Car Presence Tag

General Discussion
1

It would be great if there was a tag specifically made for a car that you plug into the cigarette lighter so you don’t have to worry about replacing batteries.

2

Great idea.

3

I would like a car presence tag that also uploads the last trip information (gas, mileage, gps track, etc.) when it arrives home. Could mount right into the computer/diagnostic socket under the dash. All kinds of smart apps could be created from that data.

Twack

4

There are some trackers/data recorders available that can hook up to a cars OBD :

But none are Zwave or Zigbee

5

Seems like car-battery-powered tag would be easy to make. Just buy a DC/DC cig lighter converter that’ll convert 12 to 1.5 volts (assuming that’s what the tags require), and solder the leads to the battery terminals of the tag.

6

I’d like something that doesn’t look hacked together, maybe something similar to the Belkin phone chargers.

7

@twack - I just got an “Automatic” ( automatic.com ) that logs all kinds of data. It’s a dongle that connects to the OBD port and connects to your phone via BT low power to send that data to their servers. They have an API that logs all kinds of data - and they’re working to create an open API, which I’ll be interested in hooking to ST. It’s a bit of a back-burner idea for me as I have a bunch on my plate - and they don’t have an Android app available (closed beta that I missed). Here’s the relevant thread with my input: https://c.getsatisfaction.com/automatic/topics/create_an_open_api#reply-comment-list-13566557

8

@ImABrian That is cool!

I do have a presence device to detect when my car is in the garage. I took a “Parking Spotter” arduino DYI and slapped a ST Shield on it. So its now a SmartThings Parking Spotter. It also gives me distance the car is in the garage on a tile. Google “parking spotter” and you’ll find the original project that I started from.

Twack

9

Doesn’t have to look hacked together. In fact, if you eliminate the cigarette lighter jack, put it in a project box, wire it directly to the lighters 12 volt supply, and hide it behind the dash, it’ll be invisible.

10

I am reviving this topic as I really think this is one of the most common uses for a presence sensor and I think most agree current presence fobs have so many issues. I bet if we had reliable presence sensing people would be using them by the thousands. My wife and I have the ST ones in our cars but there are a few issues we have found:

  1. the battery don’t last long especially in the cold weather of NJ and they are not cheap when you go through 5-6 a year.
  2. the reporting time is too slow for controlling garage door or something like that (its long between polling to save battery)
  3. Range is limited (also probably due to battery)

So here would be my perfect “thing”… A cigarette lighter plugin presence sensor with battery powered that charges when car is on and runs on battery when its off and polls on a regular basis so you can use it for events when cars arrive. I think someone suggested a modification to the current ST board already but that does not fix the car on car off problem.

Lets here your thought? Would you use it?

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