Vera Proximity New Android Applications

[SirMeili]

That rapid update is 60 seconds ... but I might make it even faster based on battery strength. So I set it for 5:00 minutes  about 1 mile out .. I might stop at the post box.

Sorry I think I didn't quiet understand. The default is 60 secs sounds like.

You might make it faster which would be less then 60 secs right? Then you say you set it for 5:00 minutes which seems much slower.

I lock my doors when I leave but I forget sometimes and have it set up to check and re-lock. I live in a densely populated area and would like this to happen while I'm in some sight of the house or maybe a block over. So a mile or 5 min. for me would be to long.


Few more questions:

Also rapid update time is only the time when the APP checks with Android to see your current location correct?

The app currently only reports or checks in with Vera when the phone has detected it crossed a geofence right? But your saying the reporting interval is going to change that to be able to check in with vera more often rather then only when a geofence has been crossed?

I think the "rapid update" time is 60 seconds instead of a faster time. I'm unclear what the normal polling rate is.

So, for instance, in tonight's test, I set up a "rapid update" fence that is .05 miles from my house. I checked the "rapid update" box and set the length of time for the rapid update to be "5:00" (do the rapid update for 5 minutes). Then I have a smaller "fence" in that fence that is my actual house. The rapid update means it will poll more often so that within a minute or so of being inside my "house" fence, it will trigger as entering it. I do know that without the "rapid update" it does take longer to trigger that I'm home (I did this by just walking out side of my Home fence), but I don't know that timing yet.

It literally told me I was in my "house" fence as I pulled into the area (monitored via Google Maps). However, even if it takes a minute, once pulling in the drive it takes me about a minute to get out of the car and get close, so I think I'm good.

Other uses:

1) When I am within a mile of home and it's night, turn on the front outside lights. This may trigger if it's night and I drive by, but you can have a PLEG to turn them off (or in my case, reset the SmartSwitch) when you exit the fence again.

2) When you are within 1 mile of your house, use the Sonos plugin to announce you, your spouse or kids are on your way home (could be based on time of day as well).

3) When both you and your spouse (and any kids) are out of the house, make sure all the lights/appliances/Electronics are off. If you are gone for over 12 hours, put your house in Away/Vacation mode (maybe utilizing the "vacation ghost" plugin).

Something I am cautious about:

1) Unlocking your door because you are close to your house. I don't like this feature and I realize that some people do this or open their garages. I'm just too much of a security freak to do that. Now, this app has the feature to require you to "unlock" your phone to do a specific action, so I would consider doing the previous if I had to unlock my phone before the commands were sent to the Vera.

P.S. I got most of those examples from reading the threads about iPhone locator and iViri. I don't use apple products, so I was just waiting for an Android version that didn't require tasker (I use it, I just didn't want to use it for this).

[integlikewhoa]

I think the "rapid update" time is 60 seconds instead of a faster time. I'm unclear what the normal polling rate is.

So, for instance, in tonight's test, I set up a "rapid update" fence that is .05 miles from my house. I checked the "rapid update" box and set the length of time for the rapid update to be "5:00" (do the rapid update for 5 minutes). Then I have a smaller "fence" in that fence that is my actual house. The rapid update means it will poll more often so that within a minute or so of being inside my "house" fence, it will trigger as entering it. I do know that without the "rapid update" it does take longer to trigger that I'm home (I did this by just walking out side of my Home fence), but I don't know that timing yet.

It literally told me I was in my "house" fence as I pulled into the area (monitored via Google Maps). However, even if it takes a minute, once pulling in the drive it takes me about a minute to get out of the car and get close, so I think I'm good.

Other uses:

1) When I am within a mile of home and it's night, turn on the front outside lights. This may trigger if it's night and I drive by, but you can have a PLEG to turn them off (or in my case, reset the SmartSwitch) when you exit the fence again.

2) When you are within 1 mile of your house, use the Sonos plugin to announce you, your spouse or kids are on your way home (could be based on time of day as well).

3) When both you and your spouse (and any kids) are out of the house, make sure all the lights/appliances/Electronics are off. If you are gone for over 12 hours, put your house in Away/Vacation mode (maybe utilizing the "vacation ghost" plugin).

Something I am cautious about:

1) Unlocking your door because you are close to your house. I don't like this feature and I realize that some people do this or open their garages. I'm just too much of a security freak to do that. Now, this app has the feature to require you to "unlock" your phone to do a specific action, so I would consider doing the previous if I had to unlock my phone before the commands were sent to the Vera.

P.S. I got most of those examples from reading the threads about iPhone locator and iViri. I don't use apple products, so I was just waiting for an Android version that didn't require tasker (I use it, I just didn't want to use it for this).

