Okay the last couple days it’s been working very well, and it is really nice to have when it is working. So as long as I treat it as a convenience, meaning I always have to have a Plan B available, I like it.
Here’s how I have it set up. Everything is done with hello home actions. There is no custom code except for the creation of one virtual switch. And I’m using that switch for some other things in IFTTT, not for the actual arrival events in smartthings. You could leave the virtual switch out, and still get the improvements regarding network drop offs.
- I usually wear my hat when I go out, so I leave my hat In the cupboard with a motion sensor under it. When I’m ready to go I pick up the hat which triggers the motion sensor. This sets the mode to “JD Leaving.” This motion sensor is only set to run when the house is in home mode.
HAT TRICK!
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I leave, taking my presence sensor fob with me. When smartthings recognizes that my presence sensor is out of range, it changes the mode to away and flips the virtual switch to off. This is set to only happen if the mode is “JD leaving”. This is what protects me from the random drop off of the presence sensor fob which happens a couple of times a week. The house has to have been put into “leaving” mode before it will change to “away” mode. And the house can only be put into leaving mode by the actual physical sensor under my hat.
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When SmartThings Recognizes my presence sensor as having come back into range, it changes the mode to “JD in range” but only if the previous mode was “away”. It also turns on my entry light, which lets people in the house know that I am on my way in.
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When I then open my front gate, as long as the mode is “JD in range” the mode changes to “JD arriving” and my front door unlocks. This solves the bus stop problem.
. The door does not unlock until I am inside the gate.
It’s true that if someone else happened to Open the gate after I was detected as being in zigbee range, the door might unlock a little too soon. But it’s a lot better than what I had before.
- After I am in the house, I put my hat back. This time because the previous mode was “JD arriving” the mode will change to home and the virtual presence switch will turn on. Again, the presence fob just randomly leaving and returning to the network will not usually trigger any events, because the previous mode is not JD arriving.
Again, if I did happen to come through the gate right as the fob was randomly dropping off the network, things might get a little out of synch. But much better than before.
If I happen to forget my hat, or something glitches, I can just change to the next mode manually through the ST app.
So that’s it. My thanks again to @DigitalM0nkey for suggesting an additional device to capture an actual leaving event, overcoming the problem of the teleporting presence sensor and the bus stop problem at the same time.