SwitchBot Presence Sensor (BLE) not available

[Mexxwelll]

I just received new SwitchBot presence sensors and noticed that there is no BLE version. I want to add the sensors without the hub to Homey.

Can this be added?

[Mexxwelll]

I added the sensors through the SwitchBot app and added the presence sensor hub. Now it’s showing in homey but not showing presence and luminance values.

Inside the SwitchBot app it is showing.

[AdyRock]

The error message points to Homey not resolving the DNS lookup. You could try rebooting Homey.

[Mexxwelll]

When I query the API where Homey gets its feedback from, it does not update lightlevel and detected when in the SwitchBot app the information is available.

Can we not add the BLE option and skip the API part?

[Mexxwelll]

The error message points to Homey not resolving the DNS lookup. You could try rebooting Homey.

This only happens every 10 queries, the other 9 are successful but i always get detected false back.

`* 2026-01-23T18:04:40.013Z

• Get response: {
  "statusCode": 100,
  "body": {
  "version": "V1.3",
  "battery": 0,
  "lightLevel": 0,
  "detected": false,
  "deviceId": "B0E9FEE6630F",
  "deviceType": "Presence Sensor",
  "hubDeviceId": "000000000000"
  },
  "message": "success"
  }`

[AdyRock]

It seems they are not connected to a hub:

{
  "version": "V1.3",
  "battery": 100,
  "lightLevel": 4,
  "detected": true,
  "deviceId": "B0E9FE60738A",
  "deviceType": "Presence Sensor",
  "hubDeviceId": "B0E9FEB9DF25"
}

As you can see from mine, it has a hubDeviceId assignment.

[Mexxwelll]

I don’t want to use an hub, I am trying direct BLE connectivity from Homey.

[AdyRock]

I am testing the BLE version of the sensor now. The problem is that it's slow as Homey has to poll the BLE devices and can't really go faster than once every 30 seconds. Even then it's not very reliable at picking up the data. My experience via the API/webhook is a response time of about 3 to 5 seconds. Even with my ESP32 hub, the response is about the same, so I think the sensor probably has a 1 or 2 seconds detection time.

[Mexxwelll]

I am testing the BLE version of the sensor now.

Can I also start testing? If so, how :)? I have a few of these sensors to play with and will also add ESP32 hubs when its successful.

Thanks.

[AdyRock]

I am currently awaiting a reply from SwitchBot about the identification method. Previously, all BLE devices had a single byte that had a type ID. The presence sensor, plus a few other new devices have that set to 0 and seem to use other bytes, so I want confirmation that I have decoded the packet correctly to identify the type. It's working with my 5 sensors, but that is a small sample.

[Mexxwelll]

Thanks for your work so far! If you want you can publish an test version that I then can install to see if my sensors also work. Otherwise I think I have to be patient :).

More info on test versions: https://community.homey.app/t/beta-test-apps/39757