App to open garage door when presence sensor (phone) approaches?

SmartApps & Automations
41

Zigbee and zwave networks generally work better with more devices. One of the advantages of mesh. :blush:

The problem is that mesh is not a great way to do microlocation.

My guess is everybody starts solving this problem mid 2016 using bluetooth.

42

I don’t think any form of RF is a good way to do microlocation. Propagation (even at microwave frequencies) is just too unpredictable - and even more so in a home that has walls, floors, seemingly randomly placed pieces of metal, etc.

43

I’m talking iBeacon type “near” ranges, line of sight for less than 50 feet.

For garage door opening, you’d have to pause briefly while it detected your phone and opened, but it would be handsfree and automatic, no more forgetting to issue the close.

44

I wasn’t thinking it was a network issue, rather a ST hub issue.

45

The mesh network is the one inside your house, letting your devices talk to the hub.

46

I understand that zwave/zigbee uses a mesh network, and I understand how the network works. I’m just wondering if the bottleneck is ST hub rather than the network.

My garage door automation seems to work a lot better than those claiming to have 100+ devices, but it may help that I have a dedicated hub for it.

47

Good question! I have no idea if the ST hub becomes a bottleneck to the ST cloud. Could be possible.

On the other hand, presence detection was unreliable for me when I only had 4 devices on the network: hub, doorlock, motion detector and presence sensor. So it’s not just number of devices.

48

What happens if you put your phone into Airplane mode, or turn it off? When your phone comes back online, what does ST do with it? Better question, how does ST gracefully handle a presence sensor going offline? Does it consider it gone, or does it remember it’s last state? What if you have your phone in airplane mode and turn it back on outside the geofence? are you home or away?

49

If you’re home, it will put you home


If you’re away, it puts you as way


50

FYI, wanted to check back in as the originator of this thread. I have managed to make this happen, more or less, but the main trouble seems to be the unreliability of the presence sensing on my husband’s Android phone. I ended up basically duplicating his presence sensor via the Life360 app, and set the garage door to open when either his phone presence sensor comes into range, or when the Life360 app indicates he’s home. It’s only been a day so it’s hard to say whether this will work successfully or not.

Thanks again to all who’ve contributed here.

51

@davglass made a Proof of Concept smartapp using iBeacon detection to flip a SmartThings switch. It does require a $25-$33 iBeacon, the $9 Beecon+ app, and an iOS device. And it may use a lot of phone battery depending on exactly how you set things up.

But it’s working very well for me for microlocation, much more reliably than either just the phone or the ST fob. Mine sets off every time about 10 feet from my front door.

2 Likes
52

when i do this i get through all the steps it asked me to connect an opener. the señor is not on the list.

53

He hates being on lists.

What sensor are you using? I think there are some special steps you need to make in order to make sure it’s a tilt - open/close sensor instead of a contact - open/close.

54

i am using the sensor, now that is funny, that came with the linear unit. it is a tilt style

55

Sorry, I have no experience with that system.

You might want to check out this thread:

56

Hi @ethayer, I used to have this app, but for some reason it’s gone now. How do I reinstall it? I do not see Alerts and Access and Entryways
 Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

57

Nevermind. I found it. :smile:

58

I show my iPhone as present under the family tab but i don’t see how to continue to add a smart app to open my garage door when I arrive

59

You need to “Install” the Smartapp (I assume you know the name and the app actual does what you want) via the mobile ST app"Marketplace/SmartApps" option. Once you install it, the SmartApp should prompt you for the name of the Presences Sensor (i.e your phone) the door to open, etc.

60

Where is the plus button on the ST app. My Home? or automation