Best practice to have housecleaner/dog walker arm alarm

[ERDrPC]

RIght now I have it setup that if the dog walker unlocks the yale front door then the alarm is disarmed. I'm trying to figure out a way when they leave to rearm the alarm. Cavets - our house is big enough in that they might not know we are home and don't want the system rearming.

I was thinking about a true/false variables 

 

when Alarm disarmed

      set alarm to false

When Alarm arm stay

      set alarm to true

When Alarm arm away

     set alarm to true

 

#dog unlocks front door and alarm armed#

yale front door unlock equals dog

          if alarm = true

                 disarm alarm (which will set alarm variable to false - temporarily see below)

                 set dog to true

                 set alarm to true (as we wanted to save the previous state before the door was unlocked)

         if alarm = false (we are home or house was not armed)

                 end

 

#dog presses exit button on keypad#

        if dog is true and alarm is true

                 arm alarm away

                 set dog to false (ie dog walker has left)

 

This is reliant on the dog walker pressing the exit button when leaving after picking up the dog and pressing it again when dropping off the dog

Anyone see an issue with this (I recognize the issue of saving an alarm disarm code in composer)

 

 

 

 

[RAV]

Start a timer, timer expires arm system as needed. As a backup if they forget to press exit, system will time out and do it for them.

[eggzlot]

12 hours ago, ERDrPC said:

RIght now I have it setup that if the dog walker unlocks the yale front door then the alarm is disarmed. I'm trying to figure out a way when they leave to rearm the alarm. Cavets - our house is big enough in that they might not know we are home and don't want the system rearming.

I was thinking about a true/false variables 

 

when Alarm disarmed

      set alarm to false

When Alarm arm stay

      set alarm to true

When Alarm arm away

     set alarm to true

 

#dog unlocks front door and alarm armed#

yale front door unlock equals dog

          if alarm = true

                 disarm alarm (which will set alarm variable to false - temporarily see below)

                 set dog to true

                 set alarm to true (as we wanted to save the previous state before the door was unlocked)

         if alarm = false (we are home or house was not armed)

                 end

 

#dog presses exit button on keypad#

        if dog is true and alarm is true

                 arm alarm away

                 set dog to false (ie dog walker has left)

 

This is reliant on the dog walker pressing the exit button when leaving after picking up the dog and pressing it again when dropping off the dog

Anyone see an issue with this (I recognize the issue of saving an alarm disarm code in composer)

 

 

 

 

I use a true/false variable in a similar situation

I have a T/F variable for if the alarm is set to away, stay or off and a dog walker t/f variable

When our dog walker comes over and puts in her code, if the "Away" variable is set to true:

- turn off alarm

- dog walker variable = true

when our dog walker locks the door (yale door lock button is pressed)

- turn dog walker variable = false

- if alarm variable away = true, turn on alarm

The idea is, if the dog walker variable is false, and someone locks the door, it will not turn on the alarm automatically.  and if you are home, and the alarm was not armed, that last line, alarm variable away = true would be false, so the door would lock, but alarm wouldn't arm

You could use timers too as RAV mentioned if you think the dog walker is going to forget to lock the door.  I get a push notification when our dog walker comes into the house too and when she leaves...and therefore I can always check later on if the door is locked as that variable is in the push notification, but she is good about it and locks it every time.  

[ERDrPC]

I have found some flaws in my logic

1. We have the autolock set up 1 min so no one uses the keypad to lock the door when they leave so @eggzlot idea won't work

I'm having a hard time trying to type what I am thinking. Basically it is possible that we return home (using garage or side door) and dog walker/housekeeper  doesn't realize it. As dog unlocking front door has already disarmed the alarm the alarm status gets flipped back to true in order to rearm once they press the exit button. They press exit and we are in the bathroom and alarm is rearmed but we are home. Then I thought about using another variable owner home that gets flipped to true when we unlock any of our yale locks. But this will also fail if we come home but then leave again before the dog/housekeeper exits (especially important for house cleaner as she is in our home for 6 hours). If no one else is home then we would want the alarm to arm but it won't as  yale owner home variable recorded us coming home earlier. We have no way to tell C4 that we have left -  cannot rely on family pressing a keypad button to change occupied status. We are android so cannot use and apple geofencing homekit stuff. I could get an instance of HA running on my unraid server it there is some kid of occupancy tracking for android in it? 

what if we have a contractor in the house -

           contractor code disarms alarm and  leaves before house keeper exits (ok as status is Alarm true  (contactor will get same variable programming as dog) and when house keeper exits - alarm will arm;

           but if housekeeper leaves before contractor but again doesn't realize they are still here then her exit press will arm alarm and contractor will set off motion. 

