Battery Usage from Bluetooth Transmitter

[jamesonuk]

Not an issue I know but discussions aren't enabled here and I didn't get any response elsewhere so apologies...

I have been playing around with Bermuda and some Bluetooth proxies and the from what I understand to get this to work in Android I need to enable the Bluetooth transmitter in the companion app?

First question is about what the real world impact on battery usage is here. Is it going to be significant or will it largely be swallowed up by having Bluetooth on anyway?

Second question is presumably I can turn this off when not at home through HA but will that through up any issues with Bermuda if the transmitter is potentially getting turned on and off or will it be no different to it just going out of range?

[agittins]

Re the second question, yes you're right, turning BT off on the phone will look to bermuda exactly as if the device simply went out of range (Bermuda can only "prove" that a device is present, so absence is "inferred" by lack-of-presence). The only downside to automatically turning off BT while away is that any automations set up for arriving home will require both the turn-bluetooth-on automation and bermuda receiving advertisements. If you use GPS "zone" to turn on BT, then it will depend on how often/reliably the GPS updates, and on whether it is at a wide enough radius from home to kick in early enough. If you use connecting to WiFi as the automation trigger, then response will probably be slower, since the phone has to be close enough to actually connect to wifi, notice it, make the connection, then start sending BT adverts.

Personally I'd use a fairly wide radius for the home "zone" and use that to trigger turning BT on, then it should trigger as soon as you get within range of home.

As for battery usage, I don't have any hard data for you. My gut feeling is that the power used by BT advertising, even on high power and frequent intervals will probably be a pretty minor element considering all the other things a phone does - the screen alone would dwarf that power usage, I am sure.

But... it's not something I pay a lot of attention to, so others might have a better idea of the effect. My phone still lasts all day, so I don't sweat it - but your needs might be a lot different.

[jamesonuk]

I was more thinking about turning off beacon transmitting rather than BT altogether but having ha five minutes to actually play around it looks like HA only gives you control over BT itself. You an see the state of the transmitter as a sensor but not control it 😞

Would prefer to not be transmitting when out the house but I need BT (for Android Auto, headphones etc.). I presume no-one is aware of a way of doing this and it would be a feature request for HA?

[mihsu81]

The HA Android app has an option to transmit only when connected to your home WiFi which you can also define in the HA app.

[jamesonuk]

The HA Android app has an option to transmit only when connected to your home WiFi which you can also define in the HA app.

I have spent ages trying to look but for some reason never scrolled down as it just looked like it was documentation rather than controls 😊

[jeremysherriff]

Hey @jamesonuk just thought I'd share my experience with enabling the iBeacon BLE transmitter function of the HA app in my Samsung Galaxy S23+. In summary: no noticeable battery drain at all. I have it transmitting 24x7.

I also enabled BLE receiver on my wife's phone - and THAT function uses battery.