carmp3fan:
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:
Report GPS location to CoRE via HTTPS, or
Report when the app can communicate with SmartThings (or CoRE) locally over wifi, or
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:
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?
1. 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.
This method has changed significantly in the change fro…
