Smartphone Radar - Smartphone presence detection (Locked)

[philc]

I need a little help...I am using iPhones with an Airport Extreme and 2 Time Capsules providing wireless coverage throughout my house (worst possible case, it seems). However, I have my routers forwarding sys logs to my Mac Mini Server, have the server logs forwarded to the correct port, and I can see the SNMP info in the Indigo logs...so I think I have the backbone set up properly.

Problem is, the plugin doesn't detect my phone being home unless I reload the plugin. I can see my iPhone's mac address in the log, but the plugin doesn't see it. If I reload the plugin, it detects the phone as being home no problem...but 30 minutes later, it says I'm away even though I'm not. I have Wi-fi syncing turned on, iCloud sync turned on, iPhone is showing up in the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule DHCP wireless client list.

Any ideas? Appreciate any help you might offer.
Thanks,
Phil

Still not there, hoping someone has some ideas. I'm running the beta, wi-fi syncing is on, iCloud services are on, etc. I can wi-fi sync my phone from iTunes no problem so it's not a connectivity issue. If I reload the plugin, my phone will show up as home, but 30 minutes later it goes to away and never comes back (right now it is on vacation!). My wife's iPhone, however, pops in and out of Indigo (home and away) but not reliably. That's a separate issue I'll tackle later, but it tells me that my setup is fundamentally good; i.e., no roadblocks. I can post logs, but don't see much use - the MAC address is there in the log (verified it is correct)...the plugin just isn't picking it up.

Thanks,
Phil

[philc]

Got my iPhone working now...deleted the device and recreated it. Now it shows up - ran a power off/on test and it pinged just fine.

Now to figure out the random disconnect issue....

Phil

[Dewster35]

I would guess that you had the incorrect mac address in the device you setup for the plugin within indigo.

Does your wife have an iPhone? The only time is will see the phone is if there is traffic going back and forth between her phone and the network. The fact that it does indeed "see" it from time to time tell me that you just need to get your device to be more chatty with your network... typically people do this in there mail settings. Have it fetch more often... maybe every 15 minutes and make sure you're "away" time in the plugin configuration screen isn't less than that. I have mine set at 5 minutes, and so far we seem to stay on... but that is because our devices are pretty constantly pinging the network.

[philc]

Thanks Dewster...I'll make some changes to her phone and see what happens. Maybe I had the MAC address entered wrong, but I triple checked it...doesn't matter, seems to be working now. My phone is set for push, and fetch only happens manually, so it looks like that is probably all that needs to happen.

Will report back on CINCHOUSE iPhone. Seem to remember I had Push set to off on her phone and fetch set to manual because she is on the minimum data plan. I'll switch Push to On and see if that solves the problem.

Just a question: How soon after you get home does your phone show as home? Seems like mine is taking about two or three minutes. That's fine (just a limitation of the technologies) but seems like I won't be able to do magic things like have the lights come on during the walk from the car to the house. I hear Bluetooth pairing will allow you to do it, but that brings up a whole new set of issues/challenges/competing priorities.

Thanks,
Phil

[Dewster35]

Phil,
Give push a try... if you're concerned about data usage, just set it to fetch every 15 minutes. Honestly, I don't think having her phone set to push is going to give you THAT much more data usage... all it's doing is handshaking the server for changes. And regardless of whether it's set to push or fetch, you'll still download the email if she's out and about... unless of course she only manually fetches when she's on wifi. I wasn't too concerned about that since both my wife and myself are on WIFI either at work home or at friends almost all the time if we are trying to access our email. She has the 200 Mb plan and she's never gone over... granted she's no data hog either.

Honestly, I have triggerlincs and motion sensors to trigger my arrival lighting scene... while I rely heavily on the location status working, it is definitely not critical that it happen immediately. I only have a few "conveniences" setup for my wife when she gets home... I work from home all day, so the house is in working at home mode most of the time... when she gets home, it takes the house out of that... turns off some triggers that aren't good if you have multiple people around... turns up the heat upstairs, that sort of thing... so nothing is critical that it happens immediately.

If things outside of that happen, I'll address it at that time, but for now, this works. The arrival lighting also works for everyone... regardless of whether they have a phone tied to the network or not.

[Swancoat]

My iPhone is set to push, and I have Smartphone Radar set it 'away' after 2 min.

My wife's iPhone fetches every 15 min. I have to set her away time to 15 min.

[philc]

I think I've skinned it - My iPhone (once I got it working) worked perfectly. My wife's was giving me fits. Her fetch/push credentials already matched mine, so that tells me fetch/push doesn't cut it. I went through both our phones settings and set everything identically - still, her phone would drop out after 30 minutes, while for my phone the lastseen variable would never increment above zero unless I actually left the driveway.

So....the answer was iTunes wi-fi sync. And here's the weird part: her phone - in the settings - said that it was configured for wi-fi sync, but when I had CINCHOUSE log in to her account on the computer it didn't show the phone as available. So I plugged in her phone and the settings page DID NOT have a check mark for wi-fi sync. Weird. Anyway, I checked the block, synced the phone, and now Bob's your uncle...

