Geofencing

[mellie]

I am new to C4.  We have built a new home and I am trying to get the most out of all the devices and programming.  I have the home version of composer and and slowly getting acclimated to it.

 

I am wondering how to geofence, or at least recognizing when I leave or arrive, and trigger certain actions (turn on lights, set AC to X degrees).

 

Thanks for any info.

melissa

 

[turls]

Since nobody responded, did you search on Geofencing throughout the forum?  Unfortunately I have tried many solutions and nothing is solid.  There are still a couple of things that others have suggested that I haven't tried, but I'm getting tired of throwing money and time and something that should be a core feature of a HA system and still not getting good results.

[dcovach]

If you already have a vera controller, you can add geofence locations on the vera app and then trigger a "virtual switch" in vera to turn on/off.  You can add a Micasa relay driver in Control4 and pair it with the virtual switch in vera.  It works fairly well.  You'll have to do some googling around because the virtual switch plugin in vera doesn't pair with the Micasa relay driver in Control4.  You'll have to manually add a device using the method I'm suggesting you research.

OR.. the easy way is to get an axxess industries contact switch and leave it in your glove box.  When it's in proximity of the zigbee mesh, it comes "online".  When leaving, it's "offline".  You can program against those states.

[South Africa C4 user]

Some of the WiFi router drivers also claim to be able to identify when a given device joins the network.

[dcovach]

Ya, but you'll want a device that's not plugged into a power source.  Such as mobile phone or another battery powered device that has a supported control4 driver

[South Africa C4 user]

I also played with geo location for a while and gave up. I was using Alan’s IFTTT driver And one of the IFTTT services. It worked well but not for opening the gate (which was what I wanted).  Sometimes it was on time, sometimes a couple of minutes late.

[dcovach]

8 minutes ago, South Africa C4 user said:

I also played with geo location for a while and gave up. I was using Alan’s IFTTT driver And one of the IFTTT services. It worked well but not for opening the gate (which was what I wanted).  Sometimes it was on time, sometimes a couple of minutes late.

IFTTT is not bad either but it's not going to be the best option for that application.  

[Baubas Cat]

It's been over a year since this post, are there any better geofencing options available now? I have tried ifttt, blue iris, and unifi. All have been poor.

[Dueport]

2 hours ago, Baubas Cat said:

It's been over a year since this post, are there any better geofencing options available now? I have tried ifttt, blue iris, and unifi. All have been poor.

There really needs to be native support in the C4 app for geofencing....still waiting for that.  In the meantime, we're stuck with workarounds - I use a combination that works nearly all of the time.  I have a TP-Link plugin plug assigned to each family member representing their presence.  Then I use IFTTT to geofence and trigger that on for when they enter the geofence and off when they leave.  For added reliability I have the Alexa app geofence do the exact same thing.  We use iOS and you need to make sure the privacy settings for IFTTT and Alexa apps have location tracking set to precise and always on.  This approach has worked well for us if that's helpful.  

[Gary Leeds UK]

We use (Phillip Hue)out door senors on drive and Front door 

Which are programmed 

[wnpublic]

6 hours ago, Dueport said:

There really needs to be native support in the C4 app for geofencing....still waiting for that.  In the meantime, we're stuck with workarounds - I use a combination that works nearly all of the time.  I have a TP-Link plugin plug assigned to each family member representing their presence.  Then I use IFTTT to geofence and trigger that on for when they enter the geofence and off when they leave.  For added reliability I have the Alexa app geofence do the exact same thing.  We use iOS and you need to make sure the privacy settings for IFTTT and Alexa apps have location tracking set to precise and always on.  This approach has worked well for us if that's helpful.  

Sadly, i think you will have to keep waiting.  A shame - they already have an app on the phone, could just have it be a source of location info.  Snap also makes the routers many people use - could use Wifi joining as a proxy for presence too.  These are features of home automation tech that C4 suggests it is superior to.