Yea none of this is new. I been using Tasker for awhile now and more recently have gotten my router setup to watch for me and alert vera by MAC address. My lights come one and stuff not when I'm a mile away but when I pull up. Router has been much more accurate then tasker ever was. I think its because when I get home or leave I'm dropping or picking up wifi and phone is in between so it always has delays or is in consistent. I want mine to happen at a reliably in the same 100 yard gap.  With tasker some times I get home a light is on before I turn the block and sometimes light is on when I'm getting out of the car. I have 4 routers around the house already running DDWRT so I now got those setup to watch for when each of our phones connect by MAC address. I get that connection reliable only problem I have now is the disconnect. The Atheros routers I have don't disconnect fast. Router still shows me as a client for sometimes 5 min. after I have turned  wifi or disconnected on my phone. I don't have this problem with the broadcom routers, but haven't wanted to switch all over. Right now I'm using both systems one to switch on one to switch off. And I could never get rid of Geofence if I wanted to do something away from the house (or my router). So I continue to use each of the strong points.

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,24084.0.html

[SirMeili]

My examples were just examples I thought up really quick . I likely would not turn on the lights 1 mile out, but you could. Like I said, it picked me up right as I hit my drive (the end of my "Fence"). That could have been a total coincidence, but it worked. I like your idea using the routers, but I unfortunately do not have a DDWRT compatible router at the moment due to business needs. I'm sure I could have do it with a DDWRT router, but at the time, it was easier to buy something that just did what I needed out of the box. This was before any HA concerns/needs of mine. I'm interested how you handle it as you bounce from router to router, but that is a discussion for another thread (perhaps the one you linked to).

I'm definitely interested in seeing what the Vera companion app adds to this Android app. I can't think of anything really "cool", so that means it's likely going to be super cool when I find out!

[bucko]

@integlikewhoa
I am using tasker for quite a few things, i am automating my phone more and more. Vera integration is just a part of it. I use the geofence not only to switch the house to 'home', but also turn the screen lock off when i am at home, and back on when i leave. I turn sound volumes and ringtones down when i am at work, and back up when i leave. Also i use NFC tiles to put the phone into car mode, which reads text messages to me, announces callers, turns on bluetooth, turns the screen lock off... and i keep finding more things i can do... i am starting to experiment with ibeacons now... they are also integrated into tasker.
So lots of reasons for me to want tasker integration. I can work around it if it didnt work, but it would be easier if it was integrated. I also find that the Vera alerts feedback sent to my phone is not always that reliable (thats another mystery i will try to solve at some point), so i rather do it all via tasker and autolocation - hence the wish for integration into tasker

BIG +1 on tasker!

I'd like to hear more detail on the router disconnect setup. I run 3 routers in my WiFi. 1 is a DDWRT, other 2 are Asus RT-AC66R's

[RichardTSchaefer]

I will add a tasker  interface.
What do you expect from this ?
    Do you want to use this as a GeoFence front end for Tasker ... i.e. to cause tasker to run some commands as you exit/enter a perimeter fence ?
    Do you want to allow Tasker to send commands to Vera, i.e. as a gateway that knows how to connect through UI5 and UI6 gateways ?

There are solutions to the above two use cases already. I did this for people that did not to have to deal with gluing multiple apps together to solve a problem.

[mikee123]

For me it would be primarily as a replacement for autolocation, i would love your app to be able to cause tasker to run some commands as you exit/enter a perimeter fence(s). I am using tasker via authomation to send commands back to Vera which works fine most of the time. The problem lately is more Vera reporting back via Vera Alerts (messages not being sent or just stuck for 15 or 20 minutes). If there would be another way for tasker to know what state a for example virtual switch in Vera is, that would be extremely useful. Not sure if that is achievable or realistic though

[RichardTSchaefer]

The problem lately is more Vera reporting back via Vera Alerts (messages not being sent or just stuck for 15 or 20 minutes). If there would be another way for tasker to know what state a for example virtual switch in Vera is, that would be extremely useful. Not sure if that is achievable or realistic though

Are you indicating that Vera Alerts does not report your messages for 15 to 20 minutes ? Or that there is a problem getting the status back ? or what ?
 

[clippermiami]

The problem lately is more Vera reporting back via Vera Alerts (messages not being sent or just stuck for 15 or 20 minutes). If there would be another way for tasker to know what state a for example virtual switch in Vera is, that would be extremely useful. Not sure if that is achievable or realistic though

Are you indicating that Vera Alerts does not report your messages for 15 to 20 minutes ? Or that there is a problem getting the status back ? or what ?

Richard I've noticed some delays in Vera Alerts of late, never 15-20 minutes but sometimes several minutes. I have Arm/Disarm alerts sent by both VeraAlerts and SMS and I USUALLY get the SMS alert almost instantly and on occasion the VeraAlert for the same event is several minutes later.

