Wait for Hubitat iPhone app, or use Life360?

Some quick googling suggests you can indeed install homebridge on a mac; I'll give that a try. Thanks!

I have installed homebridge, along with tonesto7's homebridge plugin; and it connects fine to the corresponding hubitat app. How do I tell the whole setup to process a change in presence for one of the devices registered with homebridge to trigger a virtual switch change on the hubitat side?

I actually run mine on a old Macbook that I keep from going to sleep with Insomnia X. I prefer it for ease of adjustment and logging into it remotely via the built-in screen sharing. I know you can do the same with TightVNC, but the Mac setup is just a check box to get it going.

For that you need to use HomeKit automations. You'll need either an iPad capable of running the latest OS or an Apple TV 4.

Hm... that could be a problem, as I don't have Apple TV, and the iPads I have tend to travel around with people...

Like I mentioned, great excuse to buy an Apple TV! :wink:
If you don't need 4K, you can pick one up on eBay for around $50 to $100. I paid $100 CAD for mine, but in the US you should be able to get it for less.

:slight_smile: I think I'll pass; I usually need stronger reasons to buy new/more toys...

Fair enough. I bought an Apple TV 4 becuase it was a way for me to get my Insteon devices working with Hubitat via Homebridge, and I didn't really care about the new TV OS, but now that I have it, I really like it, my son loves the games he can play, I can watch Amazon Prime video on it now, and my wife likes the apps and additional content.

The last one surprised me more than anything. :open_mouth:

If you are using WebCore, then you can use the WebCore Presence app on your phone. It's been working great for me.

@SmartHomePrimer I reinstalled HomeBridge (Hubitat) a couple days ago specifically to try it's presence accuracy and thus suitability. HomeBridge (Hubitat) is under a cloud :slight_smile: these days because of instabilities that can not be narrowed down. So far, I've no new signs of instability AND the presence side of it is awesome!

I have AppleTVs but the original time I used it for HomeKit, it would "fight" with Homebridge (running on a Mac Mini). Today, I have an iPad Mini performing that function and as I said, awesome!!

Overall, thanks for pointing out this feature. :slight_smile:

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Great news! I'm glad to see someone else was willing to try this. It's been so reliable for me.

I originally was using just the presence to unlock my door, because the August Lock built-in Auto-Unlock feature would frustrate us by working flawlessly for weeks, and then just suddenly stop for one or all of us at once. The issue I had with using HomeKit presence alone for the lock was when I was walking near the top of my street, but only passing by, not intending to walk home yet, it would unlock my door.

So now that I have added the TP-Link Deco M5 WiFi presence as a second factor, it works fantastic to unlock my door as soon as my phone has tripped both the HomeKit presence switch and the WiFi presence switch.

Can the use of life360, presence sensors, and/or presence apps be used for smaller areas. Like walking into a man cave. Granted the man cave is big 700 sqft but still can it trigger actions by walking into a room

Answer is no. It's not meant for room presence. Not to mention there is also a delay.

Thank you for the quick reply. Do you have any suggestions to do individual room presence.

There is no solution for that in HE.

Even outside of HE it is a joke, and doesn't work well. You wither need a dongle on every person at all times (phone, bluetooth, other) - good luck with that, or try to rely on facial recognition that is spotty at BEST.

The best uses of this I have seen use a remote with a button dedicated for each person, or a keypad with code.

Have a look at this post here

Link to Git

I will be trying it out this weekend as it looks promising

Thanks for the mention! I am finding I have very good results using 3 things together:

  1. Alexa app (or some other geofencing phone app) for geofencing presence.
  2. My above-mentioned iPhone WiFi presence sensor
  3. Use my Combined Presence app to combine the two for best results.
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I'm brand new to Hubitat (coming from Wink) and presence was a concern of mine as I previously used my Canary camera system via Wink to trigger home/away actions. I have not yet put it into full production, but I am very excited to see your presence apps as a viable option! I am working to combine Life360 and iPhone presence my combined presence triggers! Thanks in advance!

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Have a look at Locative.
It's been withdrawn but you can find the app and load it on your phone. (I'm on Android).
In conjunction with the Maker API app I find it to be very responsive and accurate.
Might be worth investigating.
Here's the post that gives all the info.

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Locative works nicely. I use it.

Just make sure you adjust your range big enough so that its not trying to update the presence when in the "dead zone". Thats where the phone is fighting to stay on the wifi and fails any connections. For me its close to the end of the street. Once I go around the corner all is good . So I updated my zone correctly.

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