Basic Checks

I am hoping there is something(s) that provide what I want here, whether built-in (HSM?) or Community driven, but without too much input from the home owner such as configuring rules or automations from scratch...

It feels like there are some basic checks that most homes would want to have happen, e.g.:

While I am away....

  • Are "all" the lights off while I am away? (Admittedly "all" may need to be configurable)
  • Is there any motion while I am away? (As above, some outside motion may be ok)
  • Are there any contact sensors that are open while I am away, such as a garage door or front door?

During the night....

  • See above....

As per my original comment, it's likely I have not kept pace with or across the features of HE, rather than any shortcoming with the platform.... But in case I am wrong, a perfect and hopefully simple starting point for app development... :slight_smile:

I bet 25% or more of my rules are dedicated to stuff like this. Among my favorites... "did we lock the doors and set the alarm when we left?" And if we can solve "did you leave the stove on when you left the house this morning?" it would be a big hit. (Gas stove. Yup, thought of that.)

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Don't worry, Bryan is on the case.... :slight_smile:

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Some ideas for you... :grinning:

I use my 'hidden' gem, Safety Net to do all of this. (Safety Net is not released :wink:)

Basically it does this...

  • Hit an Arm (home or away) button on my alarm keypad (ring v2 keypads)
  • Automatically runs my Device Check Plus app to check device states and warn me if anything isn't right.
  • If everything is good, Alarm sets
  • If something is wrong, I have the option of fixing it first (actually going and shutting a window) or hitting a second key sequence and by-passing the warning and setting the alarm.

Once the alarm is set, Safety Net works similar to HSM. If something changes state, alarm goes off and I get notified.

Doesn't solve your request but hopefully it gives you some ideas!

My house does this by itself. If all Presence is away, lock doors and set alarm.

@danabw has setup something like this. Maybe he can enlighten us with more info. :fire:

:computer: click, click, click :computer: :grin:

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I am not allowed to use geofencing apps. Apparently "tracking" is not acceptable. So I use a combination of various wifi presence detectors. They work great until *** someone *** turns off wifi and the alarm system arms away while they're asleep. But I do use them for notifications.

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Awesome work as always @bptworld. Only request I would make would be to separate the detection of the "issues" from the logic you want applied at different times... Admittedly that is a selfish request, but I think both your use case and mine could be catered for by something that detected an issue then "notified" "something", where "notifying" and the "something" could be somewhat loose....

Notifying could be turning on a switch, notifying a notification devices (or Follow Me), and well the "something" is probably bound up in my last comment...

:sunglasses: Is there a tables turning emoji....?

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As someone who does not need to deal with this.... Would the threat of regular phone calls change the opinion of this stance? :wink:

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:hocho:

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The more I read the Safety Net may be my solution .... Seems to odd such a simplistic feature has not been built-in or requested with enough prominence to warrant any internal development....

No one ever, ever used the word "enlighten" about my posts. I need a moment to bask...:wink:

There you go, encouraging Bryan again...

There is a legend about an ancient thread, where scholars of old debated gas sensing (as opposed to the more dangerous task of debating a gassy sensei). Few now know the thread's location, and even fewer of those dare to approach it. For you, brave traveler, I humbly offer these forgotten waypoints:

The route is filled with danger...go with caution, read with care, and obey all signs:

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I don't own a gas-powered stove.... :wink: But thanks for your concern....

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Actually it was your wife who contacted us, and her concern was more about monitoring and avoiding gas emissions from certain family members... :wink:

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It would be easy for me to make a quip about not being concerned about a significant other or others that may result from those relations.... but it would seem disingenuous.... with that being the default position for many here.... And not my current situation....

Caveats aside, if anyone is claiming to be my wife, please send her my way.... :grin: Should I be asking for that? :slight_smile:

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LOL...

I will try to get a picture first, so you can make an informed decision. :smiley:

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Seems appropriate given the title of this thread.... :slight_smile:

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So, back to my original request / statement... :wink:

It still feels like @bptworld 's future app / driver map be an option, but aside from that, the short-term straw-poll is still slim pickings to offer these features...? Probably worth offering others more time to offer their solutions in this space...

I use a combination of Hubitat Safety Monitor plus a custom app I wrote to do what you want. HSM sounds a lot like what you're lloking for in terms of getting notifications (and whatever else you may want) if there is motion or contacts opening when you're away, etc. Mine arms and disarms automatically accoring to geopresence, though I have ways to manually override it when needed (and Dashboard makes this easy too). Geopresence is pretty much its own topic for me since nothing has been 100% reliable and I'm combining two different methods, but same idea no matter how you do it (just works a lot better for this if it's reliable!).

For my custom app, I only use it because I want to be notified if "weird" things happen when I become away--e.g., did I leave a door open? (Automated locking can't help me there!) HSM takes care of the "when away" stuff for me, so, again, this is a just "when I become away" thing. Right now, it can only look at motion sensors, contact sensors, locks, and thermostats (it's also part of my "good" night routine and does TTS if anything is in a weird state then--that's where the thermostats come in). Switches would be an easy enough addition if there's really a need for that. But I don't bother with lights since all of mine are motion automated and should turn off when I leave anyway. :slight_smile:

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Thanks @bertabcd1234, I'll take a look at HSM.

It was actually lights that made me start to think about this. I have been messing around with my lighting rules lately and seem to have missed something that mean the lights in my Study were not being turned off. So I figure that even though I may intend to have things working a certain way, I can miss things or there can occasionally be issues with the rules, so it would be good to have something to catch those situations.

Sounds like something a simple dashboard should be able to handle.

Here's a HA example of what I'm using.

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That's a good point, I am partial to a dashboard, but I would still want to have notifications as well.