core: Airthings BLE Sensors Go Unavailable

Watching closely. I have the same problem. I left a message at Airthings. Lets see how they respond (not until 01/03/24). How many HA users are having problems and not having problems? Hope we get this fixed. For a long time I have been monitoring my radon. I have mitigation installed. It was 20x acceptable before mitigation. Now it is 50% above recommended. I am 76YO, so probably not what is going to kill me. (LOL).

I’m working for Airthings, and I’m trying to figure out why this is happening. The integration has been maintained by the open source community, but we (Airthings) have started taking over the maintenance of this integration.

And the customer support tickets for Home Assistant integration will probably end up in my inbox anyways!

I picked up a wave mini for testing and have some stability issues with it.

• I had to pull the battery after firmware update
• It looks like disconnects during update are not handled so I sent a PR https://github.com/Airthings/airthings-ble/pull/24

Its been stable for me since the firmware update + battery pull + PR

I finally (?) got the error my self! One of my Wave Radon devices failed, and it’s located far away from the HA PC that it was probably connected through a BLE proxy, which is located < 0.5m away. I was able to run some diagnostics on the device, and everything seems to be fine. Not connected to a hub, enough battery, all sensors responding etc. All other PCs/phones were able to connect to it, so no hanging connections from my HA pc or BLE proxies, which was my previously theory. Reloading the integration fixed it for me.

Still not sure what’s going on, but will keep debug logging enabled to see if it happens again.

The only thing I noticed from the logs is that it seems like it’s not retrying after it failed, at least not for a while. Will investigate more!

For those experiencing issues:

• Are there any other Bluetooth devices connected to Home Assistant?
  • If yes, do they work? Are there any errors or warnings?
• How close are your Home Assistant PC/proxies to the Airthings devices?
• What firmware version are you using?
  • Navigate to Settings -> Devices & Services -> Airthings BLE -> select device -> FW version should be available in the top left corner.
• Do you use the Airthings app(s)?
  • Does it work?
  • Are you using Android and/or iOS?
  • What is the version of the app?
  • Please check if the device requires a firmware update.
• Have you tried pulling out and re-inserting the batteries?
• Are you using a hub?
  • If yes, be aware that it may cause issues. The device will only broadcast for a short period each time it boots or when you wave in front of it if it’s hub-connected.
  • If you have a hub, I recommend using the Airthings integration (cloud-connected).
• What is the remaining battery percentage on the devices? (Note: The current battery calculation is incorrect and will be fixed soon.)
• If you have more than one device: Do all devices go offline simultaneously, or is it only one at a time?

I apologize for all the questions; I’m struggling to debug the issue. I’m attempting to identify any patterns. Personally, I haven’t encountered any problems with this integration.

I would like to keep this ticket open. I think the PR #106748 can fix some issues, but not all.

Additional debugging questions:

Is this issue specific to when you are at home, or does it initiate upon your arrival? If it only occurs when you’re home, what happens when you disable Bluetooth on your phone or restrict BLE access to the app? (Remember to re-enable it later to be able to use the app!) The app attempts to fetch data in the background, but if there’s a bug in the app or operating system, this can result in a persistent connection to the device. I remember someone mentioned a similar problem on Android (unfortunately, I don’t recall the phone’s brand or model).

Have you tried restarting Home Assistant or the BLE proxies you’re using? There might be a similar issue as mentioned above, the device not disconnecting HA/proxy.

When you wave in front of the device, does it respond by lighting up? If, for some reason, the device is hub-connected (even if it shouldn’t be so), it should light up and start broadcasting over ble for a few seconds (if it wasn’t doing so before). You might need to reload the integration as well at the same time.

For users of the “Airthings Wave” app, can you try installing the new app named “Airthings” (currently supporting View devices + Wave Plus)? And then try this:

• Ensure the device is near your phone.
• Navigate to Settings -> Devices -> select the problematic device.
• Check the connectivity mode displayed.
• If it indicates anything other than Bluetooth (e.g., ready for Bluetooth sync, connected with Bluetooth, configuring for Bluetooth), try pressing the “Reset connectivity” button at the bottom of the screen. This will reset the connectivity mode back to using Bluetooth.

@home-assistant reopen

Watching closely. I have the same problem. I left a message at Airthings. Lets see how they respond (not until 01/03/24). How many HA users are having problems and not having problems? Hope we get this fixed. For a long time I have been monitoring my radon. I have mitigation installed. It was 20x acceptable before mitigation. Now it is 50% above recommended. I am 76YO, so probably not what is going to kill me. (LOL).

I’m working for Airthings, and I’m trying to figure out why this is happening. The integration has been maintained by the open source community, but we (Airthings) have started taking over the maintenance of this integration.

And the customer support tickets for Home Assistant integration will probably end up in my inbox anyways!

Much appreciated. My 1st gen waves have worked great … great product.

Watching closely. I have the same problem. I left a message at Airthings. Lets see how they respond (not until 01/03/24). How many HA users are having problems and not having problems? Hope we get this fixed. For a long time I have been monitoring my radon. I have mitigation installed. It was 20x acceptable before mitigation. Now it is 50% above recommended. I am 76YO, so probably not what is going to kill me. (LOL).

Hello @LaStrada , here I leave you my information, thank you very much for investigating this, in my case since 2023.10 it stopped working properly

Are there any other Bluetooth devices connected to Home Assistant? Yes, I’m using switchboot devices

If yes, do they work? Are there any errors or warnings? Working as expected

How close are your Home Assistant PC/proxies to the Airthings devices? It’s on a different floor but I’m using a bluetooth proxy with Shelly devices near the Airthings device, even if I bring it closer it doesn’t work

What firmware version are you using? Wave Plus by Airthings AS Firmware: G-BLE-2.2.0-master+0 Hardware: REV A

Do you use the Airthings app(s)? YES

Does it work? YES

Are you using Android and/or iOS? iOS

What is the version of the app? Version 3.10.3 (458)

Have you tried pulling out and re-inserting the batteries? YES

Are you using a hub? No

What is the remaining battery percentage on the devices? 64%

If you have more than one device: Do all devices go offline simultaneously, or is it only one at a time? Only one

@LaStrada Thank you for aiding in debugging.

Are there any other Bluetooth devices connected to Home Assistant? No, this is my only device.

How close are your Home Assistant PC/proxies to the Airthings devices? Within 4 meters, but I have also duplicated the problem when the unit was very close so proximity or interference does not seem to be the problem.

What firmware version are you using? Wave Plus by Airthings AS Firmware: G-BLE-2.2.0-master+0 Hardware: REV A

Do you use the Airthings app(s)? Yes, I use Android and yes the App works and connects fine even when the BLE is failing. The update frequency is notably less on the App, I think its 15 minutes vs perhaps a minute with BLE. App version is 3.10.7

Have you tried pulling out and re-inserting the batteries? Yes, I did this. The problem was resolved for ~24h until it returned again for a few hours and then resolved on its own.

Are you using a hub? No.

What is the remaining battery percentage on the devices? HA is reporting 73%

If you have more than one device: Do all devices go offline simultaneously, or is it only one at a time? Sadly, my only device.

Mine dropped out yesterday with “Passive Scanning” disabled from day one.

Apparently switching “Passive scanning” on and off is sorting issue, at least temporarily.

Same here… Got four Wave Pluses all acting the same way. Going very stable for some time, then starting to decrease reporting, before ending more or less totally disconnected displaying NaN. Tried soft and hard reboots of both HA and units themselves.

Running in ProxMox with only ESPhome BT proxies, not local BT or other dongles.