Geofencing

[pmp350]

I'm new to Homeseer (1 day) and looking for a way (the best way) to set up a geofence for two iPhones. I'm coming from Smartthings and it was easy to do. My main goal is to be able to set the temp on my thermostat when my wife and I are both away but re-set temp when only one of us returns. In Smartthings, that would work in a HOME and AWAY mode. I've set up an IFTTT recipe that works when I leave or come back but that will irritate my wife if the AC stops working when she is home and I'm out doing stuff.

Though I'm a card carrying member of AARP, speak to me like I'm a ten year old. Don't assume I already know stuff though I do learn quickly.

Thanking everyone in advance,

Paul from Florida.

[cheeryfool]

I'm new to Homeseer (1 day) and looking for a way (the best way) to set up a geofence for two iPhones. I'm coming from Smartthings and it was easy to do. My main goal is to be able to set the temp on my thermostat when my wife and I are both away but re-set temp when only one of us returns. In Smartthings, that would work in a HOME and AWAY mode. I've set up an IFTTT recipe that works when I leave or come back but that will irritate my wife if the AC stops working when she is home and I'm out doing stuff.

Though I'm a card carrying member of AARP, speak to me like I'm a ten year old. Don't assume I already know stuff though I do learn quickly.

Thanking everyone in advance,

Paul from Florida.

Hi Paul and welcome to HomeSeer

Here's what I recommend for you now on day 1.

You've made a great start by setting up IFTTT to control your thermostat.

1. I would suggest that decouple your existing IFTTT action from the thermostat and instead have it control a virtual Home/Away device for you.

2. Set up your wife with her own IFTTT account and an equivalent action that controls a virtual Home/Away device for her.

3. Set up a 3rd virtual Home/Away device for the house overall - you won't control this one directly from IFTTT

You may not have figured out how to create a virtual device (switch) yet, so go to the Device Management page and click the white on green cross button top right under the HomeSeer logo. Name the device "Paul Home/Away" or similar, then click Done at the bottom. Create the matching one for you wife, then the 3rd for the house, perhaps "House Home/Away". I would recommend changing the default On/Off values to Home/Away in the Status Graphics tab of each virtual device

Now to write some events...

I would split this into several events, which will allow you to expand the usage of Home/Away status for many other things.

Event 1.

Away:
[set up a recurring trigger here]
IF The event will trigger automatically every x minutes
AND IF Paul Home/Away = Away
AND IF Wife Home/Away = Away
AND IF House Home/Away = Home
THEN Set House Home/Away to Away


Home:
If Paul Home/Away changes and becomes Home
AND IF House Home/Away = Away

OR IF Wife Home/Away changes and becomes Home
AND IF House Home/Away = Away

THEN Set House Home/Away to Home

Now you are setting the state of the house based upon both of your home/away statuses, instead of just setting the thermostat based upon your status.

Create event number 3 (or more) to change the state of the thermostat based upon the state of the House virtual device changing.

There are so many ways that you can expand upon this. If you find that IFTTT isn't quite achieving what you are looking for, then search the forum for PHLocation. This is an amazing PlugIn that takes GeoFencing and Position location to another level. It integrates with many location apps on both iOS and Android phones and posts status to HomeSeer often more quickly than IFTTT and in some cases without relying on cloud services.

Fire back any questions

Good luck

James

[pmp350]

Thanks. I was looking at setting up virtual devices. This is GREAT help!!

[pmp350]

PHLocation

Could I have a little more info on PHLocation? How does it work and why would it be faster than IFTTT. What type of locations apps for IOS does it use and home would that integrate to HS. I did read how to install it but I'm a bit fuzzy there.

I've had issues with IFTTT not "firing" when I left an area and that is not good. I want something that is stable and quick. I'm using Smartthings now and it usually works as planned but usually is not good enough. I also use a Canary security camera and as I far as I can tell, it's geofencing is spot on.

Thanks,

Paul

[randy]

Could I have a little more info on PHLocation? How does it work and why would it be faster than IFTTT. What type of locations apps for IOS does it use and home would that integrate to HS. I did read how to install it but I'm a bit fuzzy there.

I've had issues with IFTTT not "firing" when I left an area and that is not good. I want something that is stable and quick. I'm using Smartthings now and it usually works as planned but usually is not good enough. I also use a Canary security camera and as I far as I can tell, it's geofencing is spot on.

Thanks,

Paul

PHLocation is a position based and fence based location plug-in. It works with Android using EGIGeoZone and Backitude. EGIGeozone was designed as a geofencing solution, but has position features in a beta release. Backitude is a position reporting application. Both applications post directly to your HS server. Th frequency that they update HS affects battery life.

For iPhone, you can use FollowMee or native iOS location services for position and geofencing. They are both cloud based, so they update their respective servers and PHL then polls the server. At best they update locations every 30 seconds, but will use a lot of battery for frequent updates. GeoFency is a geofence and iBeacon application that works with PHLocation on an iPhone.

