I’ve built an efficient system for dynamic location tracking and automation, leveraging Home Assistant, Tasker, OwnTracks, and Alarmo. (For me anyhow)
What’s Working
Preliminary info, three zones setup in Home Assistant, HA Home zone, entering arm home HA zone,. Leaving HA away zone, Arm Away.
Tasker sends intents to Owntracks to change monitoring mode using Tasker locations entry and exits. (Http mode for Owntracks, not MQTT.) Tasker locations accurate enough.
- Owntracks While At Home: Quiet Mode for Power Efficiency
OwnTracks Quiet Mode is a good choice when you’re stationary and connected to Wi-Fi. No unnecessary location updates, saving battery.
- Exiting Home location: Owntracks Move Mode for Real-Time Updates, exit HA away zone, arm away.
Switching to Move Mode ensures frequent updates while you’re on the move, providing fairly good tracking. Perfect for automation triggers like Alarmo’s “Away” mode.
- Away from All Zones: Tasker location geofence switches to Owntracks Significant Mode to Balance Precision and Efficiency
Reverting to Significant Mode reduces GPS usage when real-time tracking isn’t critical.
Alarmo’s automatic arming & disarming automations complements this!
- Returning, enter Outer Tasker location geofence: Owntracks switches to Move Mode for Proactive Updates
Entering Move Mode again as you approach home ensures smooth triggering of “Home” mode for Alarmo.
- Entering Arm Home HA Zone: HA, Alarmo, Arm Alarmo to Home Mode
Quiet Mode re-engages upon entering the home zone, aligning well with Alarmo’s “Home zone” mode for security.
- Tasker Locations geofences thrown in and not mentioned enough, as well as the necessary automations to act upon the above.
Why the Setup Stands Out for me
Fairly efficient Use of Battery: Each mode is tailored for location-specific needs, minimizing unnecessary GPS usage.
Seamless Integration: Home Assistant, Tasker, OwnTracks, and Alarmo are almost perfectly in sync to automate both tracking and security. (So far lol)
Custom Zones: Throwing in extra Tasker locations geofences helps improve accuracy.
She doesn’t have a phone to track, land line old school. So I setup several Aqara P1 motions dectectors. If no motion after exiting arm away, set a flag, wait 5 minutes for motion, arm away she’s with me, if motion occurs, she’s home, keep in armed home mode. (may not be foolproof)
I’m sure there are better ways, perhaps easier ways. But I’m happy with it, for an old techy guy. Ai had to help me. Now if I can just remember how to trouble shoot it in two weeks.
Trying to retain some grey matter so doing this seems to help some.