Locative or Owntracks or both for Presence Detection?

Third party integrations
1

Hello,

I am very curious what are your experiences. As I read through some topics here in the forum, the best way is to have multiple presence detection configured. The basic is to scan for connected devices on the local network, basically check if your phone is connected to your WiFi AP or not. This has many limitations of course.

Next to this it is suggested to configure Locative or Owntracks. Could you please share what are your experiences with both? Which is better, what problems you had with these, is it worth to configure both of them? If you go with Owntracks which MQTT broker is the best (Mosquitto, EMQ, or Mosca)? If you run HA in a virtual server under HyperV (Ubuntu server) would you recommend install the MQTT broker on the same virtual server?

Thank you all in advance!

2

I use owntracks and router based presence (using snmp).

This way I keep only my MQTT server accessible via the Internet (it’s mosquitto BTW). My HASS is not exposed to the Internet and only accessible via LAN and it still receives my location even when I’m not at home. Whether to run them on the same machine - I don’t see a problem, just make sure you keep your Ubuntu up-to-date. Mosquitto is so light that I wouldn’t find it reasonable to spin up a separate VM just so it can run an MQTT server.

1 Like
3

I use Ping presence detection on its own, and it works fine. I have yet to find a use for HA knowing where else I am.

4

Thank you for both of your input on this topic.

My problem with Ping only, that I cannot automate to e.g. Start heating when it is under 65° and I am 5 miles from home.

Looks like I will use Owntrack with Mosquitto + Ping together. My MQTT broker will be on the VM host machine, so I do not have to open the HA VM to the internet.

5

Take a look at the proximity component as well. This is what I use to turn on the lights when I arrive home after sunset.

6

Locative users should vote here: Fix Locative Bug