It is mounted on the sun visor in my truck. The hub is located in a bedroom directly above the garage (I estimate the distance to be 16 feet from the hub to the fob). Oddly, it seems to always happen in the early morning.
It is probably on the edge of the network and is coming in and out. There is a way to change the timeout on the presence tag to avoid this.
I would hit up support@smartthings.com for direction on how to do it.
Wow, you get around. I bet your truck wished it didn’t have to work so hard!
Seriously… at sixteen feet with the hub above it. My arrival is usually recognized when I am in the driveway at twice that distance.
Curious that I only have seen this in the early morning when there is no activity on the network other than the multi sensor’s (mounted on garage door) temp broadcasts.
I’ll put it in the bedroom tonight and see if it still misbehaves.
I was just about to suggest pulling it inside for the night. I think that is a good first troubleshooting step.
This has been a reoccurring issue for at least 6 months! Ultimately, support has no fix for this issue. Move the hub further away from the wireless router: didn’t fix it. Change the router signal: no change. Reset the tags: still no change. The last suggestion from Support: move the tags closer to the hub. I placed them within 2 ft of the hub and it hasn’t fixed the issue. This happens very randomly. They could go 2 weeks without an issue, then go nuts for the next 4 days. I’ve stopped using them when I woke up and realized my alarm was not set since my daughter’s tag “arrived” at 2 am.
LOL. Yeah, my router is further away from the hub than the fob; and any wifi for that matter. Plus all my computer/mobile device based wifi is on 5Ghz, so zigbee pretty much has 2.4 all to itself short of a cordless phone or two.
I’ll play around for another few days, but as of now they are of no use and may be going back.
So how well does SmartThings work using a cell as a presence device, and what is the battery impact like?
I see it irregularly with my tags as well. The only program I use with my tags is a modified version of the Ridiculously Easy Garage Door opener. I use a 15 minute fail safe with it. The program will only open the door when a tag returns if it’s been gone for more than 15 minutes.
Mobile presence on iOS has had a rocky past, but my family has experienced much better results over the past few months. It seems to be more and more reliable. I can’t speak to the battery cost!
the presence tags are unamplified radios, so the range on them can swing easily. It is very odd that it only happens at a certain time of day. You are saying it happens every day?
I have only had the thing since Thursday, but yes… except for today when I put it in the room with the hub. No false triggers since then. What’s weird is that there is a multisensor on the garage door that never fails, shouldn’t it be relaying the signal of the fob, or does the multisensor not do that?
@scottinpollock only powered devices relay signal. The multi probably isn’t having any issues because it has a power amplified radio.
It is still odd that it only happens at a certain time.
I could have sworn I read somewhere the SmartSense Motion Detector relays signal. Is that only if plugged into USB.
BTW, when plugged into USB, is it smart enough to disconnect the batteries, or should they be removed first?
The motion sensor will indeed route when it is plugged in via USB. You don’t have to pull the batteries out, power switched from the battery to USB, so the batteries just kinda sit there.
Before Support replaced my tags, they would begin “leaving” and “arriving” constantly around 8:30 PM CST and finally end around 9:45 PM CST. The new tags received are more sporadic, but haven’t acted up since last Thursday (6/5).
Happy to report that since putting a USB powered motion detector in the garage, I have seen no more false alarms from this thing.
Good deal! I suppose this might be something to mention in the “Devices we don’t have” thread: A zigbee repeater. I gotta think they can make one cheaper than using a motion sensor as a repeater.