Arrival or presence sensor... for a key chain, for guests? Something that Matters?

Devices & Integrations
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I had a guest stay for 2 weeks and decided it would be nice to have my automation run when the guest comes and goes if I’m not around. (Currently, I have automations run based on my and my wife’s presence as given my our Android cell phones using the ST app.)

Any recommended devices or alternative approaches to this problem?

I see old devices like the ST arrival sensor that could be on a key chain I give the guest, but this device is rated poor on Amazon and it’d be nice if something new came out that had Matter support. But the ideal hardware solution (assuming no alternative approaches are suggested here) would be a keychain dongle I think. I wish something like Airtags would work.

Thanks in advance!

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Nothing with matter yet as far as geopresence.

If you want automatic detection, there’s a method using IBeacons, but it’s pretty hacky, involves multiple third party apps, and works better with ios

However, would it work to just use a button? The guest would have to press the button rather than having automatic detection, but otherwise it would work the same.

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Interested in this too. The old ST presence sensors do work using the Zigbee Presence Sensor driver. I run one at the moment that was automatically migrated from DTH to Edge by ST.

But (and a big one) I have been totally unable to on-board any ‘new’ ones, although I continue to try :roll_eyes: so can’t really recommend them. You may have better luck though…

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With Samsung smarttags you can press once, twice or press and hold, to run different smartthings routines.

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Those only work with galaxy phones, right? Not just any android phone?

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Yes you have to be in the walled garden! I’m not sure if they work without the phone present if you have a hub or station?

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I feel like the summary is: no good options currently :frowning:

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I actually have four ST presence sensors working very well. I have one in each car, and another on a guest keychain my parents are currently using. One car is parked outside on the driveway and it registers every time it pulls up.

Battery levels are very important for successful usage based upon our experiences over the many years we’ve used them. For our cars I’ve hooked them up to an external battery pack that lasts a little over a year and a half. For the guest keychain, the coin battery maybe lasts 8 months before i begin to notice false non-presence events.

Also, a good/strong Zigbee mesh is also a must.

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Are you using this sensor:

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Yup, I have two of those and two of the previous generation versions. I actually had a 3rd, but I just sold it on ebay in a package deal with a whole bunch of other smart home gear.

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Thanks! Wish there were some options with better battery life though :frowning:

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Plus, it seems to be out of stock everywhere

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Yeah very hard to find. For our cars i ended up wiring in a AA battery pack to the sensor instead of using the coin battery.