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    How to disable icloud polling with event

    I thought I read something before about being able to disable iCloud location polling from an event. But I can't seem to find it again. I'm thinking that I can use geofences as a trigger to temporarily disable/enable polling of the iCloud location information. This should help to save battery on the devices when I'm at a known location such as home or work.

    It may also be helpful to be able to set the poll interval based on some other condition. For example, I have a beacon in my car. If I'm in the car's geofence, assume that I'm moving and poll iCloud position more frequently. If I'm not in my car and not at home or work, then poll, but at a slower interval. If I am at home or work, then there's no need to poll.

    #2
    Originally posted by Jon View Post
    I thought I read something before about being able to disable iCloud location polling from an event. But I can't seem to find it again. I'm thinking that I can use geofences as a trigger to temporarily disable/enable polling of the iCloud location information. This should help to save battery on the devices when I'm at a known location such as home or work.

    It may also be helpful to be able to set the poll interval based on some other condition. For example, I have a beacon in my car. If I'm in the car's geofence, assume that I'm moving and poll iCloud position more frequently. If I'm not in my car and not at home or work, then poll, but at a slower interval. If I am at home or work, then there's no need to poll.
    You would use an event action to Control A Device. The device is the interval child for the iCloud account you want to suspend. Set the interval to "Pause". To resume it just set it to a new interval or "Default".

    I use GeoFency triggers to adjust polling intervals just as you describe. We set the polling to a faster rate and do a manual update when we leave a fence. The increased rate when we leave a fence is reduced after a fixed period of time in the event we do not enter another fence. When we enter a home or work fence we do a forced update and reduce the interval.
    Last edited by randy; March 6, 2017, 11:13 AM.
    HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

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      #3
      Thanks Randy. I just wasn't thinking along those lines. I see it now. I was initially searching for an enable or active property I could set.

      As I'm going to set up this event, I'm seeing that the interval devices are referenced by number. I assume I can probably just rename those devices with no ill effects. But I'm wondering if it might be a worthwhile feature request to have a function like the devices where it will walk the child devices and rename them appropriately if the parent name changes.

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        #4
        Originally posted by rprade View Post
        The increased rate when we leave a fence is reduced after a fixed period of time in the event we do not enter another fence.
        What value are you using for that fixed period of time? Curious as to your thought process on how you arrived at that appropriate timeout value.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Jon View Post
          What value are you using for that fixed period of time? Curious as to your thought process on how you arrived at that appropriate timeout value.
          Our default rate is 10 minutes.

          We use 1 minute updates for the first 30 minutes after leaving a work or home fence. This rapid update more accurately provides estimation for direction of travel and distance to/from iDevice locations. Then after 30 minutes we set it to a 10 minute interval. If we are more than 50 miles from home, it is reduced to 30 minutes. If we are at a known location, the interval is 30 minutes. If the battery is below 50% it will not go to the faster update intervals, but will remain at 30 minutes. If the battery is below 30% we reduce the updates to 60 minutes.

          We use a hybrid of GeoFency and iDevice fences in some events as a means of positively determining if we are home or away. We also use iBeacons to determine who is driving which vehicle.

          Our phones generally have 75-80% of the battery remaining at the end of a normal work day.

          Rapid updates can be enabled on demand, if my wife wants to follow my travels on a dynamic map. These faster updates can remain as long as the battery level supports it.
          HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

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            #6
            Thanks Randy, that's very helpful to know. I'm thinking mostly along similar lines. I hadn't thought to tie update frequency to battery levels. That's a good idea.

            We don't drive each other's cars, so we don't need to know who is driving what, but we will be in the same car together at times, so it's nice to know that.

            I assume your 30 minute window correlates to an average drive time in your area. Around here, most commutes are 45 minutes or more, so I'd probably have a longer cycle for that.

            You must have a ton of events in your system. That must take some good organization on your part to keep track of it all.

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              #7
              Originally posted by Jon View Post
              Thanks Randy, that's very helpful to know. I'm thinking mostly along similar lines. I hadn't thought to tie update frequency to battery levels. That's a good idea.

              We don't drive each other's cars, so we don't need to know who is driving what, but we will be in the same car together at times, so it's nice to know that.

              I assume your 30 minute window correlates to an average drive time in your area. Around here, most commutes are 45 minutes or more, so I'd probably have a longer cycle for that.

              You must have a ton of events in your system. That must take some good organization on your part to keep track of it all.
              I don't know if there is a better organization method, but I can usually find my events. They are in mostly small groups, but with a lot of groups. I also use Event Types within the event groups for additional filtering.

              I have just shy of 100 event groups.

              Number of Devices: 2175
              Number of Events: 1382
              HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

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