Ok, before the big ST App update PS was false exiting & returning and guess what it’s still doing it. When is ST going to fix them PS fobs or come up with some other way to arm and disarm the system without a smartphone.
There are people that don’t have smart phone and never will, like my 75 year old mom. So until you get the PS fobs working I have to get her to call me every time she leaves the house. What kind of automation is that?
You might want to consider picking her up one of these. I use it to run my Home/Away Routines from my car
The device type is here ('ive also submitted to ST for publication)
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Part of the problem with the FOB is that they use a very low powered Zigbee radio. This is done to preserve battery life, but it has the unwelcome side effect of making the tag “wander” at times. What’s happening is that the tag just doesn’t see and hold a solid connection to the hub.
There are a couple of ways to work around this… the cheaper, but more complex option is to build in delays before a SmartThings will take action on a leaving/returning tag. For example if you have your system setup to ‘arm’ when the tag leaves, build in a delay that it has to be gone 5 or 10 minutes before the system really considers it gone. Likewise, set it up so it doesn’t see a tag as “returning” unless it’s been gone at least 10 minutes. The complex part here is that it’ll likely involve writing code.
The easier, but more expensive, option is to add Zigbee repeaters. Things like the GE Zigbee switch, the SmartThings V.1 Motion Sensor (when plugged in) or the SmartThings V.2 Outlet all act as Zigbee repeaters and have more powerful radios. Putting one of these close to where the FOB is when your home can have a big impact on the stability of the connection. For example, I have a FOB in each of my cars and had the ‘wandering’ FOB problem. I put a V.1 Motion sensor in my garage and the wandering problem disappeared.
It’s also worth noting that Zigbee and WiFi use similar frequencies. There’s a thread where somewhere about a person who couldn’t get ANY zigbee devices to connect to his hub. He ended up moving is hub away from his WiFi router and then everything started to connect. The more distance you can get between your hub and WiFi router could end up having a big impact as well.
My presence sensor has been pretty reliable in V1 and now V2, but occasionally I get double notifications that fob has returned without having left. I cannot figure out why that is. Any ideas?
See the following topic for much discussion on this. This is a clickable link.
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