True PRESENCE sensor

[JDRoberts]

@geoffturner

Thanks for the reply. Perhaps I’m being dense and missing something obvious. Right now I use my family’s iPhones as presence sensors. I have the doors lock, for example, when everyone leaves. But if one of my kids leaves his phone off until he gets to school, the phone never knows that it crosses the geofence and is listed as “present” until he returns home and leaves with his phone turned on. So the door never locks automatically. I can lock it manually, but I could do that without smartthings.

The phones as presence sensors work differently than the SmartThings-branded zigbee arrival sensor, which is a $30 keyfob device that does not require a phone. You can buy it from the SHOP link at the top of this page.

https://shop.smartthings.com/#!/products/samsung-smartthings-arrival-sensor

The zigbee device doesn’t get turned off and on–as long as the battery is good, it’s on. And as I mentioned it is based on time between check ins, not barrier crossings.

So the theoretical device you asked about exists, and is sold by SmartThings. The problem is that it can be somewhat flaky depending on local WiFi interference. It works great for many people, but not all, and you can’t tell how it will do at your house until you try it.

SmartThings Presence Sensor Device--Working Well for Anyone?

Continuing the discussion from Introduce Yourself!: @camanokid , Welcome to the forums! I pulled out the presence sensor question because I’m sure it will generate a lot of comments. One my favorite sayings is “all home automation is local.” Which means what works at my house might not work at yours and certainly what I would like to see work at my house might not be what you would like to see work at yours. The smart things Zigbee presence sensor works very well for some people, not at all for others, and somewhere in the middle for still others. It’s using a different technology than a phone presence sensor, which can be good or bad depending on the exact set up at your house. RANGE: 500 FEET MINIMUM OR 50 FEET MAXIMUM? The most obvious difference, is range. Because the ph…