Presence arrival

SmartApps & Automations
1

Hi

Just wondering if someone could help with an issue I have with my presence sensor, I have an smart app that when my presence arrives and the front door opens (contact sensor) it triggers a notify to Sonos message. This works fine but if I’m already home and have been all day and the from door opens it still triggers the notify to Sonos message. So it looks likes it not detecting my arrival just that I’m present and then triggering the Sonos message?

Thanks

2

Quick test for you… Place your presence sensor in a shielded box (box covered with aluminum foil should do fine). Make sure it changes to “Away”

Then open the box so the sensor can “Arrive”.

Did it trigger the message this time, too?

If so, it’s occurring when either event happens, rather than only conditionally on the door once the presence sensor is already here.

You may need to use CoRE to set this up the way you want.

3

Just curious does yours report correctly? I bought two and I have not done what you are trying because it just randomly says its gone then back. Last time I looked it arrived 5 times without leaving. My phone has been the only presence device that works 99.9% of the time.

4

That’s pretty much SOP

5

Sad! Really sad since post had to be longer then just sad even though that would sum it up.

1 Like
6

Thanks, I will do some more testing with the presence senor and also using iPhone so can turn wifi on/off to see if I can work out what’s going on

The presence works 97% of the time, so not good enough to use as a home alarm which I wanted to do but is good enough to turn lights on etc (most of the time)

Cheers

7

Phone much more reliable then sensor.

8

More reliable for some people, less reliable for others. This is very dependent on local conditions, so what works for one person may not work for another. Choice is good. :sunglasses:

9

If the presence sensor is for anyone please tell me the secret. It says it left and arrived at the same time and happens all night long.

10

If you read the thread I link to above, you’ll see that it often just depends on local conditions. Boosted Wi-Fi, in particular, can cause the sensor to drop off.

I had an ongoing problem for a couple of months that support tried to help me with where every weekday afternoon around 330 My Presence sensor started doing the here/away/here/away/ pattern. I’m pretty sure one of my neighbors had boosted Wi-Fi and a kid who got home from school around that time. :disappointed_relieved:

Anyway, there are various things you can try. Again they are detailed in that other thread.

In my case, I ended up adding a second device (these days it’s an IBeacon) to confirm that the away that it actually happened. Again, all detailed from the thread I already linked to.

So if you want to try to improve your use of the arrival sensor, there are various ways that you can. (I’m assuming you’ve already talked to support about it, because there are some settings they can change as well.)

But if that all seems like too much trouble and the phone presence is working well for you, I would just stick with that. :sunglasses:

As we discuss in the presence FAQ, there are multiple ways of tracking presence, and different ones will work at different houses.