So all the futzing around with settings (even downloading apps to her phone that look for updates via wi-fi) was ineffective - the absolute key is to get wi-fi sync turned on in iTunes, then sync the phone.

Just in case someone else is wondering why they can't get their Apple environment to play well with others...
Phil

[MrJeffreyGee]

Can't seem to make the state of my devices to go to away mode. All of them keep saying home and the LastSeen = 326 (and rising). Isn't it supposed to go to away mode after the LastSeen hits 2 (Since I got it configured for 1 minute till away) or am I misunderstand how this works? I've tried power cycling my iPhone 4 and airplane mode then wait around 3 minutes, but nothing happens. Every single time I reload the plugin the LastSeen just resets to 0. I have noticed on occasion that the LastSeen number doesn't increment for some devices and stays at zero while other go up, which leads me to believe that it's working but then after a while everything just starts incrementing again.

Do I have something configured incorrectly? Do I still need to fill in the Syslog Destination Address even though I got Airport selected for my router?


Indigo:
Version: 5.0.3


iTunes:
Version: 10.6.1
Wi-Fi Syncing: On


Airport Base Station Settings:
Version: 7.6.1
Syslog Destination Address: Blank (Not Filled In)
Syslog Level: 5 - Notice
Allow SNMP: Checked
Allow SNMP over WAN: Unchecked
SNMP Community String: Cheesecake


Smartphone Radar Settings:
Version: 1.0.5
Select Your Router: Apple Airport / Time Capsule
Airport Address: 192.168.2.1
Airport Password: Cheesecake
Minutes Till Away: 1
Hours Till Vacation: 0
Create Variables: Checked

[travisc]

1 minute till away will likely cause unexpected results. Try a higher number then reload the plugin. 1 minute will not be an option in the next version, it can cause unexpected results.

[AlaskaDave]

Lately I have had to turn Smartphone Radar off. I found that when I was home my status would change between home to away when my devices did not leave the house. I thought perhaps it was due to spotty WIFI reception so kept my iPod Touch in one location, knowing that this spot has solid reception. Has anyone else noticed this behavior who was getting great results only a few weeks ago? I haven't updated anything other than adding a Davis VantageVue to the mix. Would love to turn Smartphone Radar back on as it was working great!

Edit: I forgot to mention I added a new IP Camera. Since adding the IP Camera my wireless network seems to have been greatly effected. I have removed the IP Camera and my network is back to operating as expected. I stitched the camera from wireless to wired (think wireless would be fine due to proximity of wired AirportExpress set up as ) and routed the Ethernet from the wall to the camera and removed the Express... like night and day.

Wonder if my Smartphone Radar behavior was just due to a network that was unstable. I'm going to turn the plug-in back on and see if I'm back up and running. Any ideas on why adding a new IP camera (Panasonic BL-C230A) in wireless mode would have such a negative effect on my network's stability?

[travisc]

That's strange indeed. The only way to really narrow down why Smartphone Radar is having problems would be to enable SNMP logging. Either the SNMP requests are failing, or the Airport Express is not listing the iPod in it's client list for some reason. Maybe something in the AE is resetting while that camera is connected and the list is clearing? Not sure.

[richy240]

This is a great plugin. I would like to make one recommendation, or feature request, however: SomeoneHome and SomeoneAway variables.

I have created two variables, SomeoneHome and SomeoneAway, and built out a somewhat complex array of Triggers to set these vairbles to True or False, so I can build actions based on whether someone is home or away. That is, not everyone, but someone. For instance, I want my porch light to come on at night when someone, anyone, is gone. That way when they get home, they don't have to fumble for their keys in the dark to unlock the door. I want this action to take place even when someone is home, as long as someone is also away.

The bad part about my Triggers is that every time I add another person to the list, I have to build 4 separate triggers to control the logic behind these two simple variables. And that's fine, trust me, it is worth it. But it would be super awesome if this was built into the plugin and made available to everyone.

Anyway, thanks for a great tool. I can't tell you how much this has already helped out.

[travisc]

Hi Richy240,

I might not be fully understanding your requirements, but could you not also use the existing variables to accomplish this same goal?

For example:
If the existing AllPhonesHome = False, someone is not home, which is equivalent to your SomeOneAway = True. So using "If AllPhonesHome = False" as a condition to keep or turn your porch light on should work for the purpose you described.

Same goes for your SomeOneHome variable. SomeOneHome = True is equivalent to AllPhonesAway = False, and vice-versa.

Travis

[Dewster35]

Travis, I was thinking the same thing...

However, does AllPhonesAway stay true if all phones go on vacation?

[travisc]

Travis, I was thinking the same thing...

However, does AllPhonesAway stay true if all phones go on vacation?

I'm almost sure it does not. Once all phones are on vacation, AllPhonesHome would be True and AllPhonesAway would be False. I'm pretty sure that'd still be the desired result for the SomeOneIsHome and Away variables, it really depends on the application I guess. In this instance, if phones on vacation were not ignored the porch light trigger or condition would be true for the entire time a single member of the family is on vacation or business.

I haven't had my coffee yet, but I can't think of a circumstance where it'd be preferred to not compensate for phones being on vacation. If all phones are on vacation, absolutely, but that can be determined with the AllPhonesOnVacation variable.