HomeKit arrives me when I am already home.

[mandolindan]

Good afternoon.

Here is the issue I am experiencing. When I come home at night, my outside lights come on as they should and then shut off after ten minutes. I use “automation” in the homekit app to do this. When I walk down the hall from one end of the house to the other, “automation” thinks I just came home and triggers the “arrive home” scene. When I disable this trigger in “arrive home”, the problem stops. If I could geofence off inside the trigger area that might solve this problem. Does anyone have any ideas?


Thanks, Dan

 

[wesley96]

You can adjust the area of the geofence by dragging the circle when you set up the location.

 

[cynics]

In your automation instead of arrive "home", use your address (or whatever address lines up closest to your house). Once you do that you can edit the size of the geofence.

 

[whsbuss]

My problem is a bit different. I have a "when someone arrives" automation to set a few lamps when we're out for the evening. I also have automation set for when we leave home.

But the arrive automation is set for Sunset and Sunrise. Problem is wife leaves before sunrise for work and since I m still home the automation triggers. I can set up to 1 hour before sunrise, but why does't it allow a preset time; like say 2 AM to avoid conflicts.

 

[wesley96]

You can use a set preset time. I have some automations set to work based on sunrise/sunset and others to specific time. The options should be available for iOS 11 Home app.

 

[whsbuss]

You can use a set preset time. I have some automations set to work based on sunrise/sunset and others to specific time. The options should be available for iOS 11 Home app.

Yes I know. Thank you. But with a preset time, and time zone changes, it requires edification every now and then. Would be nice (submitted feedback to Apple) if the end time could be preset time along with the sunset.

 

[wesley96]

Yes I know. Thank you. But with a preset time, and time zone changes, it requires edification every now and then. Would be nice (submitted feedback to Apple) if the end time could be preset time along with the sunset.

You mean the preset time setting follows the iOS device you carry instead of the Home Hub (Apple TV or iPad)? That would mess up a lot of things for frequent long distance travellers. Could you elaborate further on your experience? I know time zones wreak a lot of havoc in all sorts of unexpected places in apps but never gave a thought about it for HomeKit...

 

[whsbuss]

Yes, let me explain further. Just me and my wife live in our apartment. We setup the iPad as the Home hub for automation. We automate the TV viewing area lighting each day at 15 minutes before sunset.

So then I have two automations related to those lights.
1. When everyone leaves, turn off all but one lamp using the At Night 15 minutes before sunset and 1 hour before sunrise
2. When first person arrives, set the lighting for TV viewing using At Night same parameters.

But because I cannot set the End time of the automation to a preset time, instead of 1 hour before sunrise, if one of us leaves for work inside these parameters the lights come on. With a Start time of sunset and end time of say 2 am this would not happen.