Inkbird sensors IBS-TH1, IBS-TH2 and IBS-TH2 Plus not updating in time

[theliquid]

The problem

I have a Home Assistant Docker setup with 3 Bluetooth proxies (1x ESP Home, 2x Shelly Plug S). In my setup I have several Bluetooth temperature and humidity sensors (manufacturers: Xiaomi, Govee and Inkbird).
The 4 Inkbird sensors do not update regularly. They seem to update once a day or once every 12 hours. All the other sensors (Xiaomi and Govee) update at least once a minute.
The Inkbird sensors themselves (1x IBS-TH1 and 2x IBS-TH2 and 1x IBS-TH2 plus) seem to be fine. I can connect to the Inkbird app (Engbird) and always read the current sensor values. The problems seem to be related to how the Inkbird sensors are read by Home Assistant (or the Bluetooth proxies).
The ESP Home Bluetooth Proxy is set to active scanning by default. One of the Shelly Plug S Bluetooth proxies is set to active scanning, the other to passive scanning.

There is a strange behaviour with Inkbird devices:
The Signal Strength entity is updated much more frequently than the temperature, humidity and battery sensors. So it seems that the data is transferred to the Home Assistant in time, but not the actual temperature, humidity and battery sensor values.

What version of Home Assistant Core has the issue?

core-2024.5.3

What was the last working version of Home Assistant Core?

?

What type of installation are you running?

Home Assistant Container

Integration causing the issue

Inkbird

Link to integration documentation on our website

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/inkbird

Diagnostics information

There is nothing useful in the logs. The "Enable debug logging" switch does not produce any Inkbird related log entries.

Example YAML snippet

No response

Anything in the logs that might be useful for us?

There is nothing useful in the logs. The "Enable debug logging" switch does not produce any Inkbird related log entries.

Additional information

No response

[home-assistant]

Hey there @bdraco, mind taking a look at this issue as it has been labeled with an integration (inkbird) you are listed as a code owner for? Thanks!

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[theliquid]

Update: The strange behaviour doesn't apply to all sensors. Some of the sensors do not update all entities for 12 to 24 hours. The problem is somehow connect to active/passive scan mode I think since all other sensors (vendors: Xiaomi and Govee) do support passive mode only.

[Anto79-ops]

I wanted to add that I also experience this strange behavior but attributed to either a defective sensor or it's too cold because it's in my freezer with lithium batteries. The temperature just flat lines, but it seems like the signal strength changes sometimes. Inkbird IBS THB-2. Only 1 of 4 do this.

[michael-m52]

I have this problems as well. The solution was to use ble_gateway on the ESP32. The readings from this are much more reliable.

Here is a yaml snippet to get you started.

external_components:
  - source: github://myhomeiot/esphome-components

ble_gateway:
  id: blegateway
  devices:
    - mac_address: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
    - mac_address: YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY
  on_ble_advertise:
    then:
      homeassistant.event:
        event: esphome.on_ble_advertise
        data:
          packet: !lambda return packet; 

[theliquid]

Thanks for the hints! I disabled both Shelly Plug S Bluetooth proxies. Now the Inkbird sensors are updating normally again. I have no idea why. The only active Bluetooth proxy is now the ESP32 device.
I don't know if this problem is related to the Inkbird integration. Since only the Inkbird sensors were affected by this strange behavior (and not the others), I really can't say if the Inkbird integration is causing this.

[bdraco]

Unlikely most Bluetooth devices that use advertisements Inkbird needs active scans. If the nearest proxy is in passive mode this behavior is somewhat expected