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I'd like to use Bluetooth in my Smart Home setup, which is based on a Home Assistant green bridge and runs the latest HAOS (2024.3.1). According to https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases, this is running a 6.6.20 Linux kernel.

To add BT support, HA advertises to just buy and plug in a compatible BT dongle and lists working devices here: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/bluetooth/

Problem is that this list is kinda outdated and the listed working devices are hard to find on the market today (They are mostly BT 4.0, while most things you can get online are 5.x).

So I bought a BT 5.4 dongle (specifically the UGREEN CM748) in the hopes of getting it to work on HAOS - which of course failed.

Now I assume that buying/trying another more recent model will result in the same problem, which leads me to my question:

- How do I get a more recent BT dongle to work on HAOS?

As far as I understand, this is the problem of the drivers not being available.

- Which BT 5.4 dongles bring Linux compatibility and would work with HAOS?

I read about the ESP32-integration but honestly shy away from "building" and programming my own device here. What I want is a ordinary dongle for the HAOS doing the work.

Xenonite
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I got the UGREEN 5.3 adapter on amazon and it appears to work with Home Assistant (yellow), no configuration required. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXF13GB7

If you are installing home assistant on top of a linux distro then support may depend on how new that distro is.

I tried this adapter because someone in the amazon reviews reported success.

In general older Bluetooth standards are more likely to be supported out of the box with Linux.

The ESP32 Bluetooth proxy option is not too bad if you look at the ready made projects on ESPHome. I ordered a M5Stack Atom Lite to try this option but haven’t received it yet. I found it here under Bluetooth Proxy radio selection: https://esphome.io/projects/index.html

jgstew
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I highly recommend getting an M5Stack Atom Lite (external USB-C powered device based on ESP32) as a Bluetooth proxy.

It is relatively cheap (likely cheaper than an USB Bluetooth adapter), very easy to setup and runs like a charm. My experience is after setting it up you'll never have to look at it again. Unlike fiddling around with Bluetooth adapter support and drivers, which can sometimes just stop working out of the blue.

As mentioned by @jgstew, see: https://esphome.io/projects/index.html

Inny
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