Wife says I have to think of all combinations/permutations in order to program this

 

[eggzlot]

21 minutes ago, ERDrPC said:

I have found some flaws in my logic

1. We have the autolock set up 1 min so no one uses the keypad to lock the door when they leave so @eggzlot idea won't work

I'm having a hard time trying to type what I am thinking. Basically it is possible that we return home (using garage or side door) and dog walker/housekeeper  doesn't realize it. As dog unlocking front door has already disarmed the alarm the alarm status gets flipped back to true in order to rearm once they press the exit button. They press exit and we are in the bathroom and alarm is rearmed but we are home. Then I thought about using another variable owner home that gets flipped to true when we unlock any of our yale locks. But this will also fail if we come home but then leave again before the dog/housekeeper exits (especially important for house cleaner as she is in our home for 6 hours). If no one else is home then we would want the alarm to arm but it won't as  yale owner home variable recorded us coming home earlier. We have no way to tell C4 that we have left -  cannot rely on family pressing a keypad button to change occupied status. We are android so cannot use and apple geofencing homekit stuff. I could get an instance of HA running on my unraid server it there is some kid of occupancy tracking for android in it? 

what if we have a contractor in the house -

           contractor code disarms alarm and  leaves before house keeper exits (ok as status is Alarm true  (contactor will get same variable programming as dog) and when house keeper exits - alarm will arm;

           but if housekeeper leaves before contractor but again doesn't realize they are still here then her exit press will arm alarm and contractor will set off motion. 

Wife says I have to think of all combinations/permutations in order to program this

 

Does programming differentiate between autolock and manual lock?  if so my idea could still work i think.  dog walker leaves, door auto locks, but you could create a dog walker variable that is flipped to True.  if True is the status and the door is manually locked (key button press) then that dog walker variable goes to F and the alarm goes on using my alarm T/F variable logic above?  I have a Kwikset lock so not sure what Yale exposes, but Kwikset can differentiate the type of lock action.

Or if you have a keypad near the door ask the dog walker to double tap a button or something?

for your multiple permutations, just use an alarm T/F variable...i had construction at my house, each contractor had their own code, and I never had issues with them coming and going.

[ERDrPC]

20 minutes ago, eggzlot said:

 

for your multiple permutations, just use an alarm T/F variable...i had construction at my house, each contractor had their own code, and I never had issues with them coming and going.

but how would I change owner home to false in the case that we come home after housekeeper (she disarmed the alarm) so owner home set to true (so it will not rearm on housekeeper exit- assumes we stay home) but we leave again before housekeeper (so her exit will not rearm but we want it to)

[eggzlot]

23 hours ago, ERDrPC said:

but how would I change owner home to false in the case that we come home after housekeeper (she disarmed the alarm) so owner home set to true (so it will not rearm on housekeeper exit- assumes we stay home) but we leave again before housekeeper (so her exit will not rearm but we want it to)

you do any geofencing?  i know geofencing isnt room specific yet, but you could tie it into your cell phones being in the house and then it could change (or not change) that variable? 

do you always come in the house a specific way?  if you always come in through a garage door, the garage door opening could switch the variable (our housekeeper wouldnt open our garage door for instance so I wouldn't have to worry about that).  or if you put your own code into the Yale lock to come into the house your own code could revert the T/F variable the proper state even if someone is already in the house

its possible, its just going to be more specific tied into your use case, and what if any 3rd party drives you may have (for geofencing purposes).  I haven't messed with it too much but I have Fing, and Fing works with IFTTT, and I did test push notifications for when Fing detects my cell on the home network and its 100% reliable.  so in your case, I could say if my phone hops onto the network, and the variable is F, turn the variable to T (or whatever is needed)

[ERDrPC]

The issue is if we come but leave again. Yale codes won't help with that. Is there reliable C4 geofencing for android apps? 

[eggzlot]

12 hours ago, ERDrPC said:

The issue is if we come but leave again. Yale codes won't help with that. Is there reliable C4 geofencing for android apps? 

@msgreenf is an Android fanboy - he may know if there is a geofencing solution for Android.  Fing works on Android, and through IFTTT but there may be something more direct/elegant

[msgreenf]

Not sold on geofencing so haven't tried anything personally

[c4toys]

4 hours ago, eggzlot said:

@msgreenf is an Android fanboy - he may know if there is a geofencing solution for Android.  Fing works on Android, and through IFTTT but there may be something more direct/elegant

I use a Lutron caseta dimmer and program off that. Its in my office so Im the only user.  On means Im home, Off means Im not. I do have some programming to work around Good Night mode and the light being off.

Add a timer and the Ubiquiti driver for my phones wifi connectivity and my front door actually unlocks before I get to it.