Hi @wperry1, quick clarification: ESPectre needs a continuous packet flow to keep CSI callbacks coming from the Wi-Fi driver.
So even when switching modes (DNS vs ICMP ping), you will still see traffic by design, because packet exchange is what keeps CSI samples flowing for motion detection.

The good part is that this traffic is intentionally very lightweight:

• packet sizes are very small (DNS: 17-byte payload, Ping: 8-byte payload)
• at the default 100 pps, a single device is about ~9 KB/s

If you want to avoid DNS log noise and optimize multi-device setups, you can use the external traffic mode:

• set traffic_generator_rate: 0 (ESPectre opens UDP listener on port 5555)
• run the external generator script from any host in your LAN (Raspberry Pi, NAS, Home Assistant server, etc.)
• this sends packets directly to the device(s), and UDP broadcast is especially efficient (no reply traffic)

Also, your idea of targeting the AP IP is a good one.
Right now the internal generator targets the gateway, but exposing a configurable target (e.g., AP IP for ping, or alternate DNS server) would be a sensible enhancement and should be relatively straightforward to add.
It may not dramatically change CSI accuracy by itself (the key factor is still a stable incoming packet flow), but it can definitely help reduce DNS log noise and, in some topologies, reduce unnecessary backhaul traffic.

Docs:

• Traffic Generator Mode
• Network Impact
• External Traffic Mode
• Network Impact: Internal vs External Traffic
• External generator script (examples/espectre_traffic_generator.py)

Hi @francescopace, I really appreciate you responding so quickly. I decided to switch to the external traffic generator, and it was easier to set up than I expected. I am running into another issue now with updates from the ESP32-S3 coming every few minutes, where they were coming every second before. I ran a packet capture on my router and the AP the device is talking to and see the UDP 5555 coming through. I also don't see the stream of updates from the wireless console. Do you have any tips on what I may be missing?

This is my current configuration. Most of the comments are things I have been trying to quiet the noise in my sheet metal garage.

espectre:
id: espectre_csi
detection_algorithm: mvs # mvs or ml
segmentation_threshold: auto # auto, min or a number (0.0-10.0)
segmentation_window_size: 75 # default 75
traffic_generator_rate: 0 # default 100 - 0 listens for packets from remote packet generator running on ha
#traffic_generator_mode: ping # dns default
publish_interval: 100 # Optional: override publish rate default 100
hampel_enabled: true # default
#hampel_window: 11 # sliding window size (3-11)
#hampel_threshold: 2.0 # MAD multiplier, higher = less aggressive
gain_lock: enabled # auto (default), enabled, disabled
lowpass_enabled: true
lowpass_cutoff: 6.0 # Default 11.0

Thanks in advance for any tips.

What you’re seeing (updates every few minutes) usually means the effective CSI packet rate is low, even if UDP:5555 traffic is visible in captures. One key detail: publish_interval is in packets, not milliseconds. So with publish_interval: 100, if the device only gets ~1 CSI packet/sec, updates will appear about every 100 seconds.

Could you try this quick checklist?

1. Confirm ESPectre logs show: UDP Listener started on port 5555.
2. Temporarily switch generator target from broadcast to unicast (device IP) and compare behavior.

# ============= CONFIGURATION =============
TARGETS = ['192.168.1.120']  # Unicast target: your ESPectre device IP
# TARGETS = ['192.168.1.120', '192.168.1.121']  # Multiple devices (still unicast)
PORT = 5555  # ESPectre UDP listener port
RATE = 100   # Packets per second
PID_FILE = '/tmp/espectre_traffic.pid'  # Daemon PID file path
# =========================================

3. Share 30-60s of ESPectre logs including lines with pkt/s, ch, and rssi.

If you use mesh/multiple APs, you can also lock ESPectre to one AP via bssid to avoid roaming-related CSI instability (via yaml configuration file).

wifi:
  networks:
    - ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
      password: !secret wifi_password
      bssid: !secret wifi_bssid  # Lock to specific Access Point (useful for mesh networks)