Trying to figure out how to.....

Community Playground General Discussions
1

I’m trying to figure out how to be alerted when my wife arrives at home.

So far I was able to create a device that pings her phone and reports when the phone is connected to our network.
I was also able to configure Vera Alerts to alert me when her phone connects.

The issue I’m running into is that, I’m getting a lot of notification (because her phone connects and disconnects a few times an hour). My phone does the same thing so I think everything is working the way it is supposed to.

How do I go about changing it.

Thanks.

2

It depends on how she comes home. Do you have a garage she pulls into? The MyQ device I have works great with a plugin for Vera so I know when the garage is open.

How about a door sensor to trigger a picture (not necessary) and email when the door opens?

I use the WOL Plus Ping plugin and I get a lot of emails sometimes the way it is configured by default.

Look at the common method she would have to use to get inside the house. Get a deadolt zwave lock too. You can code a specific pin to trigger an email as well. You have a different pin and so on, you get the idea.

3

Thanks for the reply Tomtcom,

I chose to monitor for her phone because she always has it on her and 99% of the time it connects automatically to our home network. We’ve got two kids so door sensors aren’t really going to work. 90% of the time she pulls into the garage but we keep the garage door open a lot so it’s not really reliable to report when she gets in.

I guess what I thinking is for a way to eliminate (or greatly reduce) the amount of times the vera reports that her phone has connected/ disconnected from our network.

Or am I just barking up the wrong tree?

4

Based on what you said it seems like the phone is the best option. I’m sure you can rig other methods but it’s probably best to tweak how you are getting the response from the phone and why it disconnects or signals you that it’s not connected anymore.

There are also geo-fencing alternatives to have location based alerts since that can use gps/wifi/3g(4g). That might be something to look into. You can set a radius and other stuff with specific coordinates or close enough within some type of radius.

5

Thanks Tomtcom,
I decided to abandon the ping sensor idea.
Instead, I did a combination of a virtual switch, AutohomationHD and Tasker.

When Tasker connects to my home network AutohomationHD flips the virtual switch and viola we’re home.

Thanks for the help.

6

Cool. Glad you found a solution!