Track device

Installation Home Assistant OS
1

Question, I am tracking my Mobile Phone with Track device. Now if I look at the log file I see that it changes from Away to Home every now and than. Sometimes its correct but sometimes I am at home and it does the same. The question is, could this be in case the mobile switches from 2.4ghz to 5ghz wifi? If so, any input how to stop this? I am using a RPi4, latest HA and all updates done this morning. Provider is Swiss, its called Swisscom. And the devices are iphones X. Thanks for helping.

2

if Iphone devices are not used, they sometimes switch off wifi (sleep mode) temporarily I understood and thus if you base it purely on the wifi connectivity, then it might explain this behavior.

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3

Many thanks. Makes absolutely sense. You say “if you base it purely on the wifi”, how else would you base it? What can I add to avoid this?

4

Bluetooth :wink:

I use monitor for Bluetooth tracking and it’s much more reliable than WiFi overall. Of course, I use both, and some of the automation logic covered in that thread, to have a zero false positive on not_home.

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5

Guess this expain what Piggyback said and also how to kinda avoid it when tracking iphones https://community.home-assistant.io/t/device-tracker-home-interval-or-consider-home/84383

6

Question, device tracker is in the configuration.yaml file and based on the device_tracking entity. How can I combine it with the bluetooth tracking? Can I just combine the two platform in one go?

Example:

device_tracker:
  - platform: ping, bluetooth_tracker
  interval_seconds: 5
  consider_home: 120
  hosts: 
    Pat: 192.168.0.111
7

Im using Life360 which is very reliable although might not be quick enough depending on your needs. If you need speed and reliability a WiFi/Bluetooth tracker in combination with Life360 would be a good option using person:

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8

You can use a group if you want a very simple option.

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