Present detection help

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1

Hi guys,
I know this has been asked many time, but I would really appreciate some help.

I currently use my WiFi router “sky hub” for present detection to trigger the lights on when we come home and it’s dark. The problem is it currently takes about 10-20secs for it to show us as home, by then we’re already and turn the light on.

I tried the Bluetooth element of my Rpi3 but I stopped everything else form working.

What can I do to resolve this?

2

There’s many options here to speed that up, here’s a few off the top of my head:

  1. Use the likes of OwnTracks and the Google Travel Time component to detect when you’re nearly home and turn on the light when you’re nearly there.
  2. Use a door sensor on the front door, and turn the light on if the door opens after dark (and you’re not home)
  3. Use OwnTracks and an iBeacon outside the front of the house to speed up detection of being home (may not help reliably)
  4. Relocate your Sky Hub to the front of the house so the signal reaches the street :wink:
3

Doesn’t owntrack make a large hit on your mobile?

4

Not particularly.

I mean, sure, if you set it to report every 50 meters then your battery will suffer, but on the defaults I’ve not noticed any impact.

5

Can I ask what mobile device you have?
Do you need to keep it running or does it auto run in the background?

6

Android(s).

I’m running it in HTTP mode. It auto-runs in the background, though on my devices running Android 7 onwards I’ve excluded it from being battery optimized.

1 Like
7

I’ll give it a try
Problem is my Wife is on iOS and hates leaving apps running.

I might look into a door sensor