Bluetooth presence detection

README.md

Simple occupancy detection via Bluetooth

This flow checks whether a Bluetooth device is in range. It does not require BT pairing because name lookups are allowed on any device. Tested on a Raspberry Pi 3 with the integrated BT receiver and some cellphones.

Usage

• For Raspian, install hcitool with sudo apt-get install bluez
• Verify that BT works, e.g. with hciconfig
• The user running Node-RED must be a member of the bluetooth group, e.g. sudo usermod -a -G bluetooth nodered
• Replace the MAC in the cellphone node with the target device's MAC. If unsure where to find it, make the device discoverable and do hcitool scan

flow.json

[
    {
        "id": "a2aa8fbd.4cf9c8",
        "type": "tab",
        "label": "Flow 1",
        "disabled": false,
        "info": ""
    },
    {
        "id": "f01d11e6.a3026",
        "type": "exec",
        "z": "a2aa8fbd.4cf9c8",
        "command": "/usr/bin/hcitool",
        "addpay": true,
        "append": "",
        "useSpawn": "false",
        "timer": "10",
        "oldrc": false,
        "name": "bt presence",
        "x": 350,
        "y": 160,
        "wires": [
            [
                "124fdc39.b4a09c"
            ],
            [],
            []
        ]
    },
    {
        "id": "124fdc39.b4a09c",
        "type": "function",
        "z": "a2aa8fbd.4cf9c8",
        "name": "nonempty",
        "func": "msg.payload = msg.payload ? 1 : 0;\nreturn msg;\n",
        "outputs": 1,
        "noerr": 0,
        "x": 520,
        "y": 160,
        "wires": [
            [
                "df8114bf.397578"
            ]
        ]
    },
    {
        "id": "df735f89.216f8",
        "type": "inject",
        "z": "a2aa8fbd.4cf9c8",
        "name": "cellphone",
        "topic": "",
        "payload": "name 84:B1:53:E3:8A:18",
        "payloadType": "str",
        "repeat": "",
        "crontab": "",
        "once": false,
        "onceDelay": 0.1,
        "x": 180,
        "y": 160,
        "wires": [
            [
                "f01d11e6.a3026"
            ]
        ]
    },
    {
        "id": "df8114bf.397578",
        "type": "debug",
        "z": "a2aa8fbd.4cf9c8",
        "name": "",
        "active": true,
        "tosidebar": true,
        "console": false,
        "tostatus": false,
        "complete": "false",
        "x": 680,
        "y": 160,
        "wires": []
    }
]