Reaction Time to trigger an event

[carletondm]

How fast can I expect this plugin to react to trigger an event? Say I want to trigger an event when I cross a geofence a half or quarter mile from my house. Is it realistic to expect that the event would trigger by the time i reach home? (Driving, not walking) so, maybe 30 seconds? I have an iPhone if that makes a difference.

[randy]

How fast can I expect this plugin to react to trigger an event? Say I want to trigger an event when I cross a geofence a half or quarter mile from my house. Is it realistic to expect that the event would trigger by the time i reach home? (Driving, not walking) so, maybe 30 seconds? I have an iPhone if that makes a difference.

Using an iPhone, I use GeoFency and the native iOS support of this plug-in. Prior to using the native iOS support I used FollowMee for position data. For the purposes of this discussion, the performance of FollowMee and the native iCloud support is essentially the same. For position applications, there is a delay because the phone has to post to the cloud, then PHLocation must poll the service. Depending on your update frequency, this delay is a minimum of about a minute.

For fencing (GeoFency) this app posts directly to my HomeSeer server and initiates posting virtually the instant the fence boundary is crossed. We use a 100 meter radius for the home fence. Every evening when my wife comes home from work I get a spoken notification that she is home a few seconds before she pulls in the driveway. I use GeoFency triggers, combined with iBeacon (fences in GeoFency) and driveway motion to trigger opening the garage door when I get home. It opens as soon as I pull in the driveway.

So the bottom line is that position based applications that provide fences are not going to be rapid responding. Fence based apps are virtually instant.

On an Android, Backitude posts directly to the HomeSeer server so it does not have any added "cloud delay" but because it is a scheduled reporting application it can have some delay. EgiGeozone is a good fence application to compliment Backitude.

On both iOS and Android, it seems best to have a position application complimented by a pure geofence application.

Paul, the author of this plug-in is dealing with some personal matters that will keep him away for the near term.

[waynehead99]

My experience on iPhone. I figured out a way to deal with timing for my needs at least.

All I use this for is to know when my wife and I are home or not. I don't personally care to know where my wife is at or a need to know location other than "are you home or not". I use it to lock up the house if we forget and drop the temp right now. I will probably add more as the need arises though.

So I have it set to poll every 10 minutes, which works fine except when I am coming home. I want the house to know when I am in the garage and unlock the door and turn on the heater (well I guess now the AC). What I do to get immediate response is have an event set to trigger every 30 seconds to force a location update on the phone when the garage door has been opened. I don't think the phone will actually poll location more often than 1 minute, but this works.

I need to fine tune my event so that it knows to stop the polling once the door is unlocked to keep the unneeded polls down, but it is working.

[carletondm]

RPrade,

Thanks for the info. Whats the difference between a position based application and a fence-based app?

[randy]

RPrade,

Thanks for the info. Whats the difference between a position based application and a fence-based app?

A position application like native iOS support or FollowMee sends the actual position of the phone on a schedule, usually once every 1-10 minutes. There is also other data sent, depending on the application, such as speed, battery level, fix type, etc. The "fences" for a position based application are created in PHLocation and the crossing of the fence boundaries is calculated by the latitude and longitude sent to PHLocation on the predefined interval. The fence boundaries are set within the plug-in. With FollowMee the interval is fixed and set within the phone. With iOS location services, the interval can be dynamically set within the plug-in. With either FM or iOS location services, there is no mechanism to initiate a post of coordinates when a fence boundary is crossed, they simply will update PHLocation based upon the interval set in the app or plug-in.

A fencing application on the phone doesn't send coordinates, it simply sends that you entered or departed a defined location set within the phone. The advantage of a fence type of application is that an update is triggered when the device crosses a fence boundary. The advantage is that the update is triggered by the boundary, not a polling interval. The result is a near instant update with very little impact on the device's battery.

I consider the two applications complimentary. I use the GeoFency triggers to let me know when a known location is entered or departed. This can be used as Wayne does to set lighting, heat, security or other items. Since I use native iCloud location support, I also use the fence application to change the polling interval of the location data. To conserve battery life on the phone, i reduce the polling interval when we are at known places and increase it when we are traveling. I also adjust the interval based upon distance from home, reducing it when we are far away, increasing it when we are near.

