Easiest options for iPhone owners, all work very well. All have easily findable threads.
- Use Apple Home presence. Requires either beta Hubitat-Apple integration or Homebridge
- Geofency
- OwnTracks
- Locative
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I’m not a fan of the HomeKit option because it doesn’t seem to have any way of setting time of day parameters for scenes/automations.
For the other three, are these apps? If so, how do I tell HE to use the location reporting from those?
??
Could you explain in more detail what you mean here?
Apps with virtual presence devices
The Apple Home process requires a Hubitat virtual combo presesnce/switch to be passed to Apple Home. The only Apple automation is to switch the virtual switch based on presence. Anything more complicated is done via Hubitat automations.
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You can't set up a time parameter to trigger a scene. I set up "returning home" and all that can do is trigger connected devices. I want "return home after sunset but before sunrise".
And this.... I don't understand at all what you mean about virtual presence combo/switch. How do I make any of this work? In addition to your statement about virtual switches, I have yet to figure out how to make virtual switches appear on Apple Home. I've added them in the HomeKit Integration App but they don't show up on my iPhone.
If you still have your ST hub….use your ST presence by sharing it with Hubitat via the HubiThings Replica app.
That’s what I do….as well as combining HomeKit presence.
This reliably bridges the gaping hole in Hubitat’s presence capability.
This is very easy to do. Your presence sensor is the "trigger" for the automation. Setup a required expression that sets your desired time limits.
Create a virtual switch...
Go to yourhubip and click devices on left hand side...
Click add device in upper right hand corner...
Click Virtual
Name the device and pick virtual switch or the drive and click save
Click devices on left hand side...
Find the device you created to make sure it's there.
Click apps on left hand side..
Pick Homekit Integration
Scroll down to switch and find your virtual switch... and put a check mark in it.,.
Click done
Wait a couple of mins. Test switch appears in default room in homekit
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Yes, I still have my SmartThings hub.
So I found the page for HubiThings but it looks like I'm supposed to install like 8 different apps, in a specific order, with something called OAuth either turned on or not?
I think this really points to my frustration with HE so far and why I may just go back to ST. HE is so complicated.
@rlithgow1 I very much appreciate the step-by-step instructions. I have done all that before and those virtual switches are not showing up in Apple Home. I created four virtual switches to control my Somfy shades. (Each with three virtual buttons.). Those virtual switches are on my dashboard, and they're checked in HomeKit Integration. And they work on my dashboard, But they are definitely NOT showing up in Home.
It’s more complex that ST is now, yes. But it’s better. You do need a bit of patience with HE.
All your answers are likely in this forum.
Yes, but finding those answers quickly and easily with actual step-by-step instructions that someone without a background in coding can accomplish is a very frustrating experience.
Home automation should be easier at least from the get-go. There's no way I'd give my mom something like this; and I would only recommend HE to friends who are highly tech savvy.
And remember, my comments here began by trying to get something that should be extremely simple to work: triggering an automation based on the location of my phone.
I’d suggest posting on the HomeKit thread to get help with setting that up correctly (as you cannot see your virtual switches) and the Hubithings thread for help with that.
I certainly don’t have a background in coding, nor much patience…so getting a grip on HE basics was a steep learning curve. And it still frustrates me. It always will. But it allows me to do what other systems don’t.
People on this forum are very helpful. They’ll give you the help you need.
EDIT: just to add…the way I made it less painful was to continue relying on ST for the bulk of my automations…and bringing devices over to HE gradually as I learnt how to use it.
HE is far from plug-n-play. If you don’t want to spend time learning…you are better off ditching it tbh.
What driver are you using? Is it a built-in driver for virtual switches/dimmers or a custom driver that you installed?
Check your default room settings
If you are using a custom driver and not one of the built in virtual drivers they won't show up in HK
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Background in coding not at all necessary.
Being tech savvy, yes, but that’s not the same thing.
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The device type on my virtual buttons are just that - "virtual buttons". When the button is pushed, it triggers a rule within Rule Machine and the associated driver is a custom one. But that should have no bearing since all I'm trying to expose to Home is the virtual button.
Switch it to virtual switch instead of button. See if that fixes it. Buttons aren't supported at the moment
