Tracking a device outside the house

Configuration
1

Hi,
I live in a high populated area and I end up parking my car (relatively) far from home and in a different position almost every day.

I’d like to be able to see on the Home-Assistant Map where I left my car the day before, so I though about buying something like Airtag / Smat tag 2, but I read that neither works well with HA.

Is there any device that have a working integration with HA?
I don’t need it to be real time tracking, for me it’s enough that it remembers where I left it the day before (basically where my phone lost it).

Thank you in advance!

1 Like
2

I use a mini gps tracker and tracarr for my bag. Its designed for cars and vehicles though so might be worth checking out. The TKstar gps modules on ali express have been rock solid for me in the UK but tracarr supports a lot of them.

Most of the tk trackers are 2g network though. May need one of the newer ones if no 2g networks in your area, i know a lot of places have planned to phase them out. I paid for a £10 sim over 2 years ago now and its still not used all the data.

Alternatively, what about an old android phone with the companion app? Simpler to setup.

3

You can use device_tracker.see to set the position of a device_tracker entity (an entity you create “car”) to the position of the phone.
If you do this when the bluetooth connection is lost then you get the position of the car in a device tracker entity

4

Thank you.

I use a mini gps tracker and tracarr for my bag. Its designed for cars and vehicles though so might be worth checking out. The TKstar gps modules on ali express have been rock solid for me in the UK but tracarr supports a lot of them.

Most of the tk trackers are 2g network though. May need one of the newer ones if no 2g networks in your area, i know a lot of places have planned to phase them out. I paid for a £10 sim over 2 years ago now and its still not used all the data.

Alternatively, what about an old android phone with the companion app? Simpler to setup.

The main problem with an old phone is battery life, it would last a couple of days, probably. And I should have a charger in the car, too.
I think it’s too complicated.

I’ll check TKstar gps modules, but I think in Italy both 2g and 3g networks have been permanently shut down, now there’s only 4g (and 5g).

I though about Smart tag (or Air tag or similar) because they seem really simple, but unfortunately there’s no integration on HA.

6

You can use device_tracker.see to set the position of a device_tracker entity (an entity you create “car”) to the position of the phone.
If you do this when the bluetooth connection is lost then you get the position of the car in a device tracker entity

I’ll try that, thank you

7

You are welcome. Yeah that is something i didnt consider with the old phone, good point. Ive not had any joy with bluetooth stuff myself so didnt recommend but what hellis mentioned should work, pretty sure i saw a thread on here with that method beeb discussed.

There are 4g gps modules by tk and other brands but ive no experience with them personally. Tracarr has some overhead too and you’ll need to forward some ports on your router if you run the HA addon.

Found it: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/where-have-i-parked-my-car

8

Do you have android auto or whatever apple calls it?

This might work with bluetooth disconnect like mentioned above too. But here is what I do …
A template sensor that sets my coordinates when my phone disconnects from my truck.

- trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id:
        - binary_sensor.jeff_phone_android_auto
      from:
        - "on"
      to:
        - "off"
  sensor:
    - name: Dude Where's My Truck
      unique_id: sensor.dude_wheres_my_truck
      icon: mdi:car-pickup
      state: "{{ now() }}"
      attributes:
        longitude: "{{ state_attr('device_tracker.jeff_phone', 'longitude') }}"
        latitude: "{{ state_attr('device_tracker.jeff_phone', 'latitude') }}"

And an automation that sets the device tracker when HA restarts (it seems device_tracker.see does not survive a restart) or the above sensor changes.

alias: Dude Where Are The Vehicles
description: ""
mode: single
triggers:
  - trigger: homeassistant
    event: start
  - trigger: state
    entity_id:
      - sensor.dude_where_s_my_truck
conditions: []
actions:
  - action: device_tracker.see
    metadata: {}
    data:
      gps: >-
        {{ state_attr('sensor.dude_where_s_my_truck', 'latitude') }},{{
        state_attr('sensor.dude_where_s_my_truck', 'longitude') }}
      dev_id: truck

And a script I run from a button that opens Google Maps on my phone with directions to the device tracker.

description: "Dude, where's my truck"
alias: Directions to Truck
sequence:
  - action: notify.jeffs_phone
    data:
      message: command_activity
      title: Dude, where's my truck
      data:
        intent_package_name: com.google.android.apps.maps
        intent_action: android.intent.action.VIEW
        intent_uri: >-
          google.navigation:q={{state_attr('device_tracker.truck',
          'latitude')}},{{state_attr('device_tracker.truck',
          'longitude')}}&mode=w
9

I am also interested in this. I’m considering some sort of air tag, but I’m not an Apple person LOL
However, whatever integrates with home assistant the best is going to be a key deciding factor. I currently use the home-assistant app on an Apple phone and an Android device that always provides GPS tracking.

I’d like to put an air tag on my vehicle and my bike.