#Contact sensor alert when out of WiFi range.

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

lime smelt
#

Hi

I have a ring contact sensor on my garage door that I don't want to trigger the Ring alarm.

What I'm looking to do is alert on my phone if the door is open and I move out of
my WiFi area (geofencing?)

Just wondering what sort of controls/automation I should look into as I'm
new to HA.

I have the Android phone app installed.

Thanks

vestal needle
lime smelt
#

Hi, not tried it yet. I don't have a HA cloud account, how else would I access this from outside of WiFi?

vestal needle
#

ha cloud would be the easiest method. but you can vpn to your network or expose stuff externally etc...
if your phone can connect externally then it can update when it drops the wifi signal and/or gps as a device tracker which you can geofence with.

#

if it cant cconnect externally then it cant tell ha its not there because its not there...

raw barn
#

but you still can send push notifications even without VPN and/or cloud subscription

so it would be quite easy to create an automation that is triggered by your phone leaving your home network, the automation then would check if the door is open and send you a push notification

vestal needle
#

ble becon tracking is a possible solution too as that can react quicker

raw barn
#

I'm using the ping integration and that's reacting pretty quickly
my instance is not externally accessible and I don't have a cloud subscription (yet)

I can receive notifications from the companion app without any problem

vestal needle
#

but takes a bit of work to set up

vestal needle
raw barn
#

but it works

#

try it out

vestal needle
#

then you have something set up to make it work

#

its otherwise not possible

raw barn
#

I do not - to my knowledge all push notifications are relayed by google

#

not only the HA ones

vestal needle
#

companion app messages are sent directly they are not sent via google

raw barn
#

at least on android you definitely can receive notifications on the companion app without configuring anything

I was surprised that it worked - but it works

vestal needle
#

i dont beleive you

raw barn
#

@lime smelt how about you just try it out?
turn off wifi, use mobile data
send a notification from your phone

raw barn
#

so are you saying I'm lying?

vestal needle
#

i am saying that you have something set up

raw barn
#

I do not

#

when your news site sends you a push notification... do you think your phone is constantly polling all the api backends for all apps?

#

why is there a 500 messages limit per day if it's just my local HA instance sending the messages?

#

this is local push
from that doc:
Local Push uses the WebSocket API to deliver notifications to your device instead of using Apple's Push Notification Service or Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging.

#

so it's even the other way round - you need to set something up to not use apple/google to deliver the notification

#

when I just started with home assistant I was very surprised that I was getting notifications when not at home

vestal needle
raw barn
#

no worries 🙂

vestal needle
#

maybe when i set things up it was previously not default behavior but is now

raw barn
#

but for @lime smelt the approach that I described should just work

#

that is possible I started using home assistant 3 years ago and I was totally not expecting to be able to receive notifications

vestal needle
#

so realistically i guess it might have been made default as it probably prevents more support issues than it draws compaints

raw barn
#

I cannot answer that

vestal needle
#

but also my point about wifi disappearing detections ususally takes a while. unless your using something like ping but usually phones stop responding to pings in standby these days dont they? to save battery i assumee. at least i have had that. maybe is option to a keep it responding at cost of battery

#

if it takes a few minutes then whilst doing its job might be annoying in the use case. 5 minutes from home and have to go back

raw barn
#

I've heard that this is an issue with iphones (but more because of a privacy feature IIRC)
on android it works well

I did not change any settings to stay awake to be able to receive pings

vestal needle
#

yeah iphones tend to do it more but i had it on android too. maybe depends on phone/config

raw barn
#

you can tweak how quickly the ping integration responds:

image.png
vestal needle
#

but yes if it works for his phone then its a workable solution

#

I use BLE becon tracking but... I have i think 28 bluetooth proxies...

raw barn
#

as I said I remember something with iphones and ping
but for android it works well - both for my wife and me
we both changed phones during the time I'm running HA - never had an issue

vestal needle
#

nothing happens on bluetooth without something seeing it

raw barn
vestal needle
vestal needle
raw barn
#

sorry for hijacking the thread @lime smelt 😉
@vestal needle are you using bermuda or something like that?

vestal needle
#

devices fall off the count after some inactivity but in general i sit at around 1000 devices seen

#

between neighbours, passers by, cars etc...

raw barn
#

but you don't own all of them?

#

ahh yes - makes sense

vestal needle
#

some stuff is mine but nowhere near 1000 😛

#

100-150 "active" most of the time

image.png
#

members of the household that ware a smart watch can be tracked well enough that i can for the most part tell what room they are in

#

i did have an ESPressence setup which was pretty nice but it needed dedicated devices for it

lime smelt
lime smelt
lime smelt
#

Hi, so I think I will give the HA Cloud a try as it's not a bad price. I know how to check the status of the door sensor but I really don't know what I'm checking in regards to my Android phone being off the WiFi. Any pointers as to the types of automations and entities etc would be great., Thanks

raw barn
lime smelt