Presence Sensor that is not a phone?

If there any device available that can be used as a presence sensor that isn’t a smartphone? Preferably something like a fob, similar to the old SmartThings presence sensor which doesn’t seem to be available in my country any more. TIA.

yes there is a Smartthings one, however I have heard mixed reviews on them. I have one on order that I plan to attach to my dog, if they work ok I will get one in each of the cars as well which will help determine who is away and in what car.

Which country?

Her profile shows Ireland :slight_smile:

Isn’t Ireland apart of the UK?

No.

The Republic of Ireland is a country, definitely not part of the UK. It is a sovereign state. Dublin is its capital.

Northern Ireland is part of the UK.

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Awe, yes… that’s what I was mixing up, but smartthings isn’t supported in Ireland, which explains why the products aren’t available there… but worst case you can still Amazon the key fob to a uk Amazon locker and make a trip out of it…

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With all this talk about Ireland… I think you forgot to post this :wink:

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Unfortunately I’ve tried using them before and they’re just not very reliable for me. Thanks for the suggestion though!

yeah I have heard that they are not very reliable. I use mobile phones for my wife and I, I just bought an arrival sensor that I have attached to my dogs collar so that if my wife and I are both out with the dog the heating in the house can drop to 14, means that if we go away for a weekend the heating turns itself down to a pretty low number.

If we leave the dog in the house and go visiting family or shopping etc the heating will still drop down but not as much.

So for me it doesn’t need to be all that accurate as long as it recognises if the dog has been gone for longer than 20 minutes or so.

I had a look through this, it’s very useful but there wasn’t anything that would be suitable for what I’m using it for. The closest to what I need was the zipato key fob but even that you need to hold the fob up to the lock pad so that it registers when you’re home. I need something that will automatically detect when someone comes home, like the smartthings presence sensor theoretically does.

Even if it was something that could be used with IFTTT because I’d still be able to link it to smartthings that way. I even looked into using pet trackers but it might be a bit demeaning for the person using it to wear something meant for a dog haha.

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it!

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something I have been told, is that the arrival sensors work well if you make sure you are n to expecting it to be an instant device. So if the device is present for x minutes then assume the person is home, and vice versa.

How you do this is ST I am not sure, it is very easy to achieve in webcore.

You can do this with IBeacons (discussed in the “many ways of presence” FAQ linked to above and IFTTT. :sunglasses:

The arrival sensors work well at some locations, but not at all at others. Much depends on local interference. Again, see the FAQ linked to above.

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The only thing with Ibeacon is that the tablet/smartphone it’s connected has to be turned on for it to work right? I’m not sure how well that would work for me.

Appears you may be stumped then, you need some sort of device to monitor your presence, if you don’t have a mobile or some other device with you then there is no way that it can detect that you are home.

The other thing you could try is adding a button just inside the door that you push when you arrive or leave and have some logic based on that

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Yes, the ibeacon is just a transmitter, there has to be a receiving station device as well.

The SmartThings arrival sensor works the same way: it’s the transmitter, the hub is the receiving station. Just a different protocol.

Ah I see. Is there anyway of connecting an ibeacon to the hub to make the hub the receiving station?

It would help if you could give us some more details of the use case you are trying to solve.

For example, I myself am quadriparetic with very limited use of my hands. So I need a totally hands-free Geopresence solution. But I can attach something to my wheelchair, including an NFC tag if desired.

Someone else might be trying to find a solution for school-age child who doesn’t have a smart phone. The child has use of their hands, but the parent is concerned about various devices getting lost. Something which can be sewn into a shoe might work best. Or to the inside of a backpack.

Someone else might be less concerned about security and more about changing the mode of the home for issues like heating or lights. They might want something for a dog walker to use where the dog walker already has keys to the home. In that case the key fob devices usually work well.

And yet another person might want to give something to a relative who comes to visit from time to time. They might use a different key fob device which doesn’t detect automatically that requires pressing a button on the fob.

So different devices would work for different people depending on the exact details of what they are trying to accomplish. :sunglasses:

Unfortunately, no. As I said, it’s a different protocol. The ibeacons are using a form of Bluetooth, and the smartthings hub does not have an active Bluetooth radio. :disappointed_relieved: