This project is a BLE to MQTT bridge, i.e. it exposes BLE GATT characteristics as MQTT topics for bidirectional communication. It's developed for the ESP32 SoC and is based on ESP-IDF release v5.2.1. Note that using any other ESP-IDF version might not be stable or even compile.
For example, if a device with a MAC address of a0:e6:f8:50:72:53
exposes the
0000180f-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb service
(Battery Service) which includes the
00002a19-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb characteristic
(Battery Level), the a0:e6:f8:50:72:53/BatteryService/BatteryLevel
MQTT topic
is published with a value representing the battery level.
Characteristics supporting notifications will automatically be registered on and new values will be published once available. It's also possible to proactively issue a read request by publishing any value to the topic using the above format suffixed with '/Get'. Note that values are strings representing the characteristic values based on their definitions grabbed from http://bluetooth.org. For example, a battery level of 100% (0x64) will be sent as a string '100'.
In order to set a GATT value, publish a message to a writable characteristic
using the above format suffixed with /Set
. Payload should be of the same
format described above and will be converted, when needed, before sending to the
BLE peripheral.
In addition to the characteristic values, the BLE2MQTT devices also publish additional topics to help book-keeping:
<Peripheral MAC address>/Connected
- With a payload oftrue
/false
depicting if the peripheral is currently connected or not. Note that this topic is monitored by the BLE2MQTT instance currently connected to the peripheral so that if another instance publishesfalse
, the current instance will re-publishtrue
<Peripheral MAC address>/Owner
- The name of the BLE2MQTT instance currently connected to the peripheral, e.g.BLE2MQTT-XXXX
, whereXXXX
are the last 2 octets of the ESP32's WiFi MAC addressBLE2MQTT-XXX/Version
- The BLE2MQTT application version currently runningBLE2MQTT-XXX/ConfigVersion
- The BLE2MQTT configuration version currently loaded (MD5 hash of configuration file)BLE2MQTT-XXX/Uptime
- The uptime of the ESP32, in seconds, published every minuteBLE2MQTT-XXX/Status
-Online
when running,Offline
when powered off (the latter is an LWT message)
Broadcasters are non-connectable BLE devices that only send advertisements. This application supports publishing these advertisements over MQTT. For each broadcaster, at-least two topics are published:
BLE2MQTT-XXXX/<Broadcaster MAC address>/Type
- The broadcaster type, e.g.iBeacon
BLE2MQTT-XXXX/<Broadcaster MAC address>/RSSI
- The RSSI value of the received advertisement
In addition, depending on the broadcaster type and payload, additional meta-data is published.
- For iBeacon:
UUID
,Major
,Minor
andDistance
- For Eddystone:
UID
frames:Namespace
,Instance
andDistance
URL
frames:URL
andDistance
TLM
frames:Voltage
,Temperature
,Count
andUptime
- For Xiaomi Mijia (MiBeacon) sensors:
MACAddress
,MessageCounter
,Temperature
,Humidity
,Moisture
,Formaldehyde
,Illuminance
,Conductivity
,Switch
,Consumable
,Smoke
,Light
,DoorClosed
,Motion
,BatteryLevel
- For BeeWi Smart Door sensors:
Status
andBattery
- For Xiaomi LYWSD03MMC Temperature Sensors running the ATC1441 firmware:
MACAddress
,MessageCounter
,Temperature
,Humidity
,BatteryLevel
andBatteryVolts
(See https://github.com/atc1441/ATC_MiThermometer)
Note: Broadcaster topics are published without the retained flag regardless of what's defined in the configuration file.
- Install
ESP-IDF
You will first need to install the
Espressif IoT Development Framework.
The Installation Instructions
have all of the details. Make sure to follow ALL the steps, up to and including step 4 where you set up the tools and
the get_idf
alias.
- Download the repository and its dependencies:
git clone --recursive https://github.com/shmuelzon/esp32-ble2mqtt
- Modify the config.json and flash
Modify the configuration file to fit your environment, build and flash (make sure to modify the serial device your ESP32 is connected to):
idf.py build flash
If configured, the application can send the logs remotely via UDP to another
host to allow receiving logs from remote devices without a serial connection.
To receive these logs on your host, execute idf.py remote-monitor
.
The configuration file provided in located at data/config.json in the repository. It contains all of the different configuration options.
The network
section should contain either a wifi
section or an eth
section. If case there are both, the eth
section has preference over the
wifi
section.
Optionally, the network section can contain a hostname
which, if set,
is used in MQTT subscriptions as well. In such case, relace BLE2MQTT-XXX
in
this documentation with the hostname you have set.
The wifi
section below includes the following entries:
{
"network": {
"hostname": "MY_HOSTNAME",
"wifi": {
"ssid": "MY_SSID",
"password": "MY_PASSWORD",
"eap": {
"method": null,
"identity": null,
"client_cert": null,
"client_key": null,
"server_cert": null,
"username": null,
"password": null
}
}
}
}
ssid
- The WiFi SSID the ESP32 should connect topassword
- The security password for the above networkeap
- WPA-Enterprise configuration (for enterprise networks only)method
-TLS
,PEAP
orTTLS
identity
- The EAP identityca_cert
,client_cert
,client_key
- Full path names, including a leading slash (/), of the certificate/key file (in PEM format) stored under the data folderusername
,password
- EAP login credentials
The eth
section below includes the following entries:
{
"network": {
"eth": {
"phy": "MY_ETH_PHY",
"phy_power_pin": -1
}
}
}
phy
- The PHY chip connected to ESP32 RMII, one of:IP101
RTL8201
LAN8720
DP83848
phy_power_pin
- Some ESP32 Ethernet modules such as the Olimex ESP32-POE require a GPIO pin to be set high in order to enable the PHY. Omitting this configuration or setting it to -1 will disable this.