[samrwalker]

8 hours ago, Dueport said:

There really needs to be native support in the C4 app for geofencing....still waiting for that.  In the meantime, we're stuck with workarounds - I use a combination that works nearly all of the time.  I have a TP-Link plugin plug assigned to each family member representing their presence.  Then I use IFTTT to geofence and trigger that on for when they enter the geofence and off when they leave.  For added reliability I have the Alexa app geofence do the exact same thing.  We use iOS and you need to make sure the privacy settings for IFTTT and Alexa apps have location tracking set to precise and always on.  This approach has worked well for us if that's helpful.  

If you are an apple ecosystem household, I've found my solution to be rock solid. 

I use HomeKit to trigger "When the last person leaves" and when the "first person arrives" events. Those events web hook into IFTTT and then chowmain into C4. Works like a champ. 

[msgreenf]

Does geofencing actually work in the real world? It assumes everyone has a device. What about kids and babysitting? Or a maid coming to clean?

[Dueport]

2 hours ago, samrwalker said:

If you are an apple ecosystem household, I've found my solution to be rock solid. 

I use HomeKit to trigger "When the last person leaves" and when the "first person arrives" events. Those events web hook into IFTTT and then chowmain into C4. Works like a champ. 

That's an interesting approach - I initially tried that figuring native iOS geofence would be most reliable and was frustrated to find out the only geofence event routine I could do was an alert offering me to manually execute the action  Didn't know that those two events can trigger hooks into IFTTT (then chowmain into C4) - I'll have to explore that for those cases - I hope they expand that option to all routines so you could make actions specific for individuals.  

2 hours ago, msgreenf said:

Does geofencing actually work in the real world? It assumes everyone has a device. What about kids and babysitting? Or a maid coming to clean?

Like anything else I guess it is a tool that some could find essential and others may not care at all.  Assuming it works properly (and it can), we find it incredibly helpful - house knows when it is empty and shuts off lights, media, arms system, responds differently to outside motion events etc - all without having to think about it.  Coming home, it knows which of us is arriving so it opens the corresponding garage door and announces arrival, turns on outside lights if dark outside, etc.  It makes the house feel more effortless for us and eliminates things to have to think about.  Once old enough, our child will have a phone with geofence trigger too but at this point we haven't had to think about that.  Babysitter, housekeeper, etc don't get any benefit from geofence.  We have a "babysitter mode" that we turn on before leaving when the babysitter is here and that mode stops the geofence from triggering shutdown when we leave.  The housekeeper isn't programmed in at all in terms of the geofence - but eventually when we add a gate I'll have her code trigger events in the house to prepare it for her - not geofence but a cool automation anyway.....so your geofence use case may vary but it is a great tool to have.

[samrwalker]

11 hours ago, Dueport said:

That's an interesting approach - I initially tried that figuring native iOS geofence would be most reliable and was frustrated to find out the only geofence event routine I could do was an alert offering me to manually execute the action  Didn't know that those two events can trigger hooks into IFTTT (then chowmain into C4) - I'll have to explore that for those cases - I hope they expand that option to all routines so you could make actions specific for individuals.  

Like anything else I guess it is a tool that some could find essential and others may not care at all.  Assuming it works properly (and it can), we find it incredibly helpful - house knows when it is empty and shuts off lights, media, arms system, responds differently to outside motion events etc - all without having to think about it.  Coming home, it knows which of us is arriving so it opens the corresponding garage door and announces arrival, turns on outside lights if dark outside, etc.  It makes the house feel more effortless for us and eliminates things to have to think about.  Once old enough, our child will have a phone with geofence trigger too but at this point we haven't had to think about that.  Babysitter, housekeeper, etc don't get any benefit from geofence.  We have a "babysitter mode" that we turn on before leaving when the babysitter is here and that mode stops the geofence from triggering shutdown when we leave.  The housekeeper isn't programmed in at all in terms of the geofence - but eventually when we add a gate I'll have her code trigger events in the house to prepare it for her - not geofence but a cool automation anyway.....so your geofence use case may vary but it is a great tool to have.

I also run a "Guest" mode that prevents the house from totally shutting down if we have someone there when my wife and I leave. It also changes up some of the motion triggers for the guest bathrooms so the lights have longer timers. 

