Presence detection. What works?

Afternoon.

Can anyone tell me a way to have reliable presence detetection? What is everyone else using? Since coming to Indigo I have tried a few beacon plugins, Ifindstuff as well as UnifiAp. They all seem to kinda work but either go unsupported or have small bugs that render them unreliable. The closest I have come so far is UnifiAp but seems like at times our IPhone must fall asleep and drop off the network. Then the house sets itself to away while we are still home.

I also saw PiBeacon and was considering that route but I really want a single solution for all my home automation as I already use Vera just for my garage door. I am trying to limit the amount of adding devices I need to get the house to do what I want it to. Is what I am looking for out there,?

I've found the PiBeacon plugin using multiple rPis with tiles (XY from Amazon and MagicFinders from Office Depot) to be reliable enough for me; the tiles do need new 2032s about every 6 to 9 months and occasionally the wrong door unlocks when we walk up to the house because one of the rPis is rebooting (they update themselves and reboot on a regular basis, which is why a single rPi wouldn't be recommended... I've got one by each of the 4 doors into the house with a triggered script to unlock whatever door is closest when any validated beacon goes from expired to up... smartphones either drop out when they go to sleep or eat up battery if you order them to stay awake.and either geofence or connect to wifi.

Home Remote works for me.

Home Remote works for me.

Same for me.

There's another option for Homebridge that's pretty slick too. I use HomeKit geofencing myself.

There's another option for Homebridge that's pretty slick too. I use HomeKit geofencing myself.

I’m using a HomeKit automation to trigger the Arrive Home and Leave Home which turns on my home accessory which toggles my home variable. I think it might be a bit more reliable than Home Remote for me.



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The plugin for Homebridge is nothing more than a low level system ping to an IP address but it's daemon based so it takes zero resources. I "static DHCP" my network anyway so I can detect any possible intrusions so it works just fine for me. The Geofencing will be even better when Apple Watch has cellular service.

I bought a RPi 3 and have been testing PiBeacon last few days. So far I am very happy. Wife and I keep our keys in the garage so after testing is finished I was just going to position this Pi out there. My concern is how often is there a need to reboot or tinker with this unit since it will most likely remain headless?

The plugin for Homebridge is nothing more than a low level system ping to an IP address but it's daemon based so it takes zero resources. I "static DHCP" my network anyway so I can detect any possible intrusions so it works just fine for me. The Geofencing will be even better when Apple Watch has cellular service.

Very cool. Are you using homebridge-ping or homebridge-people?

For pibeacon: If you don't change anything it should just run. I have a rpi1 and that has been running unchanged for 14 months now without any issue.

For using ping as presence detection: using fing+fingscan does ping and low level ip device detection it will tell if a device is connected or offline. And it will tell if there is any new device on the network as soon as it connects and sends out a broadcast or answers pings
If an intruder does not send out broadcast or anything that goes across the network or answers ping none of the regular methods will detect it. Only the router will be able to tell



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For pibeacon: If you don't change anything it should just run. I have a rpi1 and that has been running unchanged for 14 months now without any issue.

For using ping as presence detection: using fing+fingscan does ping and low level ip device detection it will tell if a device is connected or offline. And it will tell if there is any new device on the network as soon as it connects and sends out a broadcast or answers pings
If an intruder does not send out broadcast or anything that goes across the network or answers ping none of the regular methods will detect it. Only the router will be able to tell



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Home Remote works for me.

Hi,
Would anyone using home remote for presence mind detailing what it does/how it works? As I understand it home remote is an app that is running on the phone of each person you want to track presence for, so you would setup a geofence alert on each phone that sends some kind of notification that indigo can pick up, is that right?

I'd prefer to have something that was in the house and simply recognised someone coming into the house ie allowing me to use Bluetooth tags etc rather than rely on an app running on the kids phones etc which they don't always take out of the house with them (when going to our local river for instance)

Thanks


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Home Remote works for me.

I'd prefer to have something that was in the house and simply recognised someone coming into the house ie allowing me to use Bluetooth tags etc rather than rely on an app running on the kids phones etc which they don't always take out of the house with them (when going to our local river for instance)

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That's why I use the PiBeacon plugin and bluetooth tags on everybody's keys (or in my case my fitbit, which is also a beacon)... I haven't actually tried Home Remote, but several other "geofencing" options I have played with have all made my IPhone battery go from lasting 2-3 days to almost dead when I get home in the evening even if it's been charged overnight before I leave in the morning. But maybe the 7 I'll be getting once the new model release makes the price affordable will do better.

Thanks John, which tags are you using? For £35 for a rpi3 I think I'll give it a go!


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I originally bought a triplet of FinditXYs for $35US (not sure of the current exchange rate) from Amazon here in the states, but then found the local office supply had some "Magic Finders" which are twice the size of the XYs, but easier to change the batteries in for $9.99 each. If you look in Karl's Plugin directory, he's got a lot of other recommendations. And if you don't mind building your own box for it and digging up a USB power source from somewhere, the Pi0-W is a Pi3 without the plugin wall wart or 40 pin GPIO connector for half the price.