I had been attempting to use VeraMate Geo Fencing on our iPhones but after several days of testing I can’t seem to get it to work as I want it to, lots of missed entry triggers. So I decided to give iPhone Locator a try and have found it to work FAR better but even with a 60 second refresh cycle it’s a battery killer.
What have others landed on for reliable proximity sensing on your iPhones…? Or what settings in iPhone Locator are you using that work
[quote=“RichardPHarvey, post:1, topic:190359”]I had been attempting to use VeraMate Geo Fencing on our iPhones but after several days of testing I can’t seem to get it to work as I want it to, lots of missed entry triggers. So I decided to give iPhone Locator a try and have found it to work FAR better but even with a 60 second refresh cycle it’s a battery killer.
What have others landed on for reliable proximity sensing on your iPhones…? Or what settings in iPhone Locator are you using that work[/quote]
I haven’t noticed any difference in battery. Commercials already given the iphone user a nickname of “Wall Hugger”. Unless you never had iphone location services on before I don’t think there is much difference either. You phone is still tracking it’s location and reporting on a constant bases anyways via the same find me or tracking service.
For me the battery drain is significantly effected running iPhone Locator on the Vera. I typically have 50% battery life when my work day is over, with iPhone Locator running I hit the 50% mark at lunch time. What I’m thinking would be great if there was a way to push the polling out to a longer interval if it sees that your location is the same for say 20 minutes. Then once it’s noticed that you location has changed then kick back up to shorter polling.
Well that would be great but Apple is your problem on that one.
Vera Proxmity (geofencing app on Andriod, by Richard) has a Rapid Update option and you can set a fence larger then the one your worried about. Once you pass the larger fence polling time is ramped up for your choice of a set time. 1-2 Miles out of your house or work fence you can set a 5 min rapid update (rapid checking) time so it will trip ASAP when you cross your main geofence.
Problem is APPLE is so closed down that most of the cool features or options are not able to exist, since apple is worried that a rouge App might do something it shouldn’t.
I’m sure that would also cause other problems. Like say you were at home for some time, then you left. Your leaving home would be very delayed by 20 mins or so. For me I lock doors, turn on notifications and more when I leave. I don’t want to wait past the end of my block to know my House is locked, secured and I’m gonna get notifications if someone were to try and get in after I left home.
So 20 mins. wouldn’t work for me.
"Vera Proxmity (geofencing app on Andriod, by Richard) has a Rapid Update option and you can set a fence larger then the one your worried about. Once you pass the larger fence polling time is ramped up for your choice of a set time. 1-2 Miles out of your house or work fence you can set a 5 min rapid update (rapid checking) time so it will trip ASAP when you cross your main geofence. "
How friggin cool is that…!
But how is Apple the issue, this could all be coded in the iPhone Locator plugin which would have nothing to do with Apple.
you may check out the polling map options and the dynamic polling options
it auto adjust polling frequency based on distance with the map , or with the dynamic option it takes into account your observed speed and the distance and estimates the time it would take you to get back home , then it divides this time by a chosen factor and only poll a minimum amount of times. i know reading the doc is a bit lengthy but you really have a lot of control over that polling frequency and adapt it to your pattern.
Thanks amg0,
I did notice that but frankly it was all way too confusing for my feeble brain to understand. Are there any simplified instructions to set that up…? Also the polling divider and polling map options are greyed out for me.
Both my wife and I work outside the home so we are both in one location for 8 hours each day. What I would like is the ability to have polling reduced significantly once it’s noticed that our phones have been in the same location for xx minutes. But then once it’s noticed that we have moved start polling again. That would be the perfect solution. Right now I have to manually mute both phone myself or both our batteries are near dead when the work day is done.
[quote=“RichardPHarvey, post:8, topic:190359”]Thanks amg0,
I did notice that but frankly it was all way too confusing for my feeble brain to understand. Are there any simplified instructions to set that up…? Also the polling divider and polling map options are greyed out for me.
Both my wife and I work outside the home so we are both in one location for 8 hours each day. What I would like is the ability to have polling reduced significantly once it’s noticed that our phones have been in the same location for xx minutes. But then once it’s noticed that we have moved start polling again. That would be the perfect solution. Right now I have to manually mute both phone myself or both our batteries are near dead when the work day is done.[/quote]
assuming your unit set in the setting page is Kilometers.
then
then try setting a polling map like this
0:1800,1:60,10:300,100:1800
but replace the numbers by result of calculations:
0:600,1:60,3:120,D/2:T/4,D:T/2
so with the examples it would be
0:600,1:60,3:120,5:225,10:450
Thanks amg that was very helpful…!
I have it set like this:
0:1600,2:10,5:420,10:600,12:800
So if I’m understanding this using the above settings, if I’m home polling is dramatically reduced to 1600 seconds, but if I’m 2 miles away polling is very fast at 10 seconds. It then slows polling down as I get farther away out to 12 miles away where it’s 800 seconds. Do I have that right…? What if I’m under 2 miles away…?
[quote=“RichardPHarvey, post:10, topic:190359”]Thanks amg that was very helpful…!
I have it set like this:
0:1600,2:10,5:420,10:600,12:800
So if I’m understanding this using the above settings, if I’m home polling is dramatically reduced to 1600 seconds, but if I’m 2 miles away polling is very fast at 10 seconds. It then slows polling down as I get farther away out to 12 miles away where it’s 800 seconds. Do I have that right…? What if I’m under 2 miles away…?[/quote]
0 to less than 2 => 1600
above or equal 2 to less than 5 => 10s
etc
After a little trial and error and testing I have iPhone Locator working great and not killing battery life. The key is what amg0 has been describing above. I wanted anyone thinking about using this plugin to understand how the polling map feature works and how with a little thought and tweaking you too can make iPhone locator work for you and not trash your battery life.
The key is understanding how the polling map works and using it’s capabilities to better manage polling frequency based on distance and speed of your typical drive to and from your home location. This is my current polling map:
0:300,1:10,3:20,6:30,10:200,15:600
What this really says is when I’m at home (which is 0 miles from the controller) then poll for my phone only once every 300 seconds. When I’m between 1 mile and 3 miles from home whack my phone every 10 seconds. Between 3 and 6 miles poll every 20 seconds and so on until I reach beyond 15 miles away and then poll only every 600 seconds. I work 17 miles from home so when I’m at work polling is so infrequent that my battery does not get trashed.
Now what you need to think about is finding settings that can work for you both leaving and returning to home base. The typical speed of your travel route also needs to be considered. In my case when I leave home it’s possible that the plugin will not notice that I’m away from home base until I’m as much as 3-4 miles away, but for my use that’s OK. Coming home is where I need tight polling and as I have it setup it works very well.
Also keep in mind that you can get as granular as your situation needs there is no limit to the number of entries in the polling map. Give this a shot and let me know if I can answer any questions.
Only part I’m concerned with is that when I leave home how long does it take to update that I have left? Am I going to be a mile or more down the road before my doors autolock, alarm is set and lights are all turned off?
0:10,1:10,3:20,6:30,10:200,15:600
Or
1:10,3:20,6:30,10:200,15:600
Would work to change the poll time to every 10 sec at home also?
Only part I’m concerned with is that when I leave home how long does it take to update that I have left? Am I going to be a mile or more down the road before my doors autolock, alarm is set and lights are all turned off?
0:10,1:10,3:20,6:30,10:200,15:600
Or
1:10,3:20,6:30,10:200,15:600
Would work to change the poll time to every 10 sec at home also?[/quote]
Yes the detection of going away could take a little while, but you could force a refresh of the phone position based on another trigger. For instance a door opening, or an motion sensor at your exit door, or the loss of the ping , or an a schedule. Going from Unmute to mute mod will also force a refresh.
Once that first refresh is done, then normal polling map will do its job.
Doing 10s refresh while you are at home will drain battery otherwise.
You could also have a scene that changes polling map based on time of the day…
[quote=“RichardPHarvey, post:12, topic:190359”]0:300,1:10,3:20,6:30,10:200,15:600
What this really says is when I’m at home (which is 0 miles from the controller) then poll for my phone only once every 300 seconds. When I’m between 1 mile and 3 miles from home whack my phone every 10 seconds. Between 3 and 6 miles poll every 20 seconds and so on until I reach beyond 15 miles away and then poll only every 600 seconds.[/quote]
Another thing I need help understanding using your numbers above… I’m driving home I get to 3-6 miles polling every 20 sec, I get to 1-3 mile and polling every 10 sec. and as I’m getting closer I get to 3/4 or 1/2 mile or 1/4mile… Whats my polling time now? 300 sec right before I cross the fence to get home?
By the way I read or you explained as soon as I get under 1 mile and no more then 10 secs since I was polling at 10 sec before I went under the 1 mile mark. You now change polling to 300 secs before you cross the fence which would mean your fence trip could be up to 5 min late depending on when it was last polled and when you crossed the small fence around your house. I have mine set at .10 statue Miles by the way.
Does my logic seem off on this? Unless we can change
0:300,1:10,3:20,6:30,10:200,15:600
TO THIS
0:300,0.10:10,3:20,6:30,10:200,15:600
Then maybe that problem will be solved. Or maybe even change the fence size to .11 and leave the above at .10 to keep it just under the fence.
The GPS chip in any phone is a battery killer. The more the GPS is active the faster the battery drain.
I was experimenting with trying to directly detect my iPhone on my home WiFi but haven’t had any success.
You can’t reliably ping an iPhone since it won’t respond to pings when the screen is off unless you have it plugged in to charge. So my ping detector turned out to be a Phone on the charger detector.
My next attempt will involve trying to detect if the iPhone is associated with my WiFi access point.
I’m trying to figure out how to poll my WAP to see if a specific MAC address is associated.
Anyone have any suggestions on directly detecting a phone or wireless device on the network?
[quote=“Hutchca, post:16, topic:190359”]The GPS chip in any phone is a battery killer. The more the GPS is active the faster the battery drain.
I was experimenting with trying to directly detect my iPhone on my home WiFi but haven’t had any success.
You can’t reliably ping an iPhone since it won’t respond to pings when the screen is off unless you have it plugged in to charge. So my ping detector turned out to be a Phone on the charger detector.
My next attempt will involve trying to detect if the iPhone is associated with my WiFi access point.
I’m trying to figure out how to poll my WAP to see if a specific MAC address is associated.
Anyone have any suggestions on directly detecting a phone or wireless device on the network?[/quote]
Your best solution is to trash the trash. I have the same problem with iphones. I also tried the ddwrt to ping the mac via the router, but the same problem happens as the ping sensor. Iphone likes to sleep and not stay connected until woken up. Which why i ended up with this plugin. It works the best so far for iphones.
Now on my androids i have no issues.
integlikewhoa - What is the size (in miles) of your home fence…? I have mine set to 1.5 miles.
I have answered that. My size (in statue miles) is 0.10. I don’t use an iPhone myself this is for other family members. I also maintaine 3 different vera’s at 3 different houses. So my size settings are different slightly for each house. but .10 to .12 is common for this iPhone Locator plugin and on my andriod at my house it .07 for my geofence.
At 1.5 miles miles here in the city that would mean my door would unlock, garage would open, alarm be disarmed maybe 5 min early. With all the stop lights in los angeles area 1.5miles (especially since I use distance mode “direct”) can take some time. Houses are under 1500-2200k sqft. and property sizes are 8k to 20k sqft. There is not big 1 mile long ranches in Los Angeles. 1.5 mile fence would not work for me. The grocery store is less then that and work is 3.8 miles straight line (15min drive).
I set my home and away so it trips both directions from viewing distance of the house which is no further than maybe 3-4 houses down. Each lot I think is 150ft wide.
EDIT: I see why the 1 mile would work just fine if you fence is set to 1.5 mile by the way.
"EDIT: I see why the 1 mile would work just fine if you fence is set to 1.5 mile by the way. "
Yep that is correct, I live in a far more rural (country) setting, travel speeds on the roads near my home average 45mph. I played around with various distance settings in the polling map and what I have now works well. However, as you pointed out I can get up to 3-4 miles away from my house before I’m detected to be outside my home range setting. For me that’s acceptable as I only have it setting the alarm for me, don’t have any Z-Wave door locks as yet.
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