Note: Defining the eth
section will disable WiFi
The mqtt
section below includes the following entries:
{
"mqtt": {
"server": {
"host": "192.168.1.1",
"port": 1883,
"ssl": false,
"client_cert": null,
"client_key": null,
"server_cert": null,
"username": null,
"password": null,
"client_id": null
},
"publish": {
"qos": 0,
"retain": true
},
"topics" :{
"prefix": "",
"get_suffix": "/Get",
"set_suffix": "/Set"
}
}
}
server
- MQTT connection parametershost
- Host name or IP address of the MQTT brokerport
- TCP port of the MQTT broker. If not specificed will default to 1883 or 8883, depending on SSL configurationclient_cert
,client_key
,server_cert
- Full path names, including a leading slash (/), of the certificate/key file (in PEM format) stored under the data folder. For example, if a certificate file is placed atdata/certs/my_cert.pem
, the value stored in the configuration should be/certs/my_cert.pem
username
,password
- MQTT login credentialsclient_id
- The MQTT client ID
publish
- Configuration for publishing topicstopics
prefix
- Which prefix should be added to all MQTT value topics. OTA related topics are already prefixed and are not affected by this valueget_suffix
- Which suffix should be added to the MQTT value topic in order to issue a read request from the characteristicset_suffix
- Which suffix should be added to the MQTT value topic in order to write a new value to the characteristic
The ble
section of the configuration file includes the following default
configuration:
{
"ble": {
"//Optional: 'whitelist' or 'blacklist'": [],
"services": {
"definitions": {},
"//Optional: 'whitelist' or 'blacklist'": []
},
"characteristics": {
"definitions": {},
"//Optional: 'whitelist' or 'blacklist'": []
},
"passkeys": {},
"mikeys": {}
}
}
-
whitelist
/blacklist
- An array of MAC addresses of devices. Ifwhitelist
is used, only devices with a MAC address matching one of the entries will be connected while ifblacklist
is used, only devices that do not match any entry will be connected. It's possible to use the wildcard character?
to denote any value for a nibble."whitelist": [ "aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff", "00:11:22:??:??:??" ]
-
services
- Add additional services or override a existing definitions to the ones grabbed automatically during build from http://www.bluetooth.org. Each service can include aname
field which will be used in the MQTT topic instead of its UUID. In addition, it's possible to define a white/black list for discovered services. The white/black list UUIDs may contain the wildcard character?
to denote any value for a nibble. For example:"services": { "definitions": { "00002f00-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb": { "name": "Relay Service" } }, "blacklist": [ "0000180a-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb", "0000ffff-????-????-????-????????????" ] }
-
characteristics
- Add additional characteristics or override existing definitions to the ones grabbed automatically during build from http://www.bluetooth.org. Each characteristic can include aname
field which will be used in the MQTT topic instead of its UUID and atypes
array defining how to parse the byte array reflecting the characteristic's value. In addition, it's possible to define a white/black list for discovered characteristics. The white/black list UUIDs may contain the wildcard character?
to denote any value for a nibble. For example:"characteristics": { "definitions": { "00002f01-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb": { "name": "Relay State", "types": [ "boolean" ] } }, "blacklist": [ "00002a29-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb", "0000ffff-????-????-????-????????????" ] }
-
passkeys
- An object containing the passkey (number 000000~999999) that should be used for out-of-band authorization. Each entry is the MAC address of the BLE device and the value is the passkey to use. It's possible to use the wildcard character?
to denote any value for a nibble."passkeys": { "aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff": 0, "00:11:22:??:??:??": 123456 }
-
mikeys
- An object containing "bind keys" for Xiaomi MiBeacon devices. Each entry is the MAC address of the BLE device and the value is the key to use. Keys are only required for some devices and can be obtained using these methods."mikeys": { "e4:aa:ec:xx:xx:xx": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx", "a4:c1:38:xx:xx:xx": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" }
The optional log
section below includes the following entries:
{
"log": {
"host": "224.0.0.200",
"port": 5000
}
}
host
- The hostname or IP address to send the logs to. In case of an IP address, this may be a unicast, broadcast or multicast addressport
- The destination UDP port
It is possible to upgrade both firmware and configuration file over-the-air once
an initial version was flashed via serial interface. To do so, execute:
idf.py upload
or idf.py upload-config
accordingly.
The above will upgrade all BLE2MQTT devices connected to the MQTT broker defined
in the configuration file. It is also possible to upgrade a specific device by
adding the OTA_TARGET
variable to the above command set to the host name of
the requested device, e.g.:
OTA_TARGET=BLE2MQTT-470C idf.py upload
Note: In order to avoid unneeded upgrades, there is a mechanism in place to
compare the new version with the one that resides on the flash. For the firmware
image it's based on the git tag and for the configuration file it's an MD5 hash
of its contents. In order to force an upgrade regardless of the currently
installed version, run idf.py force-upload
or idf.py force-upload-config
respectively.
The sdkconfig.defaults
included in this project covers common configurations.
A number of minor changes are required to support this board:
- Set the
eth
section as follows:{ "network": { "eth": { "phy": "LAN8720", "phy_power_pin": 12 } } }
- Run
idf.py menuconfig
and modify the Ethernet configuration to:- RMII_CLK_OUTPUT=y
- RMII_CLK_OUT_GPIO=17