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Geofence / Location / Wifi not always on issues on Android, advice needed

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    Geofence / Location / Wifi not always on issues on Android, advice needed

    This issue is a little more complex to describe. I have 2 phones at home, which I use to tell the house if we are in or out.
    On my phone, Samsung S6 with Android 5, all is good and working reliably.
    I use a combination of autolocation and tasker on the phone, to turn a virtual device on my HS3 on or off. I also use my Wifi connection on the phone, if I haven't had a ping for longer than 20 mins, it turns my phone to away. As well, when it logs on to wifi, it turns the phone to home (it it was away). So all eventualities covered.
    Now, the problem. This setup does not work on my wifes phone, a Samsung A3 on Android 6.01 (which is part of the problem I think)
    First of all autolocation does not always activate. No idea why. WiFi always on on ANdroid 6.0.1 does not work. The WiFi goes to sleep. So I cannot use the no ping for 20 minutes - turn phone to away. Also when she comes home, Wifi is very often still asleep. So to use that to turn the phone to home doesn't work either. This combined with the patchy autolocation (btw I use the same settings as on my phone) makes it completely unusable.

    Any ideas of either how to make my setup work reliably, or any other suggestions for a reliable solution please ?
    Last edited by mikee123; May 10, 2017, 08:55 AM.

    #2
    I ran into these same issues with android. I found the PHLocation plugin and the Backitude android app accomplish both geofencing and location.

    https://forums.homeseer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1488

    J.Hopple

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      #3
      When I first learned about geofencing in relation to HomeSeer/Blue Iris, I was excited with the possibilities. I tried GPS/APP based and wifi connected status. But after using it for a few days, I decided it was more hassle than improvement.

      I found:

      1. Had to have GPS on before arriving home. I seldom leave GPS on since it uses more battery. If I need it for maps, I turn it on and then off when done. Generally, I am reluctant to leave GPS on since I don't like Google tracking where I go.

      2. Testing wifi connectivity was not reliable since my android phone would drop wifi when not in use.

      In the end, I rationalized that is was not that important to let HS3 automatically know I was home. I have a button on my HSTouch app that indicates away or home. Simple enough.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by logbuilder View Post
        When I first learned about geofencing in relation to HomeSeer/Blue Iris, I was excited with the possibilities. I tried GPS/APP based and wifi connected status. But after using it for a few days, I decided it was more hassle than improvement.

        I found:

        1. Had to have GPS on before arriving home. I seldom leave GPS on since it uses more battery. If I need it for maps, I turn it on and then off when done. Generally, I am reluctant to leave GPS on since I don't like Google tracking where I go.

        2. Testing wifi connectivity was not reliable since my android phone would drop wifi when not in use.

        In the end, I rationalized that is was not that important to let HS3 automatically know I was home. I have a button on my HSTouch app that indicates away or home. Simple enough.
        I agree, simple enough. If it was happening on my phone, it wouldn't be a problem. But its the other half... so no chance of her pressing a button, even less using HSTouch... and we have gotten used to it all happen automatically for the last 2 years or more, first with Vera, then HS3. So it would be quite a step back. I'd rather try and go to Android 5 on my wifes phone... but I still believe it is possible to get a working solution on Android 6.0.1

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          #5
          Originally posted by jhopple View Post
          I ran into these same issues with android. I found the PHLocation plugin and the Backitude android app accomplish both geofencing and location.

          https://forums.homeseer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1488

          J.Hopple
          That is one solution I am going to install and test hopefully over the weekend. Not sure how difficult it is to implement though

          Comment


            #6
            I have code on my wifi router that lets my Vera system know my phone is connected, it sets the value of a virtual switch... Anyone know of example code that will do the same with Homeseer?

            Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

            Comment


              #7
              It's a little convoluted but, I used IFTTT to detect when my phone disconnected from my wifi router and then turn on a virtual device in homeseer. It seemed to work pretty well but IFTTT was sometimes slow to talk to homeseer.

              The problem I had was anytime I disconnected from wifi for whatever reason, it looks like am I not at home. Which is why geofencing works better for me.

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                #8
                Jhopple
                Thanks for the info. On my Vera I use 3 methods... Ping, code that runs on the router, and geofence. Covers all bases as I found geofence to lag and not be very precise... I need the ping and router code to know, for sure, when I'm in my house to properly set my alarm panel

                Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

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