Geofence not working.

[Mark H]

Wasn't sure if this should be posted on MobiLinc forum itself, but as the issue I'm seeing has two parts (ISY + OM), figured I'd put it here.

 

In short, the geofence variable is not changing as I travel away from home (but my mobile device may be partly the issue??).

 

I have an iPad Mini with the "WiFi only" option, not the model with the cellular capability. But I also have a Verizon MiFi device to which the iPad connects when I'm traveling.

 

I do vaguely remember that a State Variable was automatically created within the ISY Admin Console after I purchased OM.

 

However, that original was deleted at some point by accident and I thrashed around to try and get it back.

 

It appears you only have to define a new variable in the OM settings, as once I did that the variable came back.

 

And I never did test with the original entry. Only today when I had to run an errand did I think to grab the iPad and MiFi unit to test again.

 

I was several miles from home, but the ISY (via the OM Variables -> State Vars) still showed a value of 1 for "Marks_iPad_Home" no matter what I tried to do with the iPad to force it to recognize I was that far away. Fired up Google maps and it showed me in the right location. And I do have location services allowed for OM.

 

But the OM interface never showed the State Var value as 0, only 1.

 

Odd part is, I enabled notifications for the variable, and when I got within my defined boundary, the iPad DID give me a notification that I had entered the boundary.

 

But I didn't define a notification for entering the boundary, only for leaving it (basically, if value=0, then send notice), so that notification telling me I had entered the boundary has me baffled.

 

Further to that, the Variable as shown in Admin console for the ISY, says the variable has not changed for over a week (the last time I set it manually).

 

At this point I'm not sure what more to provide in the way of diagnostic info, but am hoping someone knows what's up.

[Mark H]

Hrm... Mobilinc site doesn't mention iPad Mini specifically, only iPad 2 and 3. And the 2 is "cellular only", whereas the 3 says "Cellular and WiFi".

 

Is this iPad Mini effectively an iPad 2, or an iPad 3?

 

Or neither?

 

EDIT: More info. In my iPad Privacy settings, I see a hollow purple arrow associated to OrchMobiLinc, which is an icon indicating geofence is in use with it. So this should work, but for whatever reason, it isn't.

[InsteonNut]

Hi TheSidewinder,

 

Let me try to address all the questions you have here.

 

If you suspect that you accidentally deleted the variable, please delete the geo-fence from MobiLinc under Settings->Location Settings and then recreate the geo-fence. Once you recreate the geo-fence, open the Admin Console (if the Admin Console was open, please close it and reopen) and confirm you see your new variable.

 

Under MobiLinc->Settings->Location Settings, if you turn on Notifications, this tells MobiLinc to display a local notification whenever iOS tells MobiLinc that the device has entered or left your geo-fence region. If you go into MobiLinc->Programs->Variables and find your geo-fence variable here and setup a PUSH notification, this notification will only fire if the variable actually changes state (requires MobiLinc Connect). You can test this by changing the variable value manually.

 

The iPad Mini Wi-Fi will technically work with geo-fences, but I wouldn't expect it to perform as well as a cellular enabled device. The reason is when you leave your home, the iPad leaves your home's Wi-Fi connection. At about the same time as you've lost Wi-Fi, iOS is detecting that you've left your geo-fence. When iOS tells MobiLinc that you've left, MobiLinc will want to try to contact your ISY to update the variable. At this point what is the iPad connecting to for internet access? You mentioned that you have a Verizon MiFi device. The iPad would need to be connected to this device before you left home so that there's a constant internet source for the iPad in order to track/update your geo-fence variable when you leave your home's Wi-Fi connection.

 

Wes

[Mark H]

Thanks, Wes!

 

1) I did accidentally delete it, yes, but I had recreated it once already using the process you describe. That said, I deleted it again and recreated it with your steps. Same result, I do show the variable in both OM and ISY Admin.

 

2) I'm 99% sure the notification I got was a local one, given I had entered the geofence and saw it but had only defined a Push for "Leaving boundary". I've turned off the local notification and re-defined my Push notification.

 

3) The iPad was attached to my MiFi device when I was sitting in the driveway at home, yes. From that point it was attached to it for the entire round-trip. I only got the (local) notification when I returned home, and it was at about the right radius, 100 meters. During this time, Google Maps properly displayed my current location.

 

Now that I've run through those steps, I have to test it. That may be a while, lol. But I'll report back. Thanks again.

 

Regards.