Using iphone 6 as Presence Senson

General Discussion
1

Hello,

I am new to this. I just bought the Smartthings Hub2, bought a couple of Wemo switch lights and a couple of Aeotec micro smart switches. I love the whole thing and look forward to adding stuff…

I tried to configure the Wemo switches in the Living Room to turn on when I enter using my iphone 6 as a presence sensor and it does not work. I see that others have had similar problems.

Any thoughts or detailed specific steps would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

2

When you say “when I enter”, do you mean when you enter your home, or when you enter the room?

Using a mobile device as a presence sensor by itself will not give you the location accuracy needed to track your movements from room to room. You would need another technology such as iBeacons to do that.

Refer to this thread if you want to explore iBeacons with SmartThings:

By itself, the iPhone 6 as a presence sensor should be able to track whether you are home or not (or at least within close proximity to your home, though people have varying degrees of success with this). But don’t expect it to track where in your home you are.

Adding iBeacons should dramatically improve both situations, however. It should track whether you are home or not very, very well and, with enough iBeacons set up with appropriate power levels, be able to track your presence (or perhaps more accurately, your phone’s presence) from room to room.

1 Like
3

Thanks Chuckles. The issue is fixed. I found the hub recognizes the iphone as away only after I have driven about 1/2 mile from my house, not just outside my house or at the end of the street. But at least it is working. Thanks!

4

Note that you can change the size of the area around your location within which you are considered to be “present” or “home”.

  1. In the mobile app, from the “three buttons menu” (top right), select
    "My Locations"

  2. Tap the little “gear” icon in the top right corner of the photo for
    the relevant location.

  3. Amongst the settings for the location is a small map. The red circle
    is the area within which you are considered to be “present”.

  4. Tap on the circle to change to a full-screen map. A black dot will
    also appear on the circuference of the red circle together with a
    black dotted radius line.

  5. You can move the center of the circle (the red pin) by long-pressing
    somewhere on the map (if you want to move the pin to somewhere else
    already inside the circle then you may need to first move the pin
    further away (outside the circle) then move it back to where you
    want it.

  6. You can drag the black dot to change the radius of the circle
    (though there is a minimum radius - approx. 495 feet).

  7. Once the circle represents the area you want (where you should be
    considered “present” or “home”), tap the “Save” option (top right).

5

Thanks Chuck! I just did that, let’s see what it does. There seem to be a minimum circle radius of 500 feet that you can’t go smaller. Thanks a lot :slight_smile: