Beacon: a Geohopper/Beecon plugin

[ckeyes888]

Ok, curiosity got the better of me so I dumped much of my phone stuff,
upgraded to IOS7, and still no joy. Also tried Geofancy which won't work either.

The test feature in Geofancy, using the same http info that does work for testing in
Geohopper, returns an error message, "Could not connect to server".

Any ideas appreciated!

Thanks,

Carl

[Fordy]

Awesome plugin - really like it, works well with my estimotes & geohopper.

One question / query though, would it be possible in future somehow (Doesn't seem it now) to pass the signal strength of these things into indigo also?

I ask because if my phone is in my pocket, it struggles to detect I'm in the room at all that I'm in. I can turn up the power on the Beacon, but then when I'm in the kitchen it has me marked as in the office too (next door!) - dowh! I'd really like functionality where by it says I'm *at the closest beacon* - even if I can hear 3 or 4

Awesome work though; thank you!

Thanks,

Adam.

[flic]

I only pass the information from the app to Indigo so I'm limited to what they'll share, and that doesn't include the signal strength. At least not today. If anybody finds an app that do share signal strength or if one turns up in the future I'll be happy to update the plugin.

I too have the exact same problem you have!

[ckeyes888]

Just to follow up, Geohopper did start working for some strange reason.
Have to see how reliable it is.

edit: Thanks for an awesome plugin!

Carl

[flic]

Geohopper seems to do something strange from time to time. I've had periods when it works great, and other periods where it'll eat my battery in half a day. I like the app but it seems to be a bit buggy, so I decided to try Geofancy for a while.

Geofancy is nowhere near as slick and it doesn't have all of Geohopper's functionality, but it's very easy on the battery in comparison. I've been running it with quite a few beacons and two or three geofences for a few days now, and I don't even notice any extra drain. Might be worth a look.

[ckeyes888]

Is there something different in setting up Geofancy from Geohopper
as to the web service URL?

I tried the same one that is working in Geohopper but using the
test button in Geofancy returns "Can not connect to server".

I haven't seen the battery drain issue yet but Geohopper misses notifications
regularly.

Thanks,

Carl

[flic]

No it should be exactly the same, just make sure you configure Geofancy to use HTTP PUT.

[ckeyes888]

No it should be exactly the same, just make sure you configure Geofancy to use HTTP PUT.

The options seem to be Post and Get. I assume Post is correct?

edit: wow, Geofancy doesn't seem to have any way to enter a location
other that actually being there?


Thanks,

Carl

[flic]

Sorry, yes of course post.

No, Geofancy is a lot more limited in comparison to Geohopper. A combination of the two would be ideal.

[ckeyes888]

Thanks...now to go and test.

Carl

[ckeyes888]

After a lot of testing today I think I'm back to FMF and having Indigo
scan emails every couple minutes. It virtually never misses.

Geofancy won't work at all, and Geohopper misses every other change
in location.

Carl

[jltnol]

Hey Carl

After working well, I, too am having some problems with GeoHopper... so you are not alone...

Here's hoping the next iteration of Indigo Touch has this feature built in....

[ckeyes888]

Yea, really too bad. Seemed like a very viable solution.

Carl

[noefresh]

Been having some fun playing with Beacon and some iBeacons from Radius Network: http://www.radiusnetworks.com/ibeacon/. When it does work- it's definitely very cool. I'd say about 70% of the time it catches the changes in proximity to iBeacons and at that- delay of anywhere from 2-10 seconds between when you arrive into a region and when Indigo finally receives the post from Geofancy or Geohopper to execute actions.

i.e.- walk into the Living Room near an iBeacon plugged into the wall. Takes 2-10 seconds, then bam your lights come on. Leave the region- 2-10 seconds later, they go back off and so on. Just have to keep your iPhone in your pocket- naturally.

It seems like there's either an issue with the sensitivity of the iPhone reliably and quickly detecting the iBeacons, or perhaps the apps themselves. Either way- when this gets improved down to more accurate and fast detection this kinda feels like the future of home automation.

[flic]

Feels like it depends a lot on the iBeacons too. I have a few click n finds that's very much hit and miss, but my Estimotes are generally very fast and very exact.