Need Help with Logic

I am trying to micro-automate presence in my house and I am almost there except for 1 thing. How to tell when the babysitter left.

Here is what I will not do to accomplish this: (i) buy a location tracker; (ii) add an additional person to my ST account. I do have Echosistant and that works great in case I want to say “check in the babysitter” or “checkout the babysitter”.

This is how I can track when she arrives: I have an August lock for the babysitter(s), when they arrive and unlock the door IFTTT kicks in and triggers the babysitter VP switch to check them in as present. This will not trigger a change of mode away from home.

If everybody but the babysitter leaves, the house goes into babysitter mode which means most automations stop and cameras always record.

This is how I can tell when she leaves: If everyone is gone except the babysitter and someone returns. She departs 5 minutes later regardless of whether she actually leaves.

BUT…

Sometimes the babysitter will come over and myself or my wife will not leave the house. She arrives and the presence sensor arrives. How do I automate her departure?

PS - I’m more concerned with leaving after the babysitter really left and the house showing the babysitter as still present. In that regard if I (or my wife) forget to trigger echosistant it’s no good.

Any thoughts?

Does she have a phone and does she use your wifi?

Not automated but you can get one of the buttons that she can push when leaving, that is if she remembers to push it.

Yes, I believe iPhone but that boxes me in. We have a few sitters and others that occupy the house. Now I have to get everyone’s phone.

Just an option for you. I use HostPinger.

You would theoretically assign a DHCP reservation to the phone and it will then poll the device setting a presence switch when the device is detected.

1 Like