known_static_addresses clears out

[djtommye]

I've got monitor running on 2020.12.17. I'm using the AppDaemon monitor as well, with four rPi Zero's covering my house. Every few days, the known_static_addresses file is stripped of any MAC addresses. The comment is still at the top, but the addresses go away. Of course, when that happens, nothing works anymore. I've tried some work-arounds, like making the file read-only, or trying to create a cron job that replaces the file with a backup every night. (Obviously, I'm not that adept at cron jobs, since that didn't work).

Is there a setting that would cause this to happen? Any way to not update the file on the zero's?

[hack2spider]

let me know how did you get on with the ...

Also if you have 4 piws hows the RSSI working out for you ? I`m getting quite awkward readings ... and they seem to be upside down and inconsistent ...

Also I get RSSI -99 which should be confidence 0 however that still stays 100 LOL

Im just thinking whilst other mac addresses work without known_static_hosts why do we need the static hosts ...ca we not change monitor_sh so it will discard static hosts ... Im just wondering if it would be better not having to pair our phones with the piw0s ... Im thinking this is the reason why the RSSIs are inconsistent and actually all over the place because the phone wont be able to pair with several devices at the same time ...

also can we not have a configuration in home assistant where we would be able to display RSSI in lovelace instead of confidence ... that would be better. ..

thanks in advance for whoever will chime in

[djtommye]

You don't have to actually pair the phone with the PiZero. Bluetooth makes announcements, and that's what the monitor.sh script watches for. I'm not using the known_static_hosts file; but I am using known_static_addresses. We got new phones for Christmas, so here's what I did earlier this week (I've been a bit busy). It seems to be working okay now...

1. I had to reset the ownership and group on the file back to "pi". I had set them as root, trying to figure out a way to keep the monitor script from wiping them out.
2. I then added the addresses over mqtt from Home Assistant. I'm using the AppDaemon Presence add-on, so this then pushes the MAC addresses out globally to all my PiZeros.
3. I did log in to one of the PiZeros and ran "sudo bash monitor.sh -V" and watched to make sure it received the mqtt message, which it did. That's also evidenced by the fact that all four PiZero's have a populated known_static_addresses file.

From what I understand, the RSSI piece is to help located devices within your property (e.g. which room it's in). I don't need that level of granularity (yet). I just want to know who is home. So, I'm not doing anything with RSSI.