How well do beacons work? (2018)

[JDRoberts]

It’s the same process described in all the other Beacon threads in the forum.

1. choose the Beacon hardware that you want to use and set it up

2. choose a receiving station app ( or write your own) for the phone/tablet that you want to have recognize the beacon which can issue a “webhook,” typically an http “post”

3. set that receiving station app on your phone/tablet so that whenever the beacon’s signal is recognized, the webhook is sent either to either the IFTTT webhooks channel or to a web services smartapp that you write for yourself. Most people who are not programmers just use the IFTTT webhooks channel.

Webhooks Integrations - Connect Your Apps with IFTTT

So when the I beacon comes in range of your phone/tablet, the message gets sent to IFTTT, and that becomes the “if” in your IFTTT applet

So once you get this far, you have an event which recognizes when the IBeacon either goes in range or out of range.

Now choose the “that”

So the next question is what do you want to do for the “that” in your IFTTT applet? You are definitely going to use the SmartThings channel, but how are you going to use it?

You could just use it to trigger any single given smartthings – controlled device that shows up in the IFTTT SmartThings channel.

For example:

“If my phone comes in range of this particular Beacon, turn on the porch light.”

" if my phone goes out of range of this particular Beacon, lock the door."

Notice that it doesn’t matter whether it’s the phone that is moving or the beacon that is moving, an event is generated when they are close enough that the phone can detect the Beacon. That’s what the receiving station app is for.

If you want to use the Beacon like a more general presence device, then first create a virtual presence sensor that can be turned on and off like a switch. The following is a good one:

[OBSOLETE] Virtual Presence Plus (presence controlled by a virtual switch)

In the spirit of enhancing the connected world, I decided to release an Improved version of my Switch-Controlled Virtual Presence. It’s a Virtual Device type that presence can be controlled by a virtual switch. So what’s different except for a better name? Responds to “arrived” and “departed” commands. Easily updatable on GitHub. Generally better. GitHub Integration Info: Owner: ajpri Name: VPresPlus Branch: master Manual Install Instructions: Go to the SmartThings IDE Click “Create new device handler” Click the “From Code” tab. Paste the GitHub code linked below. Click Create Click "Publish, then “For me” Go to “My Devices” and create a new device by clicking on “+ New Device” Chose any name you want (Will show as than on app & other ST tools. Choose any Device Network ID you w…

Authorize IFTTT To access that virtual device through the SmartThings IFTTT channel.

Then you can use turning on the virtual presence sensor as the “that” in your IFTTT applet.

“If this particular Beacon is detected {webhook received}, turn on the virtual presence sensor”

So from there it works like any other presence device in SmartThings.

If you are writing your own web services smartApp, it’s the same idea. Receive the webhook, then either run a single event or turn on a virtual presence sensor.

But you never need a virtual ibeacon. And you never need to detect the IBeacon directly from SmartThings. The communication is from that Ibeacon to the receiving station app on your phone, then from the receiving station app on your phone to the IFTTT Webhooks channel, which then triggers the IF in your IFTTT applet and so sends a request to smartthings.

Again, this is exactly the same process discussed in the other four existing IBeacon threads, I’ve just posted a summarized version here to make it a little clearer for less technical people.