How do I change my presence area?

[Wazzag]

When I first registered for ST and added my hub I had to define a perimeter around my home which I guess defines whether you are “present” or not.
I cant see how to change this now that it’s set. Where can I do this?

[JDRoberts]

@Wazzag

When I first registered for ST and added my hub I had to define a perimeter around my home which I guess defines whether you are “present” or not.
I cant see how to change this now that it’s set. Where can I do this?

It’s sort of hidden, but it’s in your “locations” information.

In version 2.0.9

One) open the SmartThings mobile app to the dashboard. (Icon on the bottom left)

2. tap the three vertical dots in the upper right to see your options. Choose “my locations”

2. if you have more than one location, choose the one where you want to change the Geo fence. Otherwise it will just open to the first location.

Now tap on the small gear icon in the upper right to open the location details.

3. this opens the set up screen for the location and you can change the geo-fence here.

In version 2.1.0

One) open the SmartThings mobile app to the dashboard. (Icon on the bottom left). tap the three horizontal lines in the upper right to see your options.

2. Click on the small gear icon n the top right.

3. this opens the set up screen for the location and you can change the geo-fence here.
   
   

[Wazzag]

Thanks JDRoberts! . .

[rjwerth (Robert Wertheimer)]

Hi, I have a related question. Is there a way to have the proximity detected by the hub and not GPS? The current way is too inaccurate and considers me at home more than a block away.

[JDRoberts]

@rjwerth

Hi, I have a related question. Is there a way to have the proximity detected by the hub and not GPS? The current way is too inaccurate and considers me at home more than a block away.

Yes, but you have to use a different device or set up your own WiFi detection.

The smartthings arrival sensor is the official device intended for people who want a smaller detection zone. It’s an unboosted zigbee device. It works very well for some people, but others run into local Wi-Fi interference.

SmartThings Presence Sensor Device--Working Well for Anyone?

Continuing the discussion from Introduce Yourself!: @camanokid , Welcome to the forums! I pulled out the presence sensor question because I’m sure it will generate a lot of comments. One my favorite sayings is “all home automation is local.” Which means what works at my house might not work at yours and certainly what I would like to see work at my house might not be what you would like to see work at yours. The smart things Zigbee presence sensor works very well for some people, not at all for others, and somewhere in the middle for still others. It’s using a different technology than a phone presence sensor, which can be good or bad depending on the exact set up at your house. RANGE: 500 FEET MINIMUM OR 50 FEET MAXIMUM? The most obvious difference, is range. Because the ph…

I personally use an IBeacon Which is using Bluetooth. Depending on the brand, you can set up a custom range. Mine is very reliable. I have it set to catch me just as I get to the end of the wheelchair ramp at my front door.

Mobile Presence and iBeacon (discussion beginning 2015)

Hello, Would it be hard to add Bluetooth detection to the iPhone and Android apps? This really helps out a lot. I purchased a very cheap iBeacon on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Geohopper-iBeacon-with-Power-Supply/dp/B00N17AU4K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1429680236&sr=8-2&keywords=ibeacon I then created a scene with Tasker that detects when that iBeacon comes in range. Finally, I used SharpTools to set my presence detector to present() when it detects that iBeacon. In addition, I have it set away() when I am at my iBeacon at work, or when I connect to my car. My Moto X does the same thing for its Home Detection schema, and Tasker has a very rich set of options for detecting home as well. It seems like a very easy addition for SmartThings. Until then, I’ll keep using @joshua_lyon’s aw…

There are some other community members who have written their own Wi-Fi detection programs. Those require more technical expertise to set up and keep running, but meet the use cases for some people. there are at least four or five of these if you search the forums for WiFi presence. Here’s one recent one.

[OBSOLETE] ASUSWRT Wifi Presence

I have created a pretty solid wifi presence solution for when my phones connect to the wifi network, its very quick to update ST. I use this alongside the ST app, Life360 & my own Tado presence device type, i use Rule machine to flip a virtual presence sensor when any of the 4 change state, this is a first past the post setup and it works really well, before i put this in presence was really an issue. this however always triggers when all the others fail to update (regularly) but the range of this is not very far, only within the wifi range (obviously!) ive seen other solutions for DD-WRT, but these don’t work with the Newer Asus routers, RT-AC87U or Newer as the command to list mac addresses with the new 5G hardware no longer uses wl ok so the first thing i did was install the latest A…

You can also combine some of these into two device systems, which further increases accuracy and controls range.

A dual device approach to geopresence for smaller areas (sequential detection)

Continuing the discussion from Smart Presence Sensor randomly "leaving" and "returning": Battery life is fine on my presence fob, but I still get random drop-offs with both the fob and the phone presence. Using an idea from @DigitalM0nkey , I am changing over the way I use presence sensing for all activities. I’m now using dual devices at the geo-fence barrier, as well as a virtual presence sensor for better continuous occupancy indication. Basically I’m trying both reduce the range and improve reliability by using two devices that will be recognized in sequence rather than both at the same time. So this is how it will work at my house now: Smartthings recognizes that my phone or the fob, mainly the fob , has entered the Geo fenced area. but nothing else happens yet. I do not tri…

So there are some options, just depends on your own needs and preferences.

[rjwerth (Robert Wertheimer)]

Thanks for all the info. I’ll have to look into all that. It is interesting to me that they don’t have some sort of BT thing between the phone app and the hub. Would make way more sense!

Thanks again.

[JDRoberts]

The smartthings V two hub has a bluetooth antenna in it, but it has not yet been enabled for anything. The only things enabled are zwave, zigbee and the ethernet connection.

[Toy4Rick (Rick S)]

While the geofence is under the location settings,… you can’t change it. Support told me it is 500’ radius and fixed, I wish mine wast 500’, is more like a 1/4 mile and is useless to me

Rick

[JDRoberts]

@Toy4Rick

While the geofence is under the location settings,… you can’t change it. Support told me it is 500’ radius and fixed, I wish mine wast 500’, is more like a 1/4 mile and is useless to me

Rick

You can’t change it for a GPS-based geofence. But you can use a different device and set a presence zone which is much smaller. I use an IBeacon with a presence zone of about 10 feet.