[RELEASE] Advanced School Pickup & Drop Off - Smart Bus Tracking

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Hey everyone,

I'm back with another application! If you have kids taking the school bus, you know how chaotic mornings and afternoons can be. I built the Advanced School Pickup & Drop Off app to completely automate the bus routine, keeping the kids on schedule and giving parents peace of mind.

This app uses dynamic lighting, audio alerts, calendar integration, and door tracking to manage the entire school day lifecycle.

Key Features:

  • Live Tracker & Analytics Dashboard: A built-in dashboard displays exactly what the system is doing, the countdown to the bus arriving, and keeps track of your "Average Door Time" (how long it typically takes the kids to get out the door after the alert goes off).
  • Smart iCal Calendar Integration: Never accidentally wake the kids up on a holiday again. Paste your school's iCal link into the app, and it will automatically fetch the schedule, look for keywords (like "Spring Break", "Teacher Workday", or "Weather"), and disable the morning alarms if school is out. It even generates a 3-Day Forecast right in the dashboard.
  • Dynamic Stage Lighting: Select a Hue light to act as your bus indicator. The app walks through 3 configurable time stages (e.g., Green for "Get Ready", Yellow for "Almost Here", Red for "Bus Imminent").
  • Proximity Blinking: If enabled, your indicator light will blink and increase in speed as the bus arrival time approaches to create a sense of urgency.
  • Safe Arrival & Departure Tracking: Tie the app to your front door contact sensor. If the "Bus Imminent" alert fires and the front door doesn't open within your configured timeout window, the app will blast a "Missed Bus" or "Missed Drop-off" critical alert to your phones.
  • Weather & Umbrella Warnings: Tie in your weather sensor. If it's raining outside during the morning routine, the app overrides the indicator light to Blue, reminding the kids to grab an umbrella.
  • Sick Days & Early Dismissals: Dedicated virtual switches allow you to easily pause the routine for a sick kid, or trigger an "Early Dismissal" that automatically shifts the afternoon drop-off schedule earlier by a set number of minutes.
  • System Testing Mode: Setting up time-based apps is annoying. This app includes a built-in testing engine that rapidly cycles through your AM or PM stages every 30 seconds so you can verify your lights and audio notifications are working perfectly.

raw.githubusercontent.com/ShaneAllen334/Hubitat_Apps/refs/heads/main/Advanced_School_Pickup_and_Drop_Off/Advanced_School_Pickup_and_Drop_Off.groovy

Open Source Disclaimer: This application is completely open-source and free to use. You are welcome to install it, edit it to fit your specific needs, or strip out any snippets of code to use in your own projects. Enjoy!

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I see you are posting many apps, nice! Taking the time to make your apps generic for sharing is not a step a usually take, so kudos for taking the time. :grinning:

My automations are all custom apps and drivers, but most of them are very specific to my house and use cases, and they have not been "generalized" enough to be worth sharing for other people to use.

I have shared some apps that are useable by others, and I try to keep that in mind now when writing my apps, if it is not too much work to make them more generic so they can be shared.

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Thanks, I figured I would dump all my applications I've created over the years to help out the community. If something ever was to happen to me, I hope the code would help push the platform in the right direction or even allow someone to get some use from the code.

I wouldn't say most of the applications are "setup for generic purposes" but If there is a use case that someone needs I would be more than willing to add it.

I have quite a few other applications Ill be releasing and hopefully get them into HPM.

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New Feature:

  • State Capture & Restore Engine: Similar to the Mail app, this now features a background capture engine. It memorizes what the room was doing before the bus approached, executes the 10-minute colored countdown sequence, and seamlessly puts the room back exactly how it found it when the bus leaves.
  • Dedicated External Overrides UI: Added an "Integration & External Overrides" settings section. This allows you to broadcast a "Freeze" switch to external apps (like Porch Motion Lighting) so they don't accidentally turn off the lights while you are tracking an approaching bus.