#Improve device tracking (home/not home)

3 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

regal heart
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I would like to improve our location tracking (home / not home).

My partner has a Pixel 8 Pro, I have a Pixel 9 Pro. We both have the HA Companion App installed, but I notice that my partner's Pixel 8 Pro updates its location very slowly. I have compared all the settings with those of my Pixel 9 Pro, and there is no difference.

We also have a full Ubiquiti setup at home that I could possibly use for presence detection. I have also read that there is a Ping integration that you can use.

Have other people here combined multiple systems to achieve better/faster presence detection? And how do you do this? With Bayesian?

Some examples would be more than welcome 🙂

Thanks already!

ionic mauve
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If you simply try to find out if someone is home, ping is the best!

Give your and your partners phone static IP adresses (you need to set this up in your router, outside of HA).

Go to the Ping (ICMP) integration in HA and add two entries for the phones. Host is the IP Adress of the Phone. Set Ping to 1 and the wait time to 180 seconds.

You will now have several sensors as well as a device tracker for every phone. You can also attach these tu users (in Settings > Users) but you don't have to. You can use the device trackers in automations to e.g. turn off all lights, whenever both device trackers are "not home".

The whole pinging thing has downsides though:

  • If you do not have your Phone with you... it doesn't work
  • If you have WIFI turned off or the battery is empty you will be "not home"
    -You cannot find out if someone is in a certain room ore something. Only if they are home.

I am using this system for two years now to turn off lights when nobody is home, open and close shutters, turn on the light in the evening when the first person comes home but not when the second does and more fun like this. Works super reliably!

eager raven