Using HubLink to report presence modes from SmartThings

Harry_Coolahan · February 28, 2019, 2:18pm

I am looking to use my ST hub to detect my presence.

(The HE Life360 Connector app has been unreliable for me, I've been having the same issues reported in this thread. Essentially the HE app will work for a few days, then stop refreshing, and I'll have to go through the app and click Done to get it working again.)

Until I can sort out the Life360 issues, I'm planning on using ST hub to report my presence mode to HE and trigger different tasks through the use of virtual switches (e.g. arm/disarm HSM).

I've successfully installed HubLink and hubLinkMode, but I'm not sure where to go from here. The supporting documentation ends at installation so I'm not seeing a way to actually use the app.

philpugh · February 28, 2019, 2:39pm

So what I did was the following:

create Simulated Switches in ST and label them based on ST modes

Then using webcore I am switching these on as part of my presence automations. I expect this can be achieved through another method in ST.

Once the switch is on ST the HubLink will switch on the corresponding HE switch. (auto added by HubLink). So using Rule Machine I then set the HE mode based on the switch being on.

This is a basic way of doing it, I can go into more detail if needed....

Using Webcore I currently turn off all unneeded switches and only turn on the required on when the mode changes to try and stop any confusion in HE.

Do you currently use any method to switch on and off things based on presence?

Harry_Coolahan · February 28, 2019, 3:16pm

Wow, that looks great. Thank you!

I've created the virtual switches, but so far HubLink hasn't imported any of my devices from ST. (I have a virtual switch and an August lock on ST.) You said it is done automatically, but is there a way to manually trigger it to import devices?

Right now I have certain lights turn on when I get home, and I'd like to be able to arm/disarm HSM based on presence. I've only tried with Life360 with inconsistent results.

philpugh · February 28, 2019, 3:20pm

In the ST App you need to select which switches are mirrored...

Check the SmartApp "Send Hub Events" and then select the switches etc you want

pcgirl · February 28, 2019, 3:34pm

If you are using the Presence Sensors from ST, you don't have to setup virtual switches to changes modes. Just use the Presence Sensors. This is what I do. I setup Rules in Rule Machine for setting the Mode and doing things when the Mode changes. Here is my Rule for when everyone leaves the house. I have two Presence sensors for me because I am using both ST presence sensor and Locative Presence Sensor in HE. Locative can be sketchy sometimes on its own but I have noticed that it works better when I also use ST presence sensor. I really only need one but I am trying to decide which is more reliable. I think ST wins.

pcgirl · February 28, 2019, 3:35pm

And here is my Arrival Rule.

philpugh · February 28, 2019, 3:47pm

I found the ST presence sensor to be unreliable as the app would often logout required my wife to re-login. She never uses the app and I only added it for presence...

Since switching to Life360 we haven't had any problems

pcgirl · February 28, 2019, 3:50pm

I was opposite. I really didn't like Life360 and I don't have much trouble with the ST presence. I wonder if it has to do with what type of phone one is using? Because using Locative in HE is really reliable for my husbands phone (iphone 7) but sketchy with my phone (iphone 7plus).

philpugh · February 28, 2019, 3:53pm

We use android here, have also recently added Life360 to HE and this appears to be working well too

Harry_Coolahan · February 28, 2019, 3:59pm

Okay, I succeeded in getting my ST devices mirrored on HE. I decided to use ST's presence sensors through RM and it's working. I'll give it a week or so to see how reliable it is compared to Life360 and report back.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Rosavision · March 1, 2019, 11:15am

I'm going to use this thread as topic "HubLink presence ST" is the same, but issue is slightly different. I have HubLink working great with movement sensors etc. But when it comes to presence sensing I run into an issue that HE is only recognising one phone. I have selected both my & my wife's phone on the ST link app, but HE only shows one. If I select either one or the other phone on the ST link app, then that phone shows on HE, but when I select both, only one shows. Any thoughts?

Harry_Coolahan · March 7, 2019, 8:49pm

In case anyone still cares, it's now been a week and I wrote about my experience using ST, Life360, and Tasker as presence sensors here.

Rosavision · March 7, 2019, 9:11pm

@Harry_Coolahan thanks for the detailed report, some good ideas for me to try. Have you tried getting two phones on SmartThings to report presence on HE via HubLink? I'm still not able to get it to work.