I’m trying to configure the IOS app to detect when I enter and exit an area but I can’t expand it to anything other than the default 100m. The options are greyed out. Any ideas?
Aha! These little things should be noted in the app if that’s the case. Better yet, why can’t this be device and person specific and done and saved in the app itself? That just makes too much sense…
This dir and file you reference do not exist so I assume I create them. Is there an include statement required in configuration .yaml? I had already placed this info in configuration.yaml - but to no avail, see screenshot. What about the zones.yaml file I see referenced by other posts? Very confusing.
Your config looks ok.
I use packages instead of direct includes so never mind the directory path.
One way or another all kinds of includes create one giant massive yaml file that’s used by HA but is unmanageable for human brains.
Zones in HA need to relate to zones in the app for geofencing to work to trigger zone enter/exit events. If say you had the zone in app larger than the zone in HA your app might trigger on crossing your larger app zone border but the coordinates sent to ha would nit be inside the ha zone, so the state would still show as away.
Because of how geofencing works and is implemented the ios app likely would not update location state again until you left the zone, so your HA would never have gotten information about you entering a zone.
Ok, I just confirmed this does indeed work so I’m good there. Next step is to use an automation and trigger. I’ve been using Life360 coupled with IFTTT to trigger my gate opener when I get close to home, but it’s real hit and miss. Sometimes it detects my location radius, sometimes not. Sometimes there’s a delay of a few min, and by that time I’m already at my gate. I’m hoping the iOS Home assistant app will be better. I just can’t see why it’s so hard to send gps coordinate updates in these apps, especially in gross terms, ie crossing a threshold. I was technically involved with the guy who literally invented the gps chips and algorithms (long Ago) and I can say definitively that it’s not the gps chip that’s causing the problems here. It’s in the transmission of the location info, or timing of that, through the various layers/apps/networks.
Jeff
The HA iOS app won’t be better or more reliable using gps for latency sensitive automations. It could be but the way it uses the gps APIs in iOS right now means it won’t be.
You may need to try using iBeacons if you want super reliable zone entrance triggers.
Bummer. This is such a basic function. Beacons won’t work in my use case. I have no exterior power until I get right up to my gate entrance. I did find another post w a long range transmitter but that just seems like overkill and would require a tx in each vehicle - not practical. Once enough complaints happen and frustrated users revolt, hopefully this will be addressed. The forums for all automation systems are littered with this same issue, so at least I’m not alone.
Jeff
I meant drop a battery powered beacon somewhere outside which is detected by your phone and triggers the ios app to update location. That works very reliably in my experience.
Any suggestions on a beacon for this purpose? I’m not familiar with these yet.
Jeff
I personally have these here: https://store.kontakt.io/our-products/30-smart-beacon-sb16-2.html
They’re not made for outdoor use but there are other options for that. I like that I can configure beacon interval and transmit power on them.