Multiple GeoFence location examples?

[Dale T]

Hi all,

 

I would like to start playing around with Geo-fencing as a learning programming exercise. I currently have MobiLinc. I only have 1 region at the moment and plan on adding more as I arrive at my desired locations.

 

Looking at the page on the mobilinc website, I have the basic example entered as a program. 

 

In general should there be a separate program for each location? Or can that be nested in one program to kind of track your progress.

 

At the moment I have 4 work locations, plus my house and my partner's house. At the moment I only want to send a notification on boundary crossings. Then as I learn more and add more to my system I will add more functionality.

 

Thank you

 

Dale 

 

 

[InsteonNut]

Hi Dale,

 

It really depends on what you like each location to do (or what you'd like your primary home to do) when you arrive or leave. If you can give the community some ideas about what you'd like to have happen, I'm sure there are folks out here that have likely already come up with a solution, or can give you ideas about how to approach it.

 

Wes

[Dale T]

Thank you for the reply Wes.

 

I would like to adjust the thermostat at home (once I get it installed) and possibly ceiling fans when I leave work - unless I arrive at another work location within a certain period of time. Due to summer temps in Texas, it is better to set the thermostat when I leave work vs. waiting until I get home.

 

I would also need to exclude this from executing based on whether or not my roommate is home and ultimately, I want to disable to thermostat if any doors or windows are open (roommate doesn't check these before turning the heat or A/C on!). I imagine that could be done using a schedule and possibly motion detectors. 

 

Example.

 

if workday

and it is after 4:00 pm unless bad weather (when I get the weather module)

 Leave workLocA

 wait 15 minutes

 unless I arrive at workLocB or workLocC within 20 min. 

 set thermostat

 

 

Of course a complicating factor is that I can usually make it home in 30 minutes or less. Not much more than it takes to get from one location to another.  

 

In general I can set a time frame to exclude this change, unless it is bad weather (I work outside), sometimes it isn't safe to work outside so we go home. As I normally take the same route between locations would it help to set some regions that I know I will pass through to let the program know whether I am headed home or to another work location?

 

The three locations mentioned above are all fairly similar distances from home. I might also be helping out at other locations that are quite a bit further away this summer. 

 

When I get home, turning on certain lights. 

 

Dale

[larryllix]

For occupancy I use ten motion detectors, so far. I am not sure anybody has been that successful with geofencing techniques so far. If other have they should chime in here. From others and my own experience detection of leaving the is the problem, arriving seems to be quite successful using geofencing. Maybe you can't save battery energy and detect where you are at all times?

 

You probably want to set up a few State variables as flags and triggers to keep track of occupancy and other situations.

 

I detect occupancy by using a 3-4 timer for most MS that need to see motion every 3-4 four hours or assume nobody is home. This takes lots of them in key places. That's a long time to not know anybody is home. I told you leaving was the hard part.

 

Now I usually leave by my mudroom to the garage so it sets a 20 minute timer and if no motion is found elsewhere then we are gone. Each zone could have a reasonable time to expect retriggering a timer.

 

Sleeping is a problem. You just can't let a timer time out in a few hours and assume you are away. You can't set the bedroom timer to 10 hours for worst case. I basically suspend my timers between midnight and 8 am so that if the Occupied=true/false it stays that way unless triggered true in the middle of the night. In the morning the allowance is the usual 3-4 hours to get up "at the crack of noon"

 

Leaving and setting the alarm system sets the occupancy=false because motion is going to cause attention by me after we leave.

 

This same system uses another flag and timer to set Vacation = true after about 16 hours. This is a different level of away as heat and other things can be set back. I live in Canada so in the winter setting you heat back by more than a degree or two takes hours to re-heat the home, so assumption of length of leave is important.

 

Now other things can be based on the Occupancy=true status like knowing your buddy is home and not shutting thing off on him and therefore not having him roll his eyes every time you install another HA obsession toy.

 

My guests get a little freaked out by MS units over every bed. It's the best place to not get triggered with every bed movement during sleep. Have we passed 1984 yet?

[MFBra]

For occupancy I use ten motion detectors, so far. I am not sure anybody has been that successful with geofencing techniques so far. If other have they should chime in here. From others and my own experience detection of leaving the is the problem, arriving seems to be quite successful using geofencing. Maybe you can't save battery energy and detect where you are at all times?

 

You probably want to set up a few State variables as flags and triggers to keep track of occupancy and other situations.