I use native iOS location services and GeoFency. I use GeoFency for fence based triggers, because it is very reliable and posts directly to the HomeSeer server. I get nearly instant, reliable and accurate response to entry and exit od fence locations or iBeacons. I use the iOS support to get locations of the phones which gives me direction of travel, distance from known places and estimated travel time. The two programs work great together, each has its own strengths. With the two together I can:

• Know who is at home or work and who is not
• Know who is in which vehicle
• Get an estimate of who is approaching home and the approximate travel time.
• Control location reporting intervals to conserve battery life
• Generate static maps to show most recent location for each device (iPhone, iPad or MacBook)
• Monitor battery levels on iPhones
• Keep a history of locations or fence triggers

I find it much faster, easier and more reliable than IFTTT recipes. My wife and I both have iPhone 6 plus phones and start the day with full batteries and always have 70-80% remaining at the end of the day. I understand that a iPhone 6 will have slightly less battery remaining. iPhone 5 models are about the same.

[pmp350]

Geofency and PHLocation

I find it much faster, easier and more reliable than IFTTT recipes. My wife and I both have iPhone 6 plus phones and start the day with full batteries and always have 70-80% remaining at the end of the day. I understand that a iPhone 6 will have slightly less battery remaining. iPhone 5 models are about the same.

Randy,
Thank you for the GREAT answer!! As it seems you have "All things Apple" as do I, I'm going with your suggestion. My wife has a 6+ and I have an SE. Both have iPads and MBPros.

I have downloaded Geofency for me and starting to configure that. Could you point me in the correct direction as how to install PHLocation and integrate the plug-in and Geofency within HS?

Thanks,

Paul

[pmp350]

Virtual Switches - Geofencing

I'm also assuming that I would need to set up virtual switches to augment PHLocation and Geofency (?)

[w.vuyk]

For PHLocation go to this thread: http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=162373 You can download the plugin from there.

In the user guide you will find how to use geofency with this plugin. It works great for me!

Wim

[pmp350]

PHLocation Installation

OK....things are starting to get fuzzy....

First off, I'm expecting my SEL today so I don't have anything to look at now. I've used HS for a day with the less expensive hardware version and saw the potential so I returned it to upgrade to the SEL and HS3. I like HS way better than Wink, Vera, Homekit and my current Smartthings set-up.

I'm working with a MacBook Pro....

That being said, I downloaded PHLocation and reviewed the set-up files. It says to move the folder to the root directory of HS3. Will I be able to do that through the web interface using my MBP or do I need to attach a monitor, keyboard and mouse to the SEL and work directly through the unit? I'm not familiar with LINUX commands so it I have to work inside LINUX I'm going to need some specific direction.

If I can do everything through the web interface then I'm feeling more confident.

Thanking all in advance,

AARP Paul from Florida

[cheeryfool]

I'm also assuming that I would need to set up virtual switches to augment PHLocation and Geofency (?)

PHLocation creates all the devices for you automatically as you set up the various users, places and fences. Definitely need to read and understand the documentation though. Also Paul (aka 'sooty'), the developer, is very responsive to posts and feature requests, if you post in the PHLocation sub-forum.

[cheeryfool]

That being said, I downloaded PHLocation and reviewed the set-up files. It says to move the folder to the root directory of HS3. Will I be able to do that through the web interface using my MBP or do I need to attach a monitor, keyboard and mouse to the SEL and work directly through the unit? I'm not familiar with LINUX commands so it I have to work inside LINUX I'm going to need some specific direction.

If I can do everything through the web interface then I'm feeling more confident.

The HS web interface doesn't provide native file management, so that won't work. If you have access to a Windows machine, you could use WinSCP which is an integrated file-management and FTP tool. If you only have the MBP then FileZilla is possibly the easiest solution to use. Both of these provide a dual pane setup with your local machine files in the left panel and the remote (SEL) machine in the right panel. You can drag and drop files between them.

[pmp350]

Filezilla

I only have the MBP so I'll get FileZilla. How do I get the HS3 file structure to show on the MBP? Do I need to connect the SEL to the MBP with hardware? Or, will I be able to see it through the network. The MBP and the SEL will both have Ethernet connections.

The fog is lifting but I don't want to mess things up. I know enough about computers to make major mistakes

Thanks,

AARPaul in Florida

[pmp350]

Plan B

I downloaded PHLocation to a portable USB drive. Can I plug that drive into the SEL and move the files to the root folder that way?

My gut feeling is I should do this thinking the SEL is a stand alone unit by setting up a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Once I do this and add power to the SEL, what do I need to do get LINUX running, on the SEL so I can move the files.

Please speak to me as a 10 year old. Don't assume I know what I should know.

Thanks everyone for the help!! I'm getting closer to understand though my SEL has not been delivered yet.

AARPaul in Florida

[cheeryfool]

I downloaded PHLocation to a portable USB drive. Can I plug that drive into the SEL and move the files to the root folder that way?

My gut feeling is I should do this thinking the SEL is a stand alone unit by setting up a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Once I do this and add power to the SEL, what do I need to do get LINUX running, on the SEL so I can move the files.

Please speak to me as a 10 year old. Don't assume I know what I should know.

Thanks everyone for the help!! I'm getting closer to understand though my SEL has not been delivered yet.

AARPaul in Florida

If you have a monitor, mouse and kb, that will certainly be easier for the initial setup.

Here's a link to the SEL setup instructions that should also come in the box when your SEL arrives:

http://www.homeseer.com/guides/HomeT...tart-Guide.pdf

[pmp350]

PHLocation Installation

The installation guide does not have the same file directory that I have in my new SEL.

Can someone point me in the same direction and/or give me some specific instructions, please?

Thanks,