Presence sensor to put in a vehicle so can open/close corresponding garage door

I originally tried to use Tasker for my solution since I had used it several years ago on an older phone, but I had trouble getting my tasks to successfully trigger this time around with my current phone. It may have been related to permissions not being properly granted or the phone not being rooted, etc… I also believe that the big changes to the ST platform now make it a bit more complicated to integrate Tasker with ST than before… I recall being intimidated when researching how to use Tasker to issue the ST commands. I highly recommend the Samsung Modes & Routines feature if you have a Samsung phone. I found it very easy to use. There was no struggling with permissions, rooting, or plugins, and configuring the routines was very straightforward and intuitive when compared to Tasker. (I’m sure there may be things it cannot do that Tasker can.)

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As for Tasker on an Android phone, there is also the ‘WiFi Near’ state that might be an option if your smartphone is connected to any other wireless network in your community.

Nowadays, there is also the ability to use Tasker HTTP Request with the SmartThings API to toggle device(s). As for presence, I have Tasker toggle On/Off a virtual presence device via the SmartThings API when I’m outside a larger geolocation area than the area I have setup in SmartThings. I call it my ‘Traveling Mode’ presence device since I’m outside my hometown area. And as a backup to the sometimes flaky SmartThings geolocation feature, I also use Tasker to toggle off my virtual home security switch via the SmartThings API.

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The issue in this thread is that as the OP described the original use case, car A goes in the left door of the garage and car B goes in the right door of the garage, regardless of which person or which phone is in which car. So the OP wants to make sure that the correct door opens when a specific car arrives. :red_car::blue_car:

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Exactly @JDRoberts, that is exactly what i am trying to do.

I ended up buying the blue charm beacons, as i was reading that people have had good success with those. I downloaded the KBeaconPro app, to find the UUID, and the Major and Minor. it appears that both beacons i purchased have the same exact UUID and the Major and Minor are the same as well.

Shouldn’t these be different for each one?

I did create the webhooks through Sharptools, and attached those within the Geofency app.

It’s quite common for beacons from one manufacturer to have a default value that is exactly the same for all the IBeacons that they have. And indeed, that can be useful when you are setting up a zone with multiple IBeacons. Their quick start guides tell you how to change the minor so that you will get a unique ID. So that part is all normal.

For example, from the Quickstart guide for one model

As mentioned before, the beacon already has default configuration settings, so you really don’t need to change any of these unless you have some specific reason for needing to do so. The most obvious reason would be that you have more than one beacon, so you will need each beacon to have a unique UUID/Major/Minor. If that is the case, the easiest solution is to just change the Minor ID number for your second beacon, then use a different minor for your third beacon, etc. That one small ID difference makes the beacons completely unique from each other. Ok, now back to our configuration process…

You change them through the blue charm app which you used to see the UUID in the first place. The Quickstart guide has the details.

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Yes, i did see in the quick start guide how to change them, but it said “most users” will not need to change them so I started to second guess myself. Thanks again for all of your help. Happiest of Holidays!!

“Most users“ trying them for home automation only get one IBeacon, I guess. :man_shrugging:t2:

Happy holidays to you! :snowman_with_snow:

Haha and I have already ordered two more! One for the side by side, and another for the lawn mower! :man_facepalming:

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No geolocation in my car :smiling_face_with_tear:

Hello,
For some reason i keep getting a bunch of false readings. The Vehicle 1 Sensor keeps randomly changing to away to home then home to away. I haven’t even put it in the vehicle yet, both the iPad and the Beacon are both sitting in my office next to each other.

Definitely odd. :thinking:

Have you gotten the vehicle 2 iBeacon yet? And is it working OK? It might just be a defective device, that can happen with any electronics.

I think the first thing I would do is change the battery, sometimes it’s the battery that’s defective and that can definitely cause that symptom.

My other thought is to move the IBeacon to another room and try it there.

I beacons use Bluetooth, which is the same frequency as zigbee and Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is a much stronger signal than the other two and it can definitely interfere with them at times. So if you happen to have the IBeacon sitting on your desk and that happens to be very near your Wi-Fi router, it might have a hard time getting signals through because that area is so busy with Wi-Fi all the time.

I’ve mentioned before that at one point I put a Wi-Fi booster on the north wall of a room and everything Zigbee in my house to the west of it went off-line. When I moved the Wi-Fi booster to the east wall, suddenly everything worked again. It can happen. :man_shrugging:t2: