Smartphone Radar - Smartphone presence detection (Locked)

[AlaskaDave]

Lately although I see no errors from Smartphone radar it is showing that my devices are away although they are home. This seems to toggle back and forth even though my iPhones stay in one place and have strong wifi signal. I tried selecting wifi sync as others have suggested but this seems to have no effect.

[AlaskaDave]

Nothing new to report. I've had to turn of Smartphone Radar as a result. It's great when it's working but lately has been more of a pain than it's worth. The convenience of having my home status change to away when all phones were detected as away was nice and that still works. It's the phones not being detected when we're home that becomes a pain.

Are there any logs that I can check so as to troubleshoot? Also, is there another plug-in that does something similar that others have had good results with?

[philc]

Make sure wifi sync is selected in iTunes on your computer too.,.that was the key for me.

[AlaskaDave]

For each of our iPhones under the Summary tab I have "Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi" enabled. Was there a setting elsewhere in iTunes that I'm missing?

I do notice that under preferences/Devices that "Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically" is enabled, should this be disabled or does this have to due with when plugging a cable directly?

I have noticed that when I bring our iPhones to the back of the house that they are detected. The issue seems to be with my new Airport Express that is set to extend our network. I don't have Ethernet going to it for now but plan to change this in the near future. Is there a particular set up I should be using when extending a network. Should this AE be included with it's own Airport Address and Password unique to the AE? I was using this and not getting errors but also not getting the behavior that I'd expected.

[philc]

Dunno, give it a shot. SPR has worked perfectly for me for months...gotta be something squirrelly in your setup.

[AlaskaDave]

It's definitely my new Airport Express in the front room. When I move our iPhones toward the back of the house where the pre-existing Airport Extreme is they both show up in the router/SNMP output. When in the front room they seize to exist.

Using Airport 5.6 it does show that the AE is set up to allow SNMP, along with an SNMP Community String: redkayak-front. When I view the AE in 6.1 shows the iPhones as wireless clients when I highlight the Front Room AirPort Express but I see no where in 6.1 to allow for an SNMP and/or community string. When I do edit in 5.6 that does allow for this it gives the warning, "This version of AirPort Utility doesn't support this AirPort wireless device and might improperly configure the device if you continue to use it. Check www.apple.com/support/airport for the latest version of AirPort Utility."

Is anyone using the new Airport Express Dual Band units and having this issue?

[Dewster35]

Was planning on replacing my airport expresses in the next year... but now I'm going to hold up on whatever you come up with

[AlaskaDave]

I'll let you know if I have any success. I've switched the Network Mode to "Join a wireless network" to see if any other options present themselves and it doesn't appear that they do. When I get home I'll check the AE in the SR plugin to see if the iPhones appear in the router/SNMP output. I wonder if the AE has to be set to create wireless network for the Allow SNMP to be selected and for a Community String to be created?

When I view the AE in AirPort Utility 5.6 (which it sounds like you're not suppose to do according to the Apple dialog that appears) I have made these selections but perhaps that's the problem??

[Dewster35]

FWIW, I have create a network "same as base station SSID" with extend this network checked on my older AE.

[Dewster35]

Travis,
I was hoping could make a feature request but I don't know the difficulty in making it work. I've assigned a bunch of relatives smartphone radar devices for indigo. The reason I do this is to keep certain things from triggering when guests are around. I have a mother in law who is afraid of technology. Anyway, after testing this for the last few months, it works great. Guests arrive, SPR shows that they are home, and certain things disable. However, I've noticed lately some problems with this approach. Anytime the plug in is restarted (surprisingly often lately it seems with a lot of software updates), all of those guests go back to the HOME state. So my request is, how difficult would it be to cache the last state somewhere when the plug in closes so that when it goes back on it can bring back those last states? Or I guess the real question isn't how difficult, but do you think you could work this into the functionality for the next release? This would make my system perform even better with your sweet plug in. Thanks for all your hard work.

[AlaskaDave]

My next plan is to run Ethernet to my new express and create a network using the same values as my Airport Extreme. I've become so use to having Smartphone radar that now I forget to set my house status to away when I leave. Just goes to show you don't know how much you enjoy something until it is gone.

[Dewster35]

Dave,
You were running it wirelessly in bridge mode? Do you know that deteriorates the overhead speed of your network?

I am running mine in bridge mode, but I am doing as you are saying you want to try... wired. I like the convenience of wireless, but once you get the wire run to where you want it, you're done and I think it is a lot more reliable.

[AlaskaDave]

Previously I had been running my new AE as "extending network" and most recently "participating in network" with bad results when in comes to Smartphone rader. My network speed and coverage has been good since replacing my old AE with the new. I have the option of running ethernet to the new AE just have to get into the crawl space (not my favorite place) but plan to do it so as to create a new network.

With the new AE I'm just not seeing my devices how up in the SR logs like they do when I go to the other end of the house where the Airport Extreme lives (also new).

[henkjanvries]

Next to the ability to see if your there or not.

Is it possible to have the plugin register where you are based on the connection to a airport.

I have a extreme and 3 expresses throughout the house and would love to use those next to audio distribution as a locator for where the iphones are in the house.

I know you can see in the airport utility which device is connected to which airport therefor you can have use them as location points. At least in sections of floor or big room.

Based on that you could have triggers go off when you change airport during the night or when going up the stairs the music follows , that would be really funny!

Ive not yet been playing with this, but ive just got 2 new airport expresses that i want to plant throughout the house to test.

And on another note;

Does anyone know how to make the range of the airports smaller so you wont hang onto a previous device eventhough you go up the stairs orso. I know its quite odd, nowadays everyone wants a good device for the whole house, but using the airports as wholehouse audio devices it wouldbe a good extra to have the devices on the network switch quickly between airports based on location.

[AlaskaDave]

With my new router my phones seem to be recognized as expected. I ended up running Ethernet out to my Airport Express and creating a new network in bridge mode.

Feature Request or Already Possible?
Often times, say on weekends, I'm at home with my iPhone in my pocket as I work around the yard. For those times when I know I'm not leaving and I'll be going in and out of my WiFi range, is there a way to turn off Smartphone Radar from Indigo Touch? I've run through the plug-in options and do not see a way to turn of plug-ins? Is this possible?