 

I detect occupancy by using a 3-4 timer for most MS that need to see motion every 3-4 four hours or assume nobody is home. This takes lots of them in key places. That's a long time to not know anybody is home. I told you leaving was the hard part.

 

Now I usually leave by my mudroom to the garage so it sets a 20 minute timer and if no motion is found elsewhere then we are gone. Each zone could have a reasonable time to expect retriggering a timer.

 

Sleeping is a problem. You just can't let a timer time out in a few hours and assume you are away. You can't set the bedroom timer to 10 hours for worst case. I basically suspend my timers between midnight and 8 am so that if the Occupied=true/false it stays that way unless triggered true in the middle of the night. In the morning the allowance is the usual 3-4 hours to get up "at the crack of noon"

 

Leaving and setting the alarm system sets the occupancy=false because motion is going to cause attention by me after we leave.

 

This same system uses another flag and timer to set Vacation = true after about 16 hours. This is a different level of away as heat and other things can be set back. I live in Canada so in the winter setting you heat back by more than a degree or two takes hours to re-heat the home, so assumption of length of leave is important.

 

Now other things can be based on the Occupancy=true status like knowing your buddy is home and not shutting thing off on him and therefore not having him roll his eyes every time you install another HA obsession toy.

 

My guests get a little freaked out by MS units over every bed. It's the best place to not get triggered with every bed movement during sleep. Have we passed 1984 yet?

Interesting, we have a quite similar approach !

 

I have Hidden door sensor in my 2 external doors, so my detection trigger starts when they open/close. If there is no other movement around my presence state variable captures that.

 

Instead of only MS, i started to adopt the CAO motion sensors, They are tinier and can do REST to my ISY and as a bonus i have temp and humidity for each room i put. working pretty well so far (˜3 months).

 

For geofencing I'd suggest the geohopper solution, you put USB beacons (low consumption) where you want to monitor. In my iphone the battery consumption is always around 1% or less.

[larryllix]

Interesting, we have a quite similar approach !

 

I have Hidden door sensor in my 2 external doors, so my detection trigger starts when they open/close. If there is no other movement around my presence state variable captures that.

 

Instead of only MS, i started to adopt the CAI motion sensors, They are tinier and can do REST to my ISY and as a bonus i have temp and humidity for each room i put. working pretty well so far (˜3 months).

 

For geofencing I'd suggest the geohopper solution, you put USB beacons (low consumption) where you want to monitor. In my iphone the battery consumption is always around 1% or less.

Cool. I would love to hear more about those CAI MS units but perhaps you could post that in the WC8/CAI forum here so we don't hijack this one of Dale T's.

[MFBra]

Cool. I would love to hear more about those CAI MS units but perhaps you could post that in the WC8/CAI forum here so we don't hijack this one of Dale T's.

My mistake. I was referring to CAO sensors. 

[larryllix]

My mistake. I was referring to CAO sensors. 

darn! I was kind-of hoping.

[Dale T]

For occupancy I use ten motion detectors, so far. I am not sure anybody has been that successful with geofencing techniques so far. If other have they should chime in here. From others and my own experience detection of leaving the is the problem, arriving seems to be quite successful using geofencing. Maybe you can't save battery energy and detect where you are at all times?

 

You probably want to set up a few State variables as flags and triggers to keep track of occupancy and other situations.

 

I detect occupancy by using a 3-4 timer for most MS that need to see motion every 3-4 four hours or assume nobody is home. This takes lots of them in key places. That's a long time to not know anybody is home. I told you leaving was the hard part.

 

Now I usually leave by my mudroom to the garage so it sets a 20 minute timer and if no motion is found elsewhere then we are gone. Each zone could have a reasonable time to expect retriggering a timer.

 

Sleeping is a problem. You just can't let a timer time out in a few hours and assume you are away. You can't set the bedroom timer to 10 hours for worst case. I basically suspend my timers between midnight and 8 am so that if the Occupied=true/false it stays that way unless triggered true in the middle of the night. In the morning the allowance is the usual 3-4 hours to get up "at the crack of noon"

 

Leaving and setting the alarm system sets the occupancy=false because motion is going to cause attention by me after we leave.

 

This same system uses another flag and timer to set Vacation = true after about 16 hours. This is a different level of away as heat and other things can be set back. I live in Canada so in the winter setting you heat back by more than a degree or two takes hours to re-heat the home, so assumption of length of leave is important.

 

Now other things can be based on the Occupancy=true status like knowing your buddy is home and not shutting thing off on him and therefore not having him roll his eyes every time you install another HA obsession toy.