[integlikewhoa]

I'd like to hear more detail on the router disconnect setup. I run 3 routers in my WiFi. 1 is a DDWRT, other 2 are Asus RT-AC66R's

Take that up here.

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,24084.0.html

[mikee123]

@clippermiami
Since about a week i noticed that i did not get my normal status report on Vera Alerts. I have set up a notification for when i leave the house or come back home. When this message arrives on Vera Alerts its stops my tasker sending a command to Vera that i am home or away. Lately walking home i noticed my phone keeps buzzing, as it keeps sending the message. But when i check when i arrive home it has changed the virtual switch, i just did not get a notification. The weird thing is it works most of the time. So its not a setup problem (and it has worked without faults for weeks before). Then i tried at home sending manual messages via Vera Alerts. Nothing come through, until about 15 or 20 minutes later i had about 20 notifications at one. So it looks sometimes they get delayed, occasionally completely lost.
Normally i have my notifications instantly. Only since about a week ago that i noticed these delays/problems

[clippermiami]

@clippermiami
Since about a week i noticed that i did not get my normal status report on Vera Alerts. I have set up a notification for when i leave the house or come back home. When this message arrives on Vera Alerts its stops my tasker sending a command to Vera that i am home or away. Lately walking home i noticed my phone keeps buzzing, as it keeps sending the message. But when i check when i arrive home it has changed the virtual switch, i just did not get a notification. The weird thing is it works most of the time. So its not a setup problem (and it has worked without faults for weeks before). Then i tried at home sending manual messages via Vera Alerts. Nothing come through, until about 15 or 20 minutes later i had about 20 notifications at one. So it looks sometimes they get delayed, occasionally completely lost.
Normally i have my notifications instantly. Only since about a week ago that i noticed these delays/problems

Now that I think about it is seems to me that this has been going on for a week or so also. The problem is that I don't have a long data base to work from, I only finished setting up my alert processes about three weeks ago anyway. Prior to the licensing change I was using Vera Alerts but [rimarily to send SMS not so much the internal alert mechanism. Since licensing and reconfiguring I'm now using the internal alerting more, generally in conjunction with SMS, SysLog and SMTP depending on the nature of the notifications.

[clippermiami]

Richard, great to hear.

I've downloaded it and tried it but I get a STOP immediately on trying to open it. The background task is apparently running, the icon is in the notification bar. But if I try to open the app itself to configure it, it says it has stopped. The background icon goes away and reappears almost immediately but the app still does not open.

I installed it on an HTC One X+ running Android 4.1.1. Reported to you through Google Play also along with system data

FYI, l also  installed it on my Nexus 7 tablet and it mostly works. I say mostly because it does open and allow configuration but occasionally does crash.

Further to this trouble report, I also loaded it on an HTC One VX running Android 4.0.4 and it again failed immediately.

To recap:
Nexus 7 Tablet, Android 4.4.2 - running fine
HTC One X+ Phone, Android 4.1.1 - crashes immediately
HTC One VX Phone, Android 4.0.4 - crashes immediately
Lenovo A1000 Tablet , Android 4.1.2 - crashes immediately

[RichardTSchaefer]

I checked the Log files and the Vera Alert Post Office. It runs on a Google Server. So it should have high reliability and good connectivity. It has an average response (receiving from Vera Plugin and actually sending to the Google Cloud, of about 150 mSec.  The rest of the  journey is all part of the Google infrastructure.

I sometimes see my Google Related Services lock up ... resetting the network frees things up and I get a bunch of notifications from various Google services all at one time. So I think there is some instability in the Google delivery process.

 @clippermiami
I have not seen any crash reports yet.

[SirMeili]

Richard, great to hear.

I've downloaded it and tried it but I get a STOP immediately on trying to open it. The background task is apparently running, the icon is in the notification bar. But if I try to open the app itself to configure it, it says it has stopped. The background icon goes away and reappears almost immediately but the app still does not open.

I installed it on an HTC One X+ running Android 4.1.1. Reported to you through Google Play also along with system data

FYI, l also  installed it on my Nexus 7 tablet and it mostly works. I say mostly because it does open and allow configuration but occasionally does crash.

Further to this trouble report, I also loaded it on an HTC One VX running Android 4.0.4 and it again failed immediately.

To recap:
Nexus 7 Tablet, Android 4.4.2 - running fine
HTC One X+ Phone, Android 4.1.1 - crashes immediately
HTC One VX Phone, Android 4.0.4 - crashes immediately
Lenovo A1000 Tablet , Android 4.1.2 - crashes immediately

Based on what I'm seeing there, could it be that the hooks @RichardTSchaefer is using to get the location data (or really anything in the Android API) is in a version of android greater than 4.1.2? I have not had an issue on my MotoX, but it's running 4.4.x.

[RichardTSchaefer]

Thats why I need to see a crash report ... the IDE is usually pretty good about flagging these potential problems.