Presence, regardless of the device you use, is one of those features that works great for some people, not at all for other people, and is randomly flaky for still others.
It’s very much affected by local conditions. So some people will find that phone presence works much better than the smartthings-branded presence sensor. Other people will find the reverse. Still other people, myself included, find that they have to use a combination of two devices in order to get reliable presence indication.
So if this feature tends to work differently for different people, where do you start?
Well, since most people who have smartthings have a smart phone, it’s worth starting there. The following FAQ runs through the the usual troubleshooting steps for phone based presence:
If you’d rather use the fob device, or you think it might work better than the phone for you, see the following:
And if you’re just curious about the two device method, here’s the thread on that. I should say first that I had a very specific use case I wanted to solve. I use a wheelchair, and I had problems where my presence would be detected well I was still on the bus waiting for the driver to unload me. So the timing was just really off. I didn’t want to be detected as arriving until I reach the bottom of the wheelchair ramp at my front door. So this is a very specific, quite small area. The two device method worked really well for me for this. Other people have used it just to improve reliability.
Finally I should add that some highly technical members have added their own detection systems based on their phones connected to their specific Wi-Fi. Again, people who did this were people who found that the more general solutions just were accurate enough at their house. You can find a number of threads on this approach in the forums. But that’s more work than most people find necessary. Typically either the phone or the fob will work for most people, although which one works best will vary from house to house. And the two device method will improve reliability for anyone who needs a more specific zone.
