Alternatives to using ST presence

Hmm! I setup Locative on both mine and my husbands iphones with different locations. It isn't working for all of our arriving and departures. When I do it manually, it works and sends me a push notice but when we arrive at home or leave home it isn't working. I checked the device ID for each virtual presence sensor and all is correct. Any idea why?

In the Locative App's Settings, do you have it set to use GET, instead of POST? There's not much to the App. It just works for me.

Here are is a quick image showing the events for my virtual presence sensor

I agree. I hope the Hubitat app will support this. I’m going to try locative for this reason (plus Life360 integration is just not quite reliable enough that it’s starting to irritate me).

Yeah... I know the feeling...

Yes, I have it set to GET. I can trigger the arrived and departed in the device and it will send me a push notification but it doesn't seem to be noticing when we actually leave or arrive at the locations.

When I click on Get All Devices with Full Details for Cloud URLS I am getting Missing Authentication Token

message "Missing Authentication Token"

Sounds like an issue with your MAKER API App settings.

I have the same.

The Arrive and Depart are setup, If I put each of those specific URLS into Locative's Global Settings one at a time, and tap the Send Test-Request, Hubitat logs show it happening and the virtual switch is in the correct state. I have two geofences defined, all 4 URLs function properly in Send Test-Request, and the two virtual switches each have the correct state.

Locative never does it on it's own. Hubitat logs only show events that are my manual efforts.

I don't really care because I'm actually using HomeKit and Homebridge. I was hoping Locative would be the tool for OTHER geofences vs the 1 that HomeKit offers.

What model iPhones are you using? Which version of iOS? I am using an iPhone 7 with iOS 12.1.1 and it works very reliably. I am sorry to hear that others are not having as much luck.

I am using an iphone 7 plus with 12.1 OS. I am going to try and install it again and see what happens.

How many locations do you have setup and working?

I am using a single Geofence right now. I have not tried more than one.

OK, well I have two setup on my hubby's phone and three on mine. I have re-installed Maker API and redid all the URLs and they tested ok. I will just have to wait and see if the Geofence locations work.

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So, I re-installed the Maker API and redid the URL's in Locative and all seems to be working now! I have three locations setup for myself and two for my hubby and they seem to all be giving me notices via Pushover. Working well right now!

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Glad to hear the good news! I appreciate you testing the multiple geofence locations and reporting back.

It actually seems to work pretty well! I don't notice any battery drain on the iphones and setting up some simple RM apps to notify whomever I want to notify works well. In ST you couldn't pick who could get the notifications.

Here is my list of methods I have seen people use to achieve Presence Detection with Hubitat. This might help you if you'd like to create something new. Options are a good thing! :slight_smile:

https://community.hubitat.com/t/alexa-phone-app-is-getting-geofencing-another-mobile-presence-option-for-hubitat/6938/28?u=ogiewon

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Hehe. I see that I'm treading on well-worn paths. I can also add to your list the Nest Presence service, if you happen to have Nest thermostats.

For my own personal use, the nest one is fine, or I can (currently) pull from the ST presence service. The only real reason I waded in at all was the whole 'local vs cloud' debate - and I'm quite enjoying having to digest fewer 3rd party services at the moment.

-- Jules

@ogiewon I submit for healthy debate that the list really has two categories; Location (Geolocation) and Presence (two devices connecting in a local short-range network)

In my mind, I’ve always categorized Geolocation as anything cellular based that has a minimum range of 400ft (Because that’s the lowest detection range I’ve seen for something cellular based), and call Location for shorthand, as do the phone manufacturers.

For anything Zigbee, Bluetooth or WiFi, I have always considered it to be Presence because it uses short distance radio waves that only indicate a users presence when a device connects to a local transmitter or mesh network, not via triangulation.

I do not consider anything the detects a user motion to be presence detection, because the object or person must continue to move for detection to remain active.

How does everyone else see this distinction, or do you? I think it's important, at least in creating automations, that there is some kind of understanding and distinction of the two types, how they react and how they should be used together. Otherwise we start wondering things like "Why did [all] my lights suddenly turn on" when our phones or devices briefly lose and regain the local connection that is triggering presence.

Oh, and to add to that nice list you created, there are two types of IFTTT detection. One is Geolocation using triangulation of your phone to the cell towers, and the other is and IFTTT trigger when your phone connects or disconnects from supported WiFI devices. This is what I use for "Presence" with our phones and my TP-Link Deco M5 mesh WiFi.

Also, just to confirm, I'm one of the users that has the Homebridge/HomeKit "Location" service working with HE. Requirements are a node.js server to run Homebridge, an iOS device obviously, and either an Apple TV 4 or later, or an always on iPad that can run the latest iOS. I think @csteele is also using this method if I'm not mistaken.

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This list does help but unfortunately most of these options require the use of IOS, which I do not use or another hub running like ST. The virtual presence switch is probably something I will look into. I do have Iris Fobs as presence which are in both cars, but I am finding there can be long delays, sometimes even minutes until it reconnects to HE. This is even with the garage being under the house and a Iris Plug directly above the garage to repeat the signal.

The problem with any WiFi or Zigbee/Z-wave solution is you generally need to be very close to the house before it will work. I have light that turn on at night based on presence and by the time these devices would trigger the light its too late.

I tried this myself, and it's a shame there's apparently no way to make it work without turning on the entire "Share My Location" feature (also used for Find My Friends and whatnot). I'd rather just give the Home app "Always" access to my location like Reminders and other apps where background location is useful can do and have that be the "trigger." I appreciate reading about options you and a couple others have posted about--I thought this was going to be the one (low battery consumption, native to the OS), but I guess I'll have to read about the other options again. This makes them easy to find, at least. :slight_smile:

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