New SmartThings User - Wide Area "Home" Mobile Presence

General Discussion
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Hello,

New SmartThings user here! I’m just getting into the world of home automation (I have had a Nest for years but now want to start into the rest of the world). I got a hub and multi-purpose sensor for Christmas and recently bought the GD00Z-4 garage door opener, which is really slick! It’s working great via the app.

Yesterday, I created a routine that opens the garage door when either one of two smartphones arrives. It works but it’s cast a pretty wide net. The garage door opens when I’m at the top or bottom of the street (about 1500ft straight line according to Google Maps).

Is there a way to “tighten” that down at all?

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SharpTools is a very good option for this.

Here’s a thread about using SharpTools for presence detection:

Here’s the website showing off some of what SharpTools can do.

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I’ve never tried Tasker, so will have to read up on that. Does one phone being an iPhone make a difference?

4

IMO Wifi detection is your best bet, having less range.

In practice I don’t think opening the garage automatically is a reliable idea. It’s just a matter of time before the door opens “for no reason” in the middle of the night, or on vacation. There are many stories in the community.

Maybe your installation will always be great. It could happen. Please do followup in a year or so.

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It does. Tasker is an Android only option.

SmartThings does make a presence sensor that will work only at closer range for $30.

6

Hmm, yea I read some of the stories about it not working but I was hoping maybe it had gotten more reliable. Would the presence sensor work better or do they have the same issues?

7

The key fob works well if you have a solid zigbee mesh, depending on the size and 2.4ghz interference around your home it takes 2-4 plugin zigbee devices to accomplish this.

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What do you mean it takes 2-4 plugin devices? Each person would have to carry 2-4 to make it work reliably?

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By 2 to 4 devices he means that you have at least two zigbee devices plugged in somewhere in your home. These devices create a “mesh” that allow devices to talk to one another through other devices.

Mesh Networking

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Ah, gotcha. Sorry extremely new to this. Excited about it though!