@chaddean9280]

@@BeardedTinker It ended up making them. Not sure how or when, but I noticed they were there later this morning. Wish I did know why that happened in case I need to make more in the future. Since I'm a noob at this, I've gotten into trouble with spacing before, so I do pay close attention to it now. At this point, I'm just glad they're added. Thanks for the great video demonstrating how to do this and thank you for your personal assistance to me in troubleshooting.

[@BeardedTinker]

@@chaddean9280 That's great! Glad you got it working at the end!

[@alib.809]

thank you

[@neilausten9404]

Same 114.3. Cheers

[@PetrusB83]

I am running home assistant on a Virtual Box VM in Windows 10. Been trying everything, but ping is not working. Is it possible that the VM is blocking it?

[@BeardedTinker]

Hmm - excellent question. I don't see a reason for it to be blocked, but that may be due to host (hypervisor) Virtual Box. I think you should look at that - networking in Virtual Box. Haven't used in in years so can't help.

[@russmccoy]

Thank you for sharing!! Love this approach. Question: I'm using this method to track iphones on our home wifi. How would one address the issue of the iphone seeming to disconnect from the wifi periodically while not being used for several minutes? Or maybe I'm missing something?

[@BeardedTinker]

Don't have that many experience with iPhone. I'm mainly using app (ios) for this now, but to be honest, it is much more precise on Android then iOS. iOS just keeps closing the app and optimizing memory/reducing power usage. Only one iPhone here (kid has it) and you can't take teenagers mobile phone for too long. 😀

[@dfsworld]

Probably for battery saving purposes, the phone disconnects itself from wifi when not in use (and use the mobile connection for notifications etc.). Check the off-screen or wifi configuration (i have an android phone so idk if it could works)

[@eclecticlife]

Thanks for the video. How is the device_tracker using the ping platform different from the nmap_tracker platform? Thanks

[@BeardedTinker]

Well, they both can achieve same result (more or less), but sometimes Android phones (don't think this applies to iPhones) can answer ping while they don't answer nmap scanning. Also nmap is great to populate known_devices.yaml list as it can scan range and ping just check's IP addresses you specify. And as I mentioned in video, ping should work across different subnets.

[@rufus4779]

Thank you for you videos. They are very helpful. I appreciate your effort greatly. I do have one question. I am running Home Assistant. In lovelace UI I have two badges, one for my wife and one for myself. My badge correctly shows my presence "Home or Away". But for some reason my wife's badge always displays UNK. I'm not certain how to ask the question. But I'll take a stab at it. Do you have a video that's walks through the setup of presence and displaying a person "Home or Away" status?

[@BeardedTinker]

Hi Rufus and thank you for your comment! Hmm, actually I have nothing like that (yet). The problem is that there are too many possible options and ways for setting up so that I would never be able to cover everything with that. But to try to sort your problem - are both you and your wife using same type of phone (for ex Android or iPhone).

[@rufus4779]

@@BeardedTinker Thank you for your reply. We both have iphone 6s. I wil lget this figured out. Not sure what's different between her and me. But I will find it. Thanks again for your reply.

[@BeardedTinker]

Did you manage to do it? You can try using nmap integration for device tracker if you have issues with ping integration.

[@musoandafan965]

Thanks for sharing BT 😊 why would we want/need to change the count from the default?

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you Thomas 😊 The only reason that pops at my is to get more data for calculating max/min/avg for each of the tests.

[@musoandafan965]

@@BeardedTinker ok thanks for that and I hope you can manage to keep up the great videos. Have an awesome day 😊

[@neilausten9404]

Hi A small problem that is puzzling me. I followed your procedure right down to entering the message under Action Type. As soon as I start to type the message ie Welcome Home etc, I get a message that I cannot do this in the UI but can edit in Yaml. Yet I did the ISS automation about a week ago and it worked just fine, and was almost identical to this. Do you know what is going on? Thanks again for video, will subscribe.

[@BeardedTinker]

Hi Neil! Sorry, was out all day with family. OK, if you in the last part (actions) look at the YAML code, it should be something like this: data: message: Welcome home BT! service: notify.beardedbot Of course, service is different because it has to match your notification service. In UI, you should only need to select "Call service", then name of the notification service notify.name_of_your_notify And in "text window" you should type: message: XY has arrived home That really should be it. What error does it show?

