Hi,
I want to create a rule that will turn some lights on when I about to arrive home... I am not sure where to start because I dont see a presence setting that would provide for a setting like, is within a geo area and is arriving home.. Any suggestions on how to start this?
To use presence in an automation, you need to have a device on your hub that supports presence or geofence events. Do you have anything like that already? It sounds like not. If not, that is the first step. The Hubitat mobile app can be used as such a device (though it is not the only possible way you can do this--just one that's easy and where everything is built in). This document explains how to set that up if you are not familiar:
Note that any presence solution is just going to tell you when you do cross the geofence, not when you're close. You should be able to make your radius larger to mean "close to home but not quite there yet," which may do what you want (but should also be weighed against other concerns depending on how large you make it, like the fact that it may take longer to see that you've left). Mentioning this since I'm not exactly sure what you meant above. You will know whether you're leaving or arriving by the specific event that gets generated.
Once you have that, there are a variety of ways you could create this automation on the hub. A Basic Rule triggered by presence arriving with actions that turns on whatever lights would be easy to create.
It would also be useful to know what types of devices you are likely to want to use to detect presence, particularly whether they are Android or Apple mobile devices.
I have a iPad and an iPhone.. I will use the iPhone as its always with me (99% of the time)
I have it installed d and the GEO fence setup. Just never to figure out to get it working
I have the circle extended to about 4 houses away so the fence area is not that large...
I will play with this now, I have to run to the store shortly so that will test this then.. If it works I can build in some conditions that must exist for the rule will run. IE like it has to be after dark..
Thank you @bertabcd1234
Are you using the iOS app from the regular App Store?
There is a public beta version of the app that most people have said has a better (more reliable) geofence capability.
Yes - I didn't know about the other one... Guess I need to reinstall TestFlight..
I got the Beta App installed - the geo fence (red dot) location is in the wrong place (by Miles) Have to remember how I set to my house which it knows because that is where the blue dot is..
GOT IT!! Press and hold - DUH
Having phone arrival as a trigger and phone present as a condition is repetitive. It's not hurting anything, it's just not necessary to have both.
You can also set a required expression of between 10PM and 5AM, and the only action would be to turn on the light...
Many ways to skin the cat here...
I modified to run a bit and removed the trigger and added a notification during the daytime as a test.
Could be that I'm just not used to looking at something like that in phone dimensions, but what triggers the rule?
ETA - I should've been clearer in my earlier comment that the condition is really the repetitive element, and it was the more logical thing to remove.
Triggers are events, and conditions are states... Your phone arriving is an event, and that results in your phone being present as a state. WRT a rule like this, phone arriving is a logical trigger to use. But it's not necessary to also use phone-present as a condition -- that state is already covered by the phone-arriving event.
So - This has been working for a week now and it’s hit or miss, but it works. I cant seem to nail down what is different when it doesn’t work but..
Thanks for everyone’s help.. I really do like the beta of the new IOS app its much improved...
Download the Hubitat app