 

My guests get a little freaked out by MS units over every bed. It's the best place to not get triggered with every bed movement during sleep. Have we passed 1984 yet?

 

Hello Larry,

 

Great information. I'm going to be referencing your post a lot. If I may ask for clarification on the MS over the beds? Are they aimed at the beds to detect movement in bed or located there aimed more toward the door or general room movement?

 

I also have two (and sometimes three) dogs. I know to aim the MS a bit higher so the dogs don't active them. Eventually I want to install a couple cameras outside. No bedroom cameras

 

On a slightly different topic, you folks are a bad influence on me. After reading the replies I went to Amazon and found a couple good deals on motion sensors (less than $19.00 each including shipping) and a brand new Insteon LED bulb for $15.00. Its a good thing my partner was the one that gave me the Insteon starter kit for my birthday! Once I get my house set up, I'll start working on his house.

 

Dale

[Dale T]

Interesting, we have a quite similar approach !

 

I have Hidden door sensor in my 2 external doors, so my detection trigger starts when they open/close. If there is no other movement around my presence state variable captures that.

 

Instead of only MS, i started to adopt the CAO motion sensors, They are tinier and can do REST to my ISY and as a bonus i have temp and humidity for each room i put. working pretty well so far (˜3 months).

 

For geofencing I'd suggest the geohopper solution, you put USB beacons (low consumption) where you want to monitor. In my iphone the battery consumption is always around 1% or less.

 

Hi MFBra,

 

Thank you for the information. The CAO sensors sound pretty cool. I recall someone mentioning them in another post. The idea of measuring temp and humidity sounds pretty cool.

 

I don't think the geohopper solution would work for me as I wouldn't be able to place the beacons at work. I install and maintain the stop arm cameras on school buses. The bus lots I work at have anywhere from 70-150 buses. The beacons wouldn't have a large enough range to cover the lots. For smaller areas they look pretty cool. 

 

Dale

[MFBra]

I see, I have their starting version and the range is great, the more advanced offer a huge area....

Looking again to your scenario, what about you having also intermediate geofence areas, I mean, hopefully you may have distinct routes when going to one place to another, so your logic can be stronger if you pass on some intermediate areas.

Another point, not sure about mobilincs vs geohopper battery consumption for geofencing, but considering the second is free, I'd take a look.

 

 

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[larryllix]

Hello Larry,

 

Great information. I'm going to be referencing your post a lot. If I may ask for clarification on the MS over the beds? Are they aimed at the beds to detect movement in bed or located there aimed more toward the door or general room movement?

 

I also have two (and sometimes three) dogs. I know to aim the MS a bit higher so the dogs don't active them. Eventually I want to install a couple cameras outside. No bedroom cameras

.....

 

I found for MS units dead centre over the head of the bed about five feet from the bed surface pointing down the idle of the bed line works the best. My X19 MS units were sitting on top of that picture frame. Now the Insteon units are screwed to the wall.

 

The MS units have a slightly sloped down pattern in their sensing area so that sleepers have more than arms length under it and only a foot or two above their feet. If a sleeper gets out of bed as soon as they begin to sit up at the edge f the bed...bingo! The light is on. Sleepers in bed can kick their feet into the air to operate it manually when desired.

 

I use about a 2 second ramp on/off time so the light isn't so abrupt in the night. This is a compromise between desired on and off times. I want fast on times and nice slow off  times but changing them mid cycle is a PITA. About 45 second is  good time duration. After getting back in bed that seems like an eternity but a good compromise for not blinking during normal walk-bys.

 

I use a 60W equiv. LED and have it respond with about 50% in the daylight hours and about 15% in the dark hours. My manual override turns it on at 100%.

[elvisimprsntr]

I have one 200m geofence for my home.

Leave: arm house in stay mode if ready to arm.

Arrive: disarm alarm, turn on exterior lights, and open garage door if not already open.

I also enable the option in MLHD to ignore geofence notifications if the phone is screen locked to prevent unauthorized access to my home using my lost or stolen phone.

 

This method solves several problems. Stay mode solves the problem of someone else still at home and it will not trip interior follower motion sensors. Same leave trigger can be used for all residents. Same arrive trigger can be used for all residents as well.

 

All my lights, fans, tstat are on schedules, which I alter slightly when house is armed in away mode.

 

Studies have shown for homes in high humidity tropical climates, like south Florida, it is actually better to keep the house at a constant temperature during the day. High temperature swings cause your AC to work harder as it draws the heat back out of the walls which also causes the humidity to rise, thus promoting mold growth.