For example, when my wife is at work, I reduce the polling interval to 10 minutes, when she departs work, I increase the polling as she travels home. This increased interval is reduced when she gets home or if a certain time elapses. This way we get good position data, balanced with decent battery life. The same rules are applied to my phone. When either of us departs a known location a forced update is triggered, along with increased polling frequency. When we enter a known location another force update is performed, followed by reduced polling frequency. Under all circumstances increased polling frequency is only maintained for an hour - if that time is passed the polling is reduced to conserve battery. We also reduce the polling even further when the battery is below 70% and pause it altogether if the battery is below 40%. At the end of every work day our phones are usually at 75-80% battery remaining.

There is a lot more we do with PHLocation data, such as iBeacons in every vehicle. That way I have logic as to who is in any vehicle and where they are. When I ride home on my motorcycle, HomeSeer knows I am on the bike, that I just arrived home (fence) and the motion sensors on the driveway know when I ride to the garage door, which opens for me. It will not open unless all of the conditions are met. This saves me from fumbling for a garage door opener when I'm on the bike. If the garage is left open, it will be closed when the home fence is departed as long as both of us are away. The security system is armed when the last person leaves the house (fence) and is disarmed when one of us arrives, as long as we arrive in one of our vehicles. If the last person leaves and any doors or windows are left open, we get a Pushover message letting us know.

[waynehead99]

A position application like native iOS support or FollowMee sends the actual position of the phone on a schedule, usually once every 1-10 minutes. There is also other data sent, depending on the application, such as speed, battery level, fix type, etc. The "fences" for a position based application are created in PHLocation and the crossing of the fence boundaries is calculated by the latitude and longitude sent to PHLocation on the predefined interval. The fence boundaries are set within the plug-in. With FollowMee the interval is fixed and set within the phone. With iOS location services, the interval can be dynamically set within the plug-in. With either FM or iOS location services, there is no mechanism to initiate a post of coordinates when a fence boundary is crossed, they simply will update PHLocation based upon the interval set in the app or plug-in.



A fencing application on the phone doesn't send coordinates, it simply sends that you entered or departed a defined location set within the phone. The advantage of a fence type of application is that an update is triggered when the device crosses a fence boundary. The advantage is that the update is triggered by the boundary, not a polling interval. The result is a near instant update with very little impact on the device's battery.



I consider the two applications complimentary. I use the GeoFency triggers to let me know when a known location is entered or departed. This can be used as Wayne does to set lighting, heat, security or other items. Since I use native iCloud location support, I also use the fence application to change the polling interval of the location data. To conserve battery life on the phone, i reduce the polling interval when we are at known places and increase it when we are traveling. I also adjust the interval based upon distance from home, reducing it when we are far away, increasing it when we are near.



For example, when my wife is at work, I reduce the polling interval to 10 minutes, when she departs work, I increase the polling as she travels home. This increased interval is reduced when she gets home or if a certain time elapses. This way we get good position data, balanced with decent battery life. The same rules are applied to my phone. When either of us departs a known location a forced update is triggered, along with increased polling frequency. When we enter a known location another force update is performed, followed by reduced polling frequency. Under all circumstances increased polling frequency is only maintained for an hour - if that time is passed the polling is reduced to conserve battery. We also reduce the polling even further when the battery is below 70% and pause it altogether if the battery is below 40%. At the end of every work day our phones are usually at 75-80% battery remaining.



There is a lot more we do with PHLocation data, such as iBeacons in every vehicle. That way I have logic as to who is in any vehicle and where they are. When I ride home on my motorcycle, HomeSeer knows I am on the bike, that I just arrived home (fence) and the motion sensors on the driveway know when I ride to the garage door, which opens for me. It will not open unless all of the conditions are met. This saves me from fumbling for a garage door opener when I'm on the bike. If the garage is left open, it will be closed when the home fence is departed as long as both of us are away. The security system is armed when the last person leaves the house (fence) and is disarmed when one of us arrives, as long as we arrive in one of our vehicles. If the last person leaves and any doors or windows are left open, we get a Pushover message letting us know.

Randy, I really want to get some more details about how you are handling the bike events. I have been trying to wrap my head around that one and sounds like you have it.

Don't need to high jack this thread though. I can PM you.

[randy]

Randy, I really want to get some more details about how you are handling the bike events. I have been trying to wrap my head around that one and sounds like you have it.

Don't need to high jack this thread though. I can PM you.

You can PM or call. I will put together a post tonight tomorrow in a new thread with screenshots of the events.