 

To initiate the web hook, you have to have HomeKit run a shortcut, and that shortcut get a URL

[rea]

If you're using IFTTT for geofencing, as long as everyone has their own IFTTT account and a separate instance of the driver in C4 (would need dealer to add them if not already in), using variables in C4 should allow you bypass using secondary triggers like TP-Link switches or Homekit. The IFTTT trigger flips the virtual variable "switch" for each person and then you can program anything you want off of that or the status of how many variables you would like. I've had a very good experience with this, but still probably wouldn't want to use it for things where you need quick feedback like gates that have been mentioned in the thread. 

[lippavisual]

I have t found IFTTT to be super reliable.

We need something that is not cloud based and should be native to C4.

[Baubas Cat]

2 hours ago, lippavisual said:

I have t found IFTTT to be super reliable.

We need something that is not cloud based and should be native to C4.

Agreed. Everyday when I come home it's a 50/50 chance IFTTT detects I have entered the set geofence. Home Notify use to work well for iOS but had no Android support. I don't no if it even still works for iOS.

[DAVIDN]

On 5/10/2021 at 9:08 AM, Dueport said:

There really needs to be native support in the C4 app for geofencing....still waiting for that.  In the meantime, we're stuck with workarounds - I use a combination that works nearly all of the time.  I have a TP-Link plugin plug assigned to each family member representing their presence.  Then I use IFTTT to geofence and trigger that on for when they enter the geofence and off when they leave.  For added reliability I have the Alexa app geofence do the exact same thing.  We use iOS and you need to make sure the privacy settings for IFTTT and Alexa apps have location tracking set to precise and always on.  This approach has worked well for us if that's helpful.  

Can you explain how you can use Alexa to geofence trigger into C4?  Alexa can see my Advanced lighting scenes which I created in the C-HE "Agents" tab, but none of the other things like Variables.  Do I create a fake scene called "Geofence-Home" with no activities so that Alexa can fire that off?  Then trigger the Agent Variable "Home" based on the Geofence-Home scene being triggered?

[Dueport]

23 hours ago, DAVIDN said:

Can you explain how you can use Alexa to geofence trigger into C4?  Alexa can see my Advanced lighting scenes which I created in the C-HE "Agents" tab, but none of the other things like Variables.  Do I create a fake scene called "Geofence-Home" with no activities so that Alexa can fire that off?  Then trigger the Agent Variable "Home" based on the Geofence-Home scene being triggered?

Sure thing - though I have disabled the Alexa portion of this and have been relying only on IFTTT recently because the Alexa app seemed to be having issues with geofence accuracy.  I believe that may be a function of the signal strength or when the app is pulling location info or something.  Hopefully it is an issue specific to my location and this will work for you.

What I did was this: I have a TP-Link Kasa plug that represents a family member and is integrated in two places: 1.) C4 using the chowmein driver; and 2.) Alexa by linking my kasa account with alexa through the app.  On the Alexa side that you're asking about, I created a routine in the Alexa app using the trigger "when I leave home" and event turn off that plug; I also created another routine that says the reverse: using the trigger "when I return home" and event turn on that plug.  So now we've got the Alexa app using its geo fence to fire a device that is also seen by C4.  Now, on the C4 side you program a script off the event "when that plug turns off" then action "run the macro shutdown" (or what ever); and another script off the event "when that plug turns on" then action "run the macro returning home" (or whatever).  

So that's the basic idea.  You can add sophistication to that by doing the same thing with more plugs.  So, for example, I did the same thing with another plug representing my wife's presence.  The setup for this in the Alexa app is exactly the same as described above.  Then, on the C4 side, you expand the actions off the same triggers.  For example, you program a script off the event "when that plug turns off", add the condition AND "the other plug is also off", then action "run the macro shutdown" (or what ever); and another script off the event "when that plug turns on" then action "run the macro returning home" (or whatever).  

Hope this is helpful!

[ecschnei]

has anyone looked into nfc from a phone or a tag?  Even with multiple ingress/egress points the cost of these systems has come down.  There would need to be some sort of software for acknowledging if the state is "home=true" or "not home=false"