Let homeseer search/ping for smartphone

[Jaco]

I'm searching for a way to let Homeseer know if one of my family members is nearby our house.

All these family members have one thing in common; they all have smartphones with wifi activated.

Is there some kind of pluging which can ping to all of the ip-adresses in a certain frequentie. If the pluging gets a reply form the phone; the person is nearby the house, otherwise he/she isn't.

[jon00]

Yes, there are a number of Network Plugins available that do this:

Jon00 Remote Computer Control & Network Monitor: http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=147334 Via my HS site
UltraMon: http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=119792 Via the updater.
BLLan:http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=143913 Via the updater.
PJCNetwork: http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=138395 Via the updater.

There is also DooNetwork but I'm not sure it now works correctly with the latest version of HS. Unfortunately the author is no longer with us.

[mrhappy]

I ensure that my smart phone (droid) is in the DHCP reservation list on my router to always have the same IP address. Then with these lines in a bigger script I sense whether the device is responding to the ping and set a device accordingly, I run this script every minute.

...If hs.ping("192.168.0.101") = 0 then

if hs.devicevalue("Q17") = 0 then

hs.setdevicestring("Q17", "Andoid Phone Online", True)
hs.setdevicevalue("Q17", 1)
hs.writelog("Ping", "Andoid Phone Now Online")

end if

else

if hs.devicevalue("Q17") = 1 then

hs.setdevicestring("Q17", "Andoid Phone Offline", True)
hs.setdevicevalue("Q17", 0)
hs.writelog("Ping", "Andoid Phone Offline")

end if

end if

There are all sorts of network plugins/scripts out there that may do what you are after if you don't want to try a script.

[Bill Brower]

There are a few Bluetooth packages on the board. At least one has proximity so you can sort of check how close the phone is to any networked computer.

[tenholde]

There's also a script that uses phone's GPS to determine which phones are near/at home. Depends upon Google Latitude.

tenholde

[Jaco]

First...... thank you all guys for your quick replies.

I'm afraid my plan will not work out. All our smartphones are iPhone's and the wifi connection is disabled if the iPhone is locked.

Does anybody have experience with using an iPhone for this purpose?

Thanx already for your replies.

[jon00]

Try my bluetooth: http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=153715

[wpiman]

Go with GPS-- the phones don't always respond to pings.

[Steve Q]

First...... thank you all guys for your quick replies.

I'm afraid my plan will not work out. All our smartphones are iPhone's and the wifi connection is disabled if the iPhone is locked.

Does anybody have experience with using an iPhone for this purpose?

Thanx already for your replies.

What version of IOS do you have on your phones? IOS 5.1 allows messages to be pushed to your phone regardless of whether or not it is locked.

Steve Q

[rogerbl]

Using Franson Gpsgateserver to detect who is home

Hi! I have been working with the same issue for some time now. Tried out Bluetooth and wifi and found them unreliable cause the smartphones doesnt always connect. Just now I am connecting Homeseer with the Franson Gpsgateserver which give you the possiblility to set up a geofence at the home position. I believe this is a smart solution, but the tracker(gps unit) might have to be a dedicated unit due to the problem with the smartphones mentioned above. another way to do this is to use a motion sensor like the hawkeye set up in your car. it will contact on RF as sooon as you come close enough to home. :-) or a fingerprint reader by your main entrance.. or a RF solution .. or a programmed key on your keychain remote.. or can be a combination of these would be the best.. any ideas out there?
as a radio amatur I am also looking into using VHF APRS to solve this..

Regards Roger

[Jaco]

Hello guys,

Thanx for you replies. I've installed Jon's bluetooth plugin, installation went fine in my opinion, but i still have a problem;

When i'm turning my bluetooth on, the plugin finds my Iphone and triggers an event. But when the screen of my iphone is turning off, the connection seems to be lost within a few minutes. It looks like the pluging cannot 'see' my phone anymore.
I'll find this very strange because, for example, my carkit can connect to the phone whether it's on or off.

I'm running the latest (dutch) firmware on my iphone

Does anybody have an idea?

Grz. Jaco

[Rupp]

When I'm turning my blue tooth on, the plugin finds my Iphone and triggers an event. But when the screen of my iphone is turning off, the connection seems to be lost within a few minutes. It looks like the pluging cannot 'see' my phone anymore.
I'll find this very strange because, for example, my carkit can connect to the phone whether it's on or off.

This is normal as the phone shuts off bluetooth, wifi, etc when it goes to sleep. Many users are still trying to figure out how the bluetooth in the car stays connected. It's most likely something in the BlueTooth stack that differs.

[jon00]

Hello guys,

Thanx for you replies. I've installed Jon's bluetooth plugin, installation went fine in my opinion, but i still have a problem;

When i'm turning my bluetooth on, the plugin finds my Iphone and triggers an event. But when the screen of my iphone is turning off, the connection seems to be lost within a few minutes. It looks like the pluging cannot 'see' my phone anymore.
I'll find this very strange because, for example, my carkit can connect to the phone whether it's on or off.

I'm running the latest (dutch) firmware on my iphone

Does anybody have an idea?

Grz. Jaco

Did you pair the iPhone with the client?

What OS are you running the Bluetooth client on?

[Jaco]

Hi Jon,

First of all thanks for your reply.





This is a piece of text out of the document, the Bold text I added:

For Win 7 Users:
d1) Pairing with windows 7 creates its own 5 digit one which appears on the phone with messages to make sure
that both show the same (random) code. If they do, you hit Pair on the phone and next on the PC and they
complete pairing.

d2) Next go to the Bluetooth devices window and right click the phone icon for your Phone, select Services and untick Remotely Controllable Device and Wireless iAP


e) Right click on the icon again to stop pairing mode. It will also drop out of this mode after 2 minutes.
f) Set your phones Bluetooth discovery to hidden.



Till so far thanks for the plugin and the help.

[Jaco]

Does anybody knows where i can find the settins.txt file of Jon00's bluetooth software?