Life 360 - failsafe logic

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
21

I am very happy with my Asus, especially after installing DD-WRT on it and now using it as a VPN concentrator! I get 50-60mb down when in range. Check out Luma if you have kids, looks like an exciting new router that is going to compete with Eero.

https://getluma.com/

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22

I need to catch up on that? What is it for? It sounds foreign to me :frowning:

23

Check it outā€¦

http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

Basically itā€™s custom firmware that opens up your router to a ton of possibilities such as leveraging a VPN when in access point mode, which you CANNOT do with the native Asus firmware easily. Also, you can do presence detectionā€¦

24

Thanks, did you install it via ā€œNew Firmware Fileā€ upload?

25

@SBDOBRESCU slugger great thing about the DD-WRT is that you can take an old router added turn it into an actual repeater, but with a bonus.

A repeater/access point cuts your bandwidth in half. Going this route eliminates that and allows you to keep your network without a bottleneck.

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26

I suspect the phone is the problem here. Apps depend on the phone location services for location . Do you have high accuracy turned on?

27

Hmmm, good point. I didnā€™t check the settings since Iā€™ve got my S7. But then, my wifeā€™s phone also has the default, which I presume is the wifi + gps + cell towers. Can you refresh my memory which is preferable setting?

28

High accuracy. Let the phone manage the location.

Donā€™t assume. Battery saving modes and some apps sometimes turn off high accuracy and neglect to turn iithem back on.

29

Just to throw another voice in the mix. My android phone never works with ST presence in High accuracy mode. ST presence only works for me in battery saving mode. All my other apps seem to work fine in high accuracy.

So I leave the phone in battery saver mode, but switch to High Accuracy once I am out of the geofence so I can use Waze or something. Then switch back before getting close enough. So much for automation, right?

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30

This! Iā€™ve not had any issues with Life360. I only have two locations, home and work, my kids and wife have it on their phones. ST has always done the things Iā€™ve asked of it when the phones leave or come back. All android, SG5, SG3, MotoX 1st Gen and MotoGā€™s first gen.

You should never use any battery saver apps or set the built in battery saver if you expect behind the scenes GPS tracking to work right. GPS is a low drain device if implemented correctly compared to wifi and cell radio power drain so it shouldnā€™t have a big effect for Life360.

For me, the ST presence has sucked from day 1, it basically never worked, maybe 2 times did it actually notice when I came home. I donā€™t believe the ST app is using the GPS correctly AT ALL.

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31

True, Iā€™ll pay more attention the next time it misfires. I now have two data points to check (location & life 360 history). My phone is currently on what google calls high accuracy (wifi + gps + cell towers) but like you said, who knows what happens at certain times. It could be that Samsungā€™s ā€œMy Placesā€ app automatically disables my high accuracy location. We shall see :slight_smile:

UPDATE: found a 3rd data point to check

maps.google.com/locationhistory

32

So you donā€™t use high accuracy, even though L360 prompts you to do so?

33

No itā€™s high accuracy. That will actually drain your battery faster than just GPS as it uses cellular, and thatā€™s where the power increase occurs as you get farther from a tower or start hunting for other towers. Iā€™ve not tried it with just GPS and Life360, but in theory there should be little difference.

34

Yes, very easy to install. Itā€™s like setting up from scratch though, but took me 30 minutes as I kept the SSID and password the same.

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35

Just some general statements, from my research on this.

  • All radios take more energy when on than off (naturally).
  • GPS generally takes the most in my experience, but certainly could change if you are far from cell towers.
  • Older versions of Android let apps talk directly to the devices, so some badly written apps were terrible battery hogs. Newer versions of Android use an OS location service that manages this much better
  • I donā€™t know about iOS, but I think they have been the same over time, have not read about improvement on that OS.
  • When using presence, I donā€™t see how anything other than high accuracy would work unless you commit to a very large geofence. Wifi and cell tower locations are very imprecise (you can look them up).

In summary, if you are not using GPS for location on your phone, you are setting up your apps for failure unless your geofence is huge.

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