[@Runehorn]

@@BeardedTinker I have the same issue, i was just trying to configure the minecraft integration to notify me that someone is on my server, but when set the automation to call service to send me a notification when you start typing message, when you hit the "m" key, it says that... "UI editor is not supported for this config: The value of "data" is not supported by the UI editor, we support "Object" but received ""m"". You can still edit your config in yaml." it also changed the blank info box to say service: notify.(the notify that i use) data: m it also will not save the automation even if you change around the data box. I dont mind learning how to do it in yaml but this seems odd. because i dont see why this should not work. I know that my notify works properly because i tested it in the developer tools console. and it worked with my iss config perhaps a bug for the latest version of home assistant.

[@BeardedTinker]

@@Runehorn yes, me too. I have the same issue now. If you check this github.com/home-assistant/frontend/issues/6617 - there is an open issue for this currently. Although it is 10 days old and no one has taken it over and started to work on it.

[@BeardedTinker]

Just to add on this - this is BUG report that has been existing since 0.114 BETA - github.com/home-assistant/frontend/issues/6577 It looks like it still hasn't been assigned.

[@Runehorn]

@@BeardedTinker hopefully it will be tackled soon, but in the mean time I managed to write the yaml code I was looking for. which probably is good experience to have anyways.

[@paulfecht]

thanks for the nice tutorial on Ping.... I have tried implementing the ISS tracker but you seem to have it working... can you help me?

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you for your comment Paul! What is the problem with ISS tracker?

[@paulfecht]

@@BeardedTinker In my configuration.yaml I have: - platform: iss show_on_map: true but that is all. I noticed from some of your screen recordings that you have rise and set time when visible in your area etc. In Lorvelace(the frontend) I have: entities: - entity: binary_sensor.iss - entity: camera.iss title: My Title type: entities ; what do I need to do so that I would get notified when it would be visible in my area say brighter than a magnitude or -1.5 or something? Thanks You.

[@BeardedTinker]

Hmm - something like this www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=45.81&lng=15.19&loc=Zagreb&alt=0&tz=CET or this www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=25544 ? Unfortunately, this integration can't give you that data. It's just current position of ISS (and not always correct in terms if it's really visible or not), without anything else. This is all there is from data available with this sensor: number_of_people_in_space: 3 next_rise: '2020-09-07T08:46:47' long: '78.1944' lat: '-30.1160' friendly_name: ISS device_class: visible

[@Worexon]

Hi noob here! :) When i check binary sensor i find it, but it say state off! And when i search device tracker i have nothing... How do make binary sensor router to be state "on" ? Im using google wifi, when im entering the router that the google wifi is connected to it say that router is on....maybe this not work with google wifi mesh?

[@BeardedTinker]

Hi Snafsen! PING integration should report device on when it detects or receives response from device. Note that devices if using DHCP can get different IP address. Not sure if Google WiFi allows you to permanently attach IP address to the device. Also, PING on some devices can result in false results (I think it's apple devices) because they block PING. Not sure if you are trying to get response from Google WiFi router itself with ping - that is different story and I'm not sure if it responds to it or not. I think it should, since let's say it is standard network functionality, but then, it's also Google :D For that, I would use following - www.home-assistant.io/integrations/google_wifi/

[@Worexon]

@@BeardedTinker Thx for fast response :) I think i must connect the rasberry pi (with Homeassistant) to the google wifi routers (have 3) thats why it not work now...i think. But thanks for the tips with google wifi..is it same procedure? Do you have guide for that to? And can i use it for presence detection?

[@BeardedTinker]

I don't have Google WiFi, so didn't make video, as I need it to test and record. For device trackers and improved Google WiFi integration, there is custom component (it can be installed via HACS) - github.com/djtimca/hagooglewifi This one does provide device trackers, internal does not.

[@Worexon]

@@BeardedTinker Thx for the tips! I did manage to get your guide to work. I connected the raspberry pi to one of the google wifi. And now it works!!! Thanks for the "how to" video. It really helps me to get started with presence detection!!