Tesla BLE Integration: High Battery Drain & binary_sensor:tesla_ble_asleep Issues

[Hephaix]

Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out to see if other users are experiencing significant energy overconsumption (vampire drain) with the Tesla BLE integration.

I’ve noticed that my binary_sensor:tesla_ble_asleep is constantly remains either disabled, unavailable, or off.
I suspect that this integration might be preventing the car from entering or staying in a deep sleep mode, leading to the power drain.

For reference, here is my current configuration:

# Tesla BLE Configuration
...
tesla_ble_vehicle:
  update_interval: 10s # Base polling interval, used for VCSEC sensors
  post_wake_poll_time: 300 # How long to poll for data after car awakes
  poll_data_period: 60 # Polling interval after awakening
  poll_charging_period: 60 # Period to poll for data when charging
  poll_asleep_period: 300 # Period to poll for data when asleep
  ble_disconnected_min_time: 600 # Min time BLE must be disconnected before Unknown
  fast_poll_if_unlocked: 1 # Fast polls enabled when unlocked

My main questions:

• The values entered in the configuration files are not the ones I see when I activate the corresponding entries, which still display the default values. Is this expected behavior?
• Is anyone else seeing high battery standby loss ?
• Has anyone found a fix for the tesla_ble_asleep sensor staying unavailable/off?
• Should I increase the poll_asleep_period or update_interval further to allow the car to sleep better?

I am also using a Commander and a S3XY Strip from Enhauto, which could also explain this behavior.

Thanks for your help and feedback!

[top-gun]

Things to check:

1. Uptime of your ESP, di you see frequent reboots? It should run days without restarting. Depending on wake on reboot, it will wake the car up when it reboots
2. Correlating: donyou have wake on boot enabled!
3. is your car really locked? I see you have fast poll if unlocked enabled, that will keep the car awake if it‘s open.
4. Are there automations that send commands to your car? Like controlling the charger or similar.

[Hephaix]

1 ESP is very stable.
2 No wake on boot.
3 Locked
4 No automation during the day since the solar production is still low.

I think that the active sentinel mode is the culprit.
I will try to cut the sentry mode during the day.

Thank for the fast help, appreciated!

[top-gun]

Sentinel uses about 150W and adds up over the day. The car can‘t sleep with Sentinel active.

[PedroKTFC]

Can you confirm it's sentry mode causing the issue? The obvious way to eliminate this project is to turn your ESP32 board off for a while.

[Hephaix]

I disabled the sentinel mode and confirm that it was causing the issue. Esphome-tesla-ble is working great now!

One last side question (if you have a moment), regarding the configuration files, I noticed that the period and timing values I've entered in the config file don't seem to be reflected upon activation, as the default values still appear. I’m probably missing something—is this the intended behavior or a known limitation? No rush at all, and thanks again for your help!

[PedroKTFC]

The values in the yaml should be picked up in preference to the defaults. I confess I haven't tested this for some time so it's possible there's a bug. I'll retest over the next few days. On a restart of the board the logs will show the values used (the log line will start with Polling parameters: post_wake_poll_time_). It's also possible to change them dynamically using the entities under the Configuration group and that's preserved over board restarts. Again, all assuming no bugs have crept in.

[PedroKTFC]

Oh, and under the Repair branch some items are now polled less frequently (those that don't change very often, tyre pressures being the outstanding example).

[top-gun]

Just a hint for Sentinel: There are checkboxes to disable it specifically at home and at work. I have it on all the time with those checkboxes set, because I park on private property both at home and at work. You find the checkboxes in the car, Infotainment-> Security