Geofence thinks I'm away when I'm Home

[dJOS]

Hi HE crew, can you please improve the normal geofencing system please (high accuracy is a total battery hog) ?

This kind of thing below is rather frustrating as I've been home all day:

2020-09-25 01:41:44.221 pm info Derek's iPhone - GPS has arrived
2020-09-25 01:37:54.577 pm info Derek's iPhone - GPS has departed
2020-09-25 01:24:57.696 pm info Derek's iPhone - GPS has arrived
2020-09-25 01:18:01.751 pm info Derek's iPhone - GPS has departed

Even combined with Wifi presence sensing, I still get false positives that turn my home off while I'm still in it despite having a geofence roughly 1km wide.

[dJOS]

Btw, the only Geofencing I've ever experienced that was 100% reliable and didnt eat your battery before lunch, was by the now defunct Skylark app - perhaps Hubitat could buy the app and code and use it to improve geofencing?

Reliable location sensing for smart thermostats | Skylark

[sburke781]

Not sure if it's related, but I had some issues with geofencing late last year.

Geofencing, mobile app - Not Triggering Arrive Home Rule

I have setup geofencing in the mobile app and have used this to trigger a typical home and away mode change. I have found that particularly when arriving home the mode change rule does not fire, but if I open the app once inside the house it then fires. Has anyone else experienced / solved this issue? I have seen some mentions in other posts where the app has been logged out and required people to log back in. I am using a Google Pixel 2 XL running Android 10 OS.

Admittedly I'm running on Android, but perhaps there are some similar things happening on your iPhone with battery optimisation etc?

[at9]

What does the debugging in the app say itself as maybe your phone was reporting a different geolocation?

[mailtomatte]

I tried native geofence and Wi-Fiprecense but didnt work good

I tried Geofency soulution and it works perfect, (via iCloud)

But the best is homebridge and Apple native iCloud home app. It works as good as Veras iPhone locator.

/ M

[dJOS]

@mailtomatte

It works as good as Veras iPhone locator.

I found iPhone locator to be unreliable too - I had to implement a best of 3 ping strategy to ensure it was reliable.

[dJOS]

I’m not having an issue with arriving home as the wifi presence detection makes that very fast and reliable.

My problem occurs when the GPS decides I’m outside of the fence for no apparent reason and at the same time my phone wifi has been asleep for 5 mins or more.

This didn’t happen with high accuracy turned on, however that is a real power hog!

[dJOS]

@at9

What does the debugging in the app say itself as maybe your phone was reporting a different geolocation?

I’m not sure how to check this.

[dJOS]

@mailtomatte

I tried Geofency soulution and it works perfect, (via iCloud)

Cheers, I’ll look into this option and maybe add it as a 2nd geofence option.

[at9]

I have an android phone so it might be different but in settings of the HE app there should be a show debug information.
It should then show if the latitude and longitude changed.

[dJOS]

@at9

in settings of the HE app there should be a show debug information.
It should then show if the latitude and longitude changed

You are quite right, it is available on iOS too. I’ll keep an eye on it.

[mailtomatte]

With Geofency you also can use Ibeacons..

Im thinking of having a ibeacon to lock up doorlocks close

[dJOS]

@mailtomatte

With Geofency you also can use Ibeacons..

I had a play with it but once I realised it needs another app on our phones, I ditched it.

[dJOS]

@at9

It should then show if the latitude and longitude changed.

Hmmm, Im honestly none the wiser:

[dJOS]

and as you can see I'm using a very large Geofence:

[sburke781]

Based on an online calculator I think it is detecting a change of approximately 2kms (a bit over a mile for many of the community) with some of those lat long values, which is more than the radius of 400m you have configured.

I can't explain why that is the case... Unless it's basing some of those readings off local mobile towers and you are moving between them... Not sure if that is a thing...

[mailtomatte]

Thats wy I went with hombridge and iOS Home that is native in Iphones . The problem with Apps(geofency) is that my kids kills the apps in there iPhones and then they dont give the coordinates . Home app sends coordinates always in background.

[dJOS]

@mailtomatte

Thats wy I went with hombridge and iOS Home that is native in Iphones .

That sounds like it's worth looking into; do you have a forum link that describes the requirements and setup process?

I already have HomeKit running on an iPad but it's really not doing anything useful atm.

[mailtomatte]

I went with this one

New Homebridge Plug-in via MakerAPI

This new plugin does not rely on the "Homebridge App" in Hubitat and utilizes the MakerAPI and it's event stream to communicate with Hubitat. A few caveats upfront: You will have to redo all of your room assignments in the Home App on your phone Installation: 1. Hubitat MakerAPI App Configuration Under the Hubitat Web Interface, Click on Apps in the left side menu. Click on the button +Add Built-In App Select Maker API from the list of apps Enable Allow Access via Local IP Address …

and this on the Pi

Getting Started

One thing I like about the home bridge that I like is that I now can adjust my ikea shades with the chronograph on my Apple Watch also and get all other devices of course. Also when I arrive in the Geocircle a Garagedoor button pops up on my Apple CarPlay witch feels very smooth and nice or I just can ask Siri in the Car to open the garageport. I use LGK Virtual Gaeragedooropener app in HubitAT..

[mailtomatte]