Occupancy Sensing - not just Motion!

Devices & Integrations
,
28

I kept having a problem with motion not being detected in my study while I was gaming so this was my solution. Works better than I would have ever guessed!

Set Up for on/off PC control via SmartThings:

  1. Installed Event Ghost on my PC. (I use this initially to turn “off” my PC from SmartThings)
    [OBSOLETE] Send Events to EventGhost
  2. Created a Virtual Switch (VS) to turn “off” PC using Send Events to EventGhost App.
  3. Using the same VS, I used CoRE and Wake on Lan (WOL) to turn “'on” PC (just point to mac address)
  4. Installed Host Pinger to sync my on/off status of my Computer with VS.
    [OBSOLETE] Host Pinger (IP based Online State / Presence)

Setup for using Event Ghost to monitor PC Activity:
5. Learned how to use Event Ghost to send “PC Events” to SmartThings.

6. Created a Virtual Smart Switch that I would use tell me if my computer was active or not.
7. Used Cloud Interface Smart App from Ask Alexa Setup to get the “End Points” of the VS. (So Cool!)
http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Alexa_Helper#Cloud_Interface_Smart_App_Setup
8. Finally used a Macro and Python Script in Event Ghost to send SmartThings the PC Activity Status
import urllib; urllib.urlopen(‘http://some smartthings address’)

Might seem like a lot of work but it really wasn’t that bad. This was my PC activity VS works with my Motion Sensor and when both have been inactive for 30 minutes then my “Turn-Off” PC, Lights, Fans, Chair, Subwoofer, etc… Pistons executes.

I am going to install a Harmony activity monitor script on my Pi3 to tell work with my Den Motion Sensor for the same reasons.

1 Like