Project:Trash Tracker
| ProjectInfoBox Trash Tracker | |
|---|---|
| |
| Status: | Done |
| Release Date: | 23.03.2025 |
| Initiator: | Erik |
| Materials Used: | Generic BLE beacon (we use Tile Trackers), one for each garbage bin;
one ESP32 |
| Tools Used: | Computer needed to flash the ESP32 |
| Software Used: | Espresense, HomeAssistant |
| Approx. Cost: | 67.77€ for 3x Tile Mate (2022) |
You probably know about our Trash situation in the space. In order to keep our space clean, it is necessary to bring the trash out so it can be collected.
However, this key step is often missed, because during Friday Making Hours, no one thinks about Thursday the next week and even if someone does, it is hard to know which Trash must be brought out.
In order to motivate and remind ourselves, we recently introduced a sign (Project:Müllampel) which blinks at a specific time. The Trash Tracker helps us make the sign smarter and let it only blink while needed, as well as give us the possibility to communicate on Slack and in the Telegram Group that the Trash is still inside.
Concept
The concept is that each garbage bin has a specific BLE beacon and therefore MAC address which is frequently broadcasted by each tracker. The broadcasted signal can then be detected by any Bluetooth enabled device. In our case, we simply use an ESP32 with a software called Espresense. Espresence simply collects statistics about the broadcasted signals and tries to determine a distance for each signal. The statistics are then pushed to an MQTT broker and collected in your HomeAssistant instance. There, with the help of the MQTT room presence integration, we can automate other things based on the state of each garbage bin (for example, toggle the Project:Müllampel or send reminders via Slack).
What makes this project quite straightforward and helps with one of the biggest problems in Bluetooth distance measurement is the fact that our pickup spot is quite far away from the Workshop. This simplifies distance measurement, because we only need to look if there is a signal at all and not how strong it is. Simply put: If we see the broadcasted signal from one tracker, it is in the Workshop or close by. If we do not detect a signal, the trash is either at the pickup spot or has been stolen.
Home Assistant integration
As already said, with the help of MQTT room presence add-on, we can use Home Assistant to further integrate the tracking into our setup.
For that we need to integrate the data from MQTT as a sensor. Unfortunately, the MQTT room integration can only be configured via YAML in the configuration.yaml file.
# tracker for the trash
# each garbage bin has one unique tracker
sensor:
- platform: mqtt_room
unique_id: sensor.trash_rest
device_id: "tile:d24a9fe7fc86"
name: 'TrashTracker Restmuell'
state_topic: 'espresense/devices/tile:d24a9fe7fc86'
timeout: 10
away_timeout: 120
- platform: mqtt_room
unique_id: sensor.trash_plastik
device_id: "tile:d1ebaa8a68da"
name: 'TrashTracker Plastikmuell'
state_topic: 'espresense/devices/tile:d1ebaa8a68da'
timeout: 10
away_timeout: 120
- platform: mqtt_room
unique_id: sensor.trash_papier
device_id: "tile:c7a6a7f007d2"
name: 'TrashTracker Papiermuell'
state_topic: 'espresense/devices/tile:c7a6a7f007d2'
timeout: 10
away_timeout: 120
To further ease the use of the sensors in Home Assistant, we can then create a Template for each sensor:
With the following expression:
These templates can then be used in automations if their state changes.