[carletondm]

Thanks so much, Randy. That's great information. I had never even heard about iBeacons! Does Geofency detect iBeacons?

[randy]

Thanks so much, Randy. That's great information. I had never even heard about iBeacons! Does Geofency detect iBeacons?

Yes. I purchased 6 Twocanoes iBeacons from Amazon. They were put on sale for about $15 each, unfortunately they are no longer available. I bought them because I already knew they worked for what I wanted. I'm sure there are others that work as well. I put a 12V to USB power adapter ($7) in each vehicle, controlled by accessory power, then plugged the iBeacons in. GeoFency lets you set the beacons up just like a fence, but these low powered beacons are only good for ~15-30 feet, perfect for detecting occupancy in/on a vehicle.

Below is a screenshot from GeoFency, my two fences are at the top, the next 4 are beacons. When you enter /leave an iBeacon, GeoFency posts it to the HS server, just like a Geo Fence. Looking at the screenshot, it has been far too long since I've been on the bike - I need to do something about that

The second screenshot are the devices in HomeSeer. I just walked out top the bike and turned it on, you can see it posted immediately that I was near it.

[waynehead99]

Randy. Do you think something like this would work for that same application?

http://m.banggood.com/IBeacon-Blueto...gn=xie-US&ebay

[randy]

Randy. Do you think something like this would work for that same application?

http://m.banggood.com/IBeacon-Blueto...gn=xie-US&ebay

It should. I went with powered ones so that they would turn on and off with the vehicle. The one you linked creates a constant beacon, but you can set the power level down to the minimum (-23dBm) and it should only have a 10-15 foot range.

[Duc998]

Great info guys.

Any suggestions for beacons for mixed environment? I'm on android wifes on iphone.

wayneheads link looks like it might cover both ibeacon and BLE for andriod?

Thanks
Troy

[cheeryfool]

Yes. I purchased 6 Twocanoes iBeacons from Amazon. They were put on sale for about $15 each, unfortunately they are no longer available. I bought them because I already knew they worked for what I wanted. I'm sure there are others that work as well. I put a 12V to USB power adapter ($7) in each vehicle, controlled by accessory power, then plugged the iBeacons in. GeoFency lets you set the beacons up just like a fence, but these low powered beacons are only good for ~15-30 feet, perfect for detecting occupancy in/on a vehicle.



Below is a screenshot from GeoFency, my two fences are at the top, the next 4 are beacons. When you enter /leave an iBeacon, GeoFency posts it to the HS server, just like a Geo Fence. Looking at the screenshot, it has been far too long since I've been on the bike - I need to do something about that



The second screenshot are the devices in HomeSeer. I just walked out top the bike and turned it on, you can see it posted immediately that I was near it.

So, I've been playing around with this. I bought Rad Beacons for each car. Small issue with my older Audi is that the only place for a USB device is in an adaptor plugged into the lighter, which is always on. I guess I could wire something elsewhere, but it hasn't really been causing any issues as I use the phone proximity to the beacon as a condition, not a trigger. Newer Toyota has 2 additional lighter style sockets and a dedicated USB port that are all switched along with a lighter one that isn't.

Far bigger issue is that I have such poor cell reception in my immediate neighbourhood that crossing my Home geofence (my trigger) fails to post to HomeSeer about 90% of the time. I've tried moving my fence, but to get clean posts to HS3 I need to have the fence larger than I am really comfortable with.

Cell service in the house has been solved by AT&T adding their WiFi calling feature. The other networks are all atrocious where we are too.

I may have to try adding an outdoor AP to the front of the house to see if the phone will hook onto that as I drive by on my way around the corner to the driveway.

[Rvtravlr]

Randy,

How do you use the iBeacons? Do you have one pair with your phone while in the vehicle? If you do, how do you then pair to the vehicle for hands free use?

Thanks,

Michael

[randy]

Randy,

How do you use the iBeacons? Do you have one pair with your phone while in the vehicle? If you do, how do you then pair to the vehicle for hands free use?

Thanks,

Michael

Multiple iBeacons can pair with the phone without affecting other Bluetooth pairings. They use different pairing schemes. I can place or answer phone calls or listen to music on my motorcycle or in our cars and each of them also has an iBeacon that triggers a GeoFency post to HomeSeer when entering or leaving the proximity of the iBeacon.