Location and HomeKit Bridge

FYI, if you setup http://www.indigodomo.com/pluginstore/172/HomeKit Bridge you can create location based triggers in the Home app. I use virtual devices to carry the information into Indigo. Either modify a variable, trip a trigger etc.

For room level awareness inside your home I would suggest checking out the http://www.indigodomo.com/pluginstore/59/PiBeacon plugin.

FYI, if you setup http://www.indigodomo.com/pluginstore/172/HomeKit Bridge you can create location based triggers in the Home app. I use virtual devices to carry the information into Indigo. Either modify a variable, trip a trigger etc.

For room level awareness inside your home I would suggest checking out the http://www.indigodomo.com/pluginstore/59/PiBeacon plugin.

Wait whoah what? I toyed with HomeKit but missed this functionality! I know what I’m doing when I get home.

In the meantime, you can use the combo of ifttt webhooks and Dave’s httpd plugin to modify a variable based on where you are, even if it’s not home.

FYI, if you setup http://www.indigodomo.com/pluginstore/172/HomeKit Bridge you can create location based triggers in the Home app. I use virtual devices to carry the information into Indigo. Either modify a variable, trip a trigger etc.

So how is location information derived? What sensor is used to derive position of a specific object (person) in a room?

For room level awareness inside your home I would suggest checking out the http://www.indigodomo.com/pluginstore/59/PiBeacon plugin.

Interesting. Does this use the BLE to sense the presence/distance from a phone? This suggests I need to put a pi in each room I want to sense. That is not out of the question but I could use a bit more info. The info about the plugin wasn't too detailed.

FYI, if you setup http://www.indigodomo.com/pluginstore/172/HomeKit Bridge you can create location based triggers in the Home app. I use virtual devices to carry the information into Indigo. Either modify a variable, trip a trigger etc.

So how is location information derived? What sensor is used to derive position of a specific object (person) in a room?

I created an automation in the Home app that is triggered by a GeoFence when I get home, and another for when I leave. The automation turns on a virtual device linked through HomeKit to Indigo. It's useful for presence awareness, or knowing who is at home. There are options for when anyone leaves, last person leaves, someone arrives, etc.

For room level awareness inside your home I would suggest checking out the http://www.indigodomo.com/pluginstore/59/PiBeacon plugin.

Interesting. Does this use the BLE to sense the presence/distance from a phone? This suggests I need to put a pi in each room I want to sense. That is not out of the question but I could use a bit more info. The info about the plugin wasn't too detailed.

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Yes it uses BLE and you do need multiples. The number really depends on the size of your home. Though one in every room is likely overkill. I would read through the forum for this one as there is a lot going on.

I'm also using a Homekit automation & virtual device to drive presence detection in Indigo. I find it works WAY better than everything else I've tried.

Well, we’ll see how it goes today: made a handful of virtual devices last night and set I up actions to change them.

Worked nicely!

Worked nicely!

I spoke too soon. It notes every member of the house coming and going EXCEPT my wife leaving.

Any thoughts?

Worked nicely!

I spoke too soon. It notes every member of the house coming and going EXCEPT my wife leaving.

Any thoughts?

EDIT: -But it notes when she arrives?-

Re-read and I'm guessing it doesn't note either way. I would check and make sure you're wife's location services settings are correct on her iPhone.

In reading the homekit bridge doc, I am getting lost. What is the exact relationship between homekit bridge and the Home app? From what I have gleaned from the doc and what people are saying here is that Homekit Bridge makes selected Indigo device appear as devices in Home. The ideal of using a geofence to identify iPhones that are at home or away would be a good start for determining operating mode for Indigo (home vs. away). What isn't obvious to me is how to push that information from Home to Indigo. I am guessing that when someone comes or goes I need to invoke a trigger to either increment or decrement a counter of "people at home" or to have a boolean for each person the system knows indicating their at-home status.

If there is more detailed documentation or someone has an example, I could sure use it.

Thank you.

You’re on the right track. HomeKit bridge allows Indigo devices to be published to, and operated by, HomeKit. HomeKit has some built in triggering functions, and the potentially useful one involves GPS tagging for weather members of the home are, well, home or away. Presently, if I arrive home, that is the trigger to toggle on an Indigo virtual device that I created and published to Homekir, and that virtual devices toggle off when I leave home.

EDIT: -But it notes when she arrives?-

YES!

It is maddening. Based on some quick reading at work, when I should otherwise be working, it occurred to me that she may be dropping off Wi-Fi and searching for a cellular signal at exactly the moment that her phone is trying to send information to my Apple TV.

My options Included telling my wife to alter her speed of departure, possibly decreasing the RSSI on my Wi-Fi (possibly), or increasing my Geofence radius. Oh, wait, I’m not given an option for changing the radius for the “Home” option. I think I’ll tell her to walk faster and see how that goes (joking).

@bryanlloyd- this is a screenshot from the HomeKit app, with Geo triggers:

And here are Indigo Virtual Devices for each person:

And the above as represented in HomeKit:

EDIT: -But it notes when she arrives?-

YES!

It is maddening. Based on some quick reading at work, when I should otherwise be working, it occurred to me that she may be dropping off Wi-Fi and searching for a cellular signal at exactly the moment that her phone is trying to send information to my Apple TV.

My options Included telling my wife to alter her speed of departure, possibly decreasing the RSSI on my Wi-Fi (possibly), or increasing my Geofence radius. Oh, wait, I’m not given an option for changing the radius for the “Home” option. I think I’ll tell her to walk faster and see how that goes (joking).

You can change the size of the geofence, however it has to be created on her device. You can create a geofence anywhere and any size you want for the device you are using. In other words you can't create a geofence for someone else except the default of home.

I'm intrigued by the HomeKit location trigger thing. But I keep getting confused up in trying to set this up. Can somebody step me through it on a fairly novice level? [Background: I've got HKB set up and functioning well on my Indigo installation. There are two people I would want to know if they are home/away, myself and my wife. ]

So, I'm guessing I have to set up and Indigo Virtual Device for each person?
...and a variable for each person?
...and then add the two virtual devices to HKB so I can see them in the Home app?
using the device state to trigger a change in the person's variable? right?

But in setting up a virtual device (which I have no experience with) I'm not sure what options to pick in the configuration dialog.

Note to Moderators - this might be better off in a separate thread.