Is there a way to do this? I want to put one in my car in case it is ever stolen.
The presence tags act on simple attenuation. It’s a small radio that just says “I’m here!” - and if it’s out of range of the hub, that message goes undelivered, thus you’re “away”. If you have a cell phone presence tag, it’d work - but you’d have to leave that device in the car at all times (also sub-optimal).
There are some newish devices that plug into the car’s ODBII port - and some even operate on a cellular network. I don’t have the name on-hand, unfortunately.
You would be looking for something more like a device with a Cellular Modem or Satellite link. We actually build these and software for commercial applications for fleet companies so they can track their work vans. In the trucks it consists of a GPS unit with a computer and a Cellular Modem that makes the truck into a WiFi hotspot.
I have a 2011 Dodge Challenger SRT that I am working on some solutions for. I am tapping into the ODBII port using an ODBII shield. I plan to have an Arduino with this ODBII shield, a Cellular Modem Shield and the SmartThings shield so I can monitor the vehicle’s location as well as other stats of the vehicle like speed, error codes, oil change code, tire pressure, etc and have my Home Automation AI communicate it to me, open the garage automatically and hopefully more. The ultimate plan eventually is to have an android based system in the car much like the tablets I’m creating around the house so my AI can be in the car also. This may be a year or more off in my plan.
There is an “off the shelf” solution that’s solving almost this exact problem - and I know they have at least some relationship with the SmartThings folks. It’s a very interesting project: http://www.moj.io/
Of course, there is Lojack… tried & true.
On the other hand, Presence detected by the App on our Mobile Devices could & should pass GPS coordinates.
In principal, if there is a capability on a device and we can think of a use for Automation, that device driver should interface to it.
Think of warming up or cooling the house before you get there - if you know how much time that takes & when you’ll be there, no problem.
Not just when you get there, but it should know ahead how long until you arrive.
Ok, while we are talking presence… Is there a delay I can code when a fob ARRIVES before it registers ?
I know there’s a delay for when a fob leaves before it is reported gone, but I’m looking for a delay BEFORE it reports it as arrived !
Here’s my issue:
I have a maintenance person that takes care of my house when I am gone. When he drives past my house to care for someone else’s place, the fob on his keychain registers, and it disables my alarm !
What I’m looking to do is say: You’re here now, and if you’re still here in 30 seconds I’ll disarm the system. But if you’re gone again in 30 seconds, do nothing. The hub presence timeout is 2 minutes at a minimum, so I haven’t found a way to “poll” the fob on demand and bring it down to 30 seconds.
I’ve seen the code in “Greetings Earthlings” for DEPARTURE, but I haven’t figured out a way to do the same thing for arrivals.
I ping’d tech support and they didn’t have any ideas…
THANKS !
- Brian
@gorgas99 - Introducing artificial latency for detecting your fob will probably have a whole number of negative implications. It might be better to just ignore your maintenance person unless certain criteria are met. Is there a certain schedule in which his fob should be honored?