Is my iphone present???

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I have several rules that depend on the presence of phones.
For Android and Windows phones is sufficient to do a simple pingPresentce . The problem is that iPhones go after about 30 seconds of inactivity in sleep mode and turn off wifi. This made the whole concept unreliable

There is another way to verify that the iPhone(s) are present using icloud.

Install the plugin location
configure the location-plugin:

    {
      "id": "iphone one",
      "name": "iphone-one",
      "class": "LocationDevice",
      "lat": 51.xxxxxxxxxx,
      "long": 5.xxxxxxxx,
      "iCloudUser": "you icloud username",
      "iCloudPass": "you icloud password",
      "iCloudDevice": "the name icloud knows your iPhone by",
      "iCloudInterval": 60000
    }

make a dummy-phone for the iphone:

    {
      "id": "iPhone1",
      "name": "iPhone1",
      "class": "DummyPresenceSensor",
      "autoReset": false
    },

And lastly make 2 rules.

    {
      "id": "iphone1-is-home",
      "name": "iphone1 is home",
      "rule": "if linearDistance of iphone one is less than 40m then execute \"curl admin:admin@localhost/api/device/iPhone1/changePresenceTo?presence=true >/dev/null 2>&1\"",
      "active": true,
      "logging": true
    },
    {
      "id": "iPhone1-is-gone",
      "name": "iPhone1 is gone",
      "rule": "if linearDistance of iphone one is greater than 40m then execute \"curl admin:admin@localhost/api/device/iPhone1/changePresenceTo?presence=false >/dev/null 2>&1\"",
      "active": true,
      "logging": true
    }

You have to do this for ever iPhone or iTab

Hope this helps someone.
Greetings Hans

@hansjeu
Thank for this howto!

In earlier posts I read that this methode could drain your Iphone’s battery, whats your experience on this issue?

Grt. Marcel

I think it depends on the model of iphone and how often you want to determine the location. In this example, I check the location of an iPhone 4 once a minute, but with two different pimatic sets. I think this is therefore tantamount to a location check every 30 seconds.
Now, after two days of testing, there is still not complain about batteries running down . At night the iPhone is connected to the power, but that’s normal I think. We test one week , then comes the final assessment on the battery usage.

Greetings Hans

it would be even better to adjust the polling frequency based on the distance!

(if distance >10km, than polling 1 time per hour), if distance < 2km, polling once per minute)

That would be great,no idear how to implement this.

you can also use:

set presence of iPhone1 absent

instead of

execute \"curl admin:admin@localhost/api/device/iPhone1/changePresenceTo?presence=false >/dev/null 2>&1\""

The problem with polling iCloud is that the battery will die faster.

The best way imo is using the app ‘Locative’ which can trigger the pimatic api if it leaves or enters a zone. This doesn’t cost more battery power since other apps do use the same feature.

the problem with locative is that pimatic must be open to the internet for been reachable from the mobile net.
I’m trying the iCloud polling version at the moment with 30minute polling and for now it is ok. I want to have a security light off function when all our iPhones are absent to be sure the light is set off the. At the moment i have no big battery draining due to the polling. I will have a further look on to that the next weeks.
If someone has a better option to track presence of more the one person without opening ports to the internet i’m open minded to test them

@Christopher-täufert there you go:
owntracks plugin

@dpressle just found that topic earlier this morning. Will try it in the next days when digg a little into MQTT but i sounds like something i want to use. Thx for the hint

@Christopher-täufert Great, let me know how it goes and if you find any problems.

@sweebee

do you have an example in how to make this work for my iPhone?
i have installed locative but im quite stuck…
Thanks for the reply.

For this guys with a fritz box they can use also my solution:

https://forum.pimatic.org/topic/2052/fritzbox-wlan-script-someoneathome

@Swen said in Is my iphone present???:

For this guys with a fritz box they can use also my solution:

https://forum.pimatic.org/topic/2052/fritzbox-wlan-script-someoneathome

This works also verry well for I-Phones

I have managed to make it work with icloud. Since i dont have a fritzbox. Thanks for the replies.

Sorry for late reaction but kinda busy lately. I made an iPhone app that works with pimatic-location. It doesn’t use much battery power like the iCloud solution.

https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/pimatic-location/id1219768830?l=en&mt=8

@sweebee

No problem. I was just waiting for the reply

I have installed this app. I keeps on saying cant connect to pimatic.

@countjuh you have installed pimatic location? And not set to iCloud.

I have set the icloud function. Should i delete that and make contact with location?

@countjuh just a normal locations device:

{
      "lat": xx.xxxxxx,
      "long": xx.xxxxxx,
      "xAttributeOptions": [],
      "id": "my-location",
      "name": "My location",
      "class": "LocationDevice"
    },

@sweebee

Ok thats done. For the app. what do i enter on Device?
thanks for the reply