[BRAINSTORMING] CoRE Integrations - ideas?

[Navat604 (R.)]

I second tasker integration. I know it’s for Android only but it’s such a beast.

[whoismoses (Eric)]

I might be missing something but I attempted to create a piston that notified me if a motion sensor stays inactive for 1 day. Max I could choose was 360 minutes.

Maybe in the next release allow us to enter a number and then pick a unit [“Seconds”, “Minutes”, “Hours”, “Days”]?

[eibyer]

I’m excited to see the beacon project. I want to put one on my dog so I know what’s she’s going to be chewing on next!

Me: Alexa, where is the dog?
Alexa: She seems to be about 20 feet away, in your room!
Me: Go get her!
Alexa: TOUCH!

[carmp3fan (Nathan H)]

I’d like to see something like the beacon project, but as a presence sensor. This could be done a few different ways. Open-source iPhone and Android apps that can:

1. Report GPS location to CoRE via HTTPS, or
2. Report when the app can communicate with SmartThings (or CoRE) locally over wifi, or
3. Report when the phone is connected to specific wifi networks and report that to CoRE.

To explain #3, my ST Hub is on a different VLAN from my mobile devices so depending on the type of communication, traffic in that case might not make it to the hub even if you are there.

IMO we need something that provides a consistent way of determining presence. Life360 is flaky, using the ST app means giving someone access to the entire environment, and the presence sensors are only Zigbee and are battery limited.

[JH1 (Never Trust @bamarayne)]

Just fyi, several folks are using scripts on their wifi routers to do that so when it sees the phone connect it turns on a virtual presence device, something along those lines.

One was using PTRG, others I think were using utilities on Asus routers.

[JDRoberts]

I’d like to see something like the beacon project, but as a presence sensor. This could be done a few different ways. Open-source iPhone and Android apps that can:

1. Report GPS location to CoRE via HTTPS, or
2. Report when the app can communicate with SmartThings (or CoRE) locally over wifi, or
3. Report when the phone is connected to specific wifi networks and report that to CoRE.

To explain #3, my ST Hub is on a different VLAN from my mobile devices so depending on the type of communication, traffic in that case might not make it to the hub even if you are there.

IMO we need something that provides a consistent way of determining presence. Life360 is flaky, using the ST app means giving someone access to the entire environment, and the presence sensors are only Zigbee and are battery limited.

SmartThings already allows you to define a virtual presence sensor, so then you just need something to trip that.

Quite a few different community members have created methods for this over the years. Many involve a specific device being present on a specific Wi-Fi network, which wouldn’t have to be the same network that the hub is on.

You will find multiple examples in the presence FAQ:

FAQ: The Many Ways of Detecting Presence

Presence, regardless of the device you use, is one of those features that works great for some people, not at all for other people, and is randomly flaky for still others. It’s very much affected by local conditions. So some people will find that phone presence works much better than the SmartThings-branded presence sensor. Other people will find the reverse. Still other people, myself included, find that they have to use a combination of two devices in order to get reliable presence indication. So if this feature tends to work differently for different people, where do you start? Using a Smart Phone as a Presence Indicator [image] Well, since most people who have SmartThings have a smart phone, it’s worth starting there. The following FAQ runs through the the usual troubleshooting…

[bamarayne (Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)]

One was using PTRG, others I think were using utilities on Asus routers

I love my Asus router!

[JH1 (Never Trust @bamarayne)]

Asus routers are good. Ubiquity Unifi’s are great.

[carmp3fan (Nathan H)]

Can’t do that with a Palo Alto firewall.

[carmp3fan (Nathan H)]

I already addressed the issues with most of those. Life360 is extremely unreliable (won’t update for days), the presence sensor runs down and is Zigbee (Zigbee isn’t as common and doesn’t exist in my house, the ST app gives everyone access to everything, and not everyone can run scripts on their router.

[JH1 (Never Trust @bamarayne)]

Could be scripted.

In any event we’re talking about what devices connect to a wifi router. Not the firewall without wireless facilities.

[JDRoberts]

What did Life360 support say? They’re usually regarded as quite reliable, and it’s a very popular service. I’m just wondering if that problem indicates a specific environmental issue.

[bamarayne (Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)]

I already addressed the issues with most of those. Life360 is extremely unreliable (won’t update for days), the presence sensor runs down and is Zigbee (Zigbee isn’t as common and doesn’t exist in my house, the ST app gives everyone access to everything, and not everyone can run scripts on their router

You have that much trouble with life360?

[bamarayne (Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)]

I already addressed the issues with most of those. Life360 is extremely unreliable (won’t update for days), the presence sensor runs down and is Zigbee (Zigbee isn’t as common and doesn’t exist in my house, the ST app gives everyone access to everything, and not everyone can run scripts on their router

@JDRoberts could be on to something. I live in Birmingham, AL. The mountains here are solid iron ore. You can literally have a full signal, take two steps, and nothing.

[bamarayne (Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)]

Pandora! ! ! ! ! !

[JDRoberts]

I already addressed the issues with most of those. Life360 is extremely unreliable (won’t update for days), the presence sensor runs down and is Zigbee (Zigbee isn’t as common and doesn’t exist in my house, the ST app gives everyone access to everything, and not everyone can run scripts on their router.

As mentioned in the presence FAQ, I use Ibeacons for presence. Very reliable if you want a small detection zone.

[bamarayne (Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)]

As mentioned in the presence FAQ, I use Ibeacons for presence. Very reliable if you want a small detection zone

I plan to implement these for individual rooms of the house… I hope. How small of an area can you make with them?

[JH1 (Never Trust @bamarayne)]

Is everyone at your house getting mandatory implants?

[bamarayne (Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)]

Now that would be awesome!

[JDRoberts]

As mentioned in the presence FAQ, I use Ibeacons for presence. Very reliable if you want a small detection zone

I plan to implement these for individual rooms of the house… I hope. How small of an area can you make with them?

2 inches square with perfect transmission. The Apple standard provides for three distances: immediate, near, and far. Which usually translates to a few inches, about 3 m, and further than that up to about 15 m.

However, and this is super important and every beacon manufacturer will talk about it, it’s not actually a distance. It’s a measure of signal strength. You could be standing 8 inches away and if you drop a cookie sheet in between your phone and the Beacon suddenly you will register as “far.”

So there’s some trial and error depending on local interference. And conditions can change. For example, if I park my wheelchair in a specific place in my living room I block reception.

But if you’re not trying to get absolute precision, it works pretty well.

And some beacons, like Estimote, let you set a custom transmission strength, which let you vary the detection zone.

Ibeacons are also designed to let you define a “region” of multiple beacons, so that you could cover an entire house with four beacons and have it all count as one region. still not mesh – – each individual beacon is point to point. It’s just that the receiving station app, which evaluates what to do with the information about the beacons, knows to count them all as part of the same region.

Entirely separately, the Estimote brand’s newest model has a “location” feature which uses three beacons to triangulate a person’s phone in the room and gives you pretty accurate positioning. But it does require three beacons per room.

http://developer.estimote.com/ibeacon/tutorial/part-3-ranging-beacons/

So there are different options that you can play around with. Just remember that Bluetooth is a 360° signal, so if you use “far” it’s going to pick you up on multiple floors in the building.