Presence detection accuracy

Configuration
1

Hi all, does anyone have trouble with the accuracy of presence detection? I have OwnTracks setup and as I transition between my home zone and work it frequently says I’m back home sometimes. Sometimes it sticks as well. I had OwnTracks and DDWRT presence detection setup at one point and that was even worse. DDWRT had me stuck at home for 30 minutes while I was really at work. Now I solely use OwnTracks. Anyone know how to make it more reliable?

Is it possible it’s my phone? I have a Galaxy S7 with location accuracy set to High Accuracy only while I’m driving and set to Battery Saving after I disconnect Bluetooth from my car (via Tasker). I also have OwnTracks to not be battery monitored.

2

Are you using waypoints in the OwnTracks app? I had bad luck with OwnTracks until I added my zones.

They are called regions now I guess… And you need to turn on the share toggle I believe.

3

I’ve seen that in the app, but I don’t know what they are. I’m still an OwnTracks noob. I’ll look into it, thank you.

1 Like
4

linked with iBeacons it works “well”. As in I still find the GPS just very odd at times on Android. Sometimes it has one of us miles away from the other and we are stood next to each other. Bring in iBeacons at home etc and it is fantastic for automation’s when you arrive home. Never missed a beat to pick us up when we get home via the iBeacon.

5

Okay so get this, I just went to add a waypoint and so I changed my location accuracy to high accuracy, went into OwnTracks, went to add a waypoint and hit the GPS button and it sent me home! I think that’s what is happening. The GPS on my phone likes to default to home when the GPS is finding my location. I have no idea why.

6

Thanks, I’ll look into iBeacons. I had considered maybe adding a bluetooth solution.

7

You probably need to add max_gps_accuracy to your config.

8

I’m thinking it has more to do with my phone than OwnTracks, but how would I add that?

9

It is just a side effect of Android GPS, it pushes the last known location first with an accuracy that is super high (not accurate) and once it gets a GPS lock it pushes the correct GPS with a lower accuracy (more accurate) (Not sure why the numbers are that way…) but just add this to your config.

device_tracker:
  - platform: owntracks
    max_gps_accuracy: 200

200 seems to work great for me.

1 Like
10

Ah that would explain it perfectly. Thank you very much. I’ll add that and test it out.