Pilot: Home Automation Control (iOS app)

[rickwilleme]

Feature Request: How about showing a notification when someone rings on my doorbell?

I got that by using Pushbullet. And because I linked Pushbullet with Kodi, I see the same message while watching a movie.
Has been useful during some loud action movies

[patoo77]

Feature Request: How about showing a notification when someone rings on my doorbell?

I got that by using Pushbullet. And because I linked Pushbullet with Kodi, I see the same message while watching a movie.
Has been useful during some loud action movies

You can already do that with Pilot. Simply use the PUSH notifications sytem.
Then trigger the notification from your Domoticz events.

[batso]

You can already do that with Pilot. Simply use the PUSH notifications sytem.
Then trigger the notification from your Domoticz events.

Awesome!

[Steven84]

Patrick,

Any idea when ipad support gets availible?
I know want to use your app as fontpage monitor on wall.
App works as a charm.....

[dannybloe]

Yeah, but it is a pity Pilot doesn't run on older iOS versions. I have an iPad 1 lying around here that could be revived just for Domoticz but it won't run Pilot

And my son has a iPhone4 that won't run Pilot either so no geofencing for him (can't find any proper geofencing solution for his phone that actually works but that's off topic).

[patoo77]

Patrick,

Any idea when ipad support gets availible?
I know want to use your app as fontpage monitor on wall.
App works as a charm.....

Hopefully in 2016

Yeah, but it is a pity Pilot doesn't run on older iOS versions. I have an iPad 1 lying around here that could be revived just for Domoticz but it won't run Pilot

And my son has a iPhone4 that won't run Pilot either so no geofencing for him (can't find any proper geofencing solution for his phone that actually works but that's off topic).

Geofencing works veeeeeery badly on iPhones older than the iPhone 4S.

[Bikey]

Some feedback on the latest release: the swipe control to switch a lamp on or really works nice. Nice change in last update is that it is now easier to distinguish between setting a lamp on at 100% or setting it on with the previous dimming level.

There is only one dimming behaviour with the swipe control that is implemented quite unintuitive:

I understand the idea that swiping to the right is increasing the dim level and to the left decreasing.

The problem with this is that if the lamp is off and for example you want switch the lamp on at 50%. Now sometimes you have swipe to the left and sometimes to the right, depending of the previous set level, if it was respectively greater or smaller then 50%. So you first have to look at the % in the circle and then figure out to which side you should slide. Very cumbersome and against consequent design conventions.

So please, change the behaviour so that the sliding to the right always sets the dimming level using the full scale from 0 - 100%. Remove the dimming action when sliding to the left, only use this to switch the lamp off.

I stil can't get used the unintuitive dimming. Any chance that this will be implemented as described above?

Another thing: the new multi selector switch is not working yet in Pilot.

[patoo77]

I stil can't get used the unintuitive dimming. Any chance that this will be implemented as described above?

Another thing: the new multi selector switch is not working yet in Pilot.

I will stick with the current dimming implementation for the time being, until I can find something that pleases everyone.
Selector will be implemented in the next version of Pilot.

[Bikey]

Been trying what dannybloe suggested: having relative swipe control when device is on, and absolute swipe when device is off -> it's way too confusing imo and doesn't work well, I'll keep relative swipe as it is in the current beta, see how that goes

However, I'll add a setting so that users can choose between absolute and relative swipe.

Totally agree, don't mix absolute and relative swipe.
(A design should work consistent, that is exactly what is wrong with the relative swipe). If you make a setting so I can always use the absolute swipe that would be great!

[Nautilus]

Geofencing works veeeeeery badly on iPhones older than the iPhone 4S.

I have an iPhone6 and as i've had some bad experiences with geofencing on some other apps I decided to try if it would work more consistently with this I was able to trigger an "off" action once by opening the app when I was away and also "on" action when I came back but this is from few days ago and otherwise there hasn't been any reaction to me being away from the "geofence zone" (ie. home in this case ). What could be the reason, something wrong with my phone perhaps? The other apps I've been experimenting with for geofencing (IFTTT and TellEvent) have noticed that I'm away from home during this time even though they have not been proved as bulletproof in this respect either...

Would there be any idea to be able to combine the geofence to wifi network or something similar? It would be great for my home automation purposes if I would be able to reliably determine whether there is anyone home or not

[JohnBoy32]

Hi! I am a happy Pilot-user.

But..... as far as I can oversee Location Services is only functioning when you have mobile internet (3G/4G), when you have wifi only then it is not switching (the switch in Domoticz).

It seems that it's only functioning when it is online when you cross a border of the set location. I you are using wifi at home (without mobile internet) and you leave the house, it is obvious you have left the wifi-zone before you have left the location based on GPS. So at the moment you leave the location it will not switch.
Even when you enter another location (at work) and a new wifi zone (at work) it will not switch. I expect for the same reason. So that means that if your switch is reporting you are at home and you (only wifi-user) are work it can (and will) report that you are still at home.

Correct me if I am wrong but this leads to the conclusion that Location Services is of no use if you do not have mobile internet or weak mobile internet when you cross a border of your set locations.

[patoo77]

Hi! I am a happy Pilot-user.

But..... as far as I can oversee Location Services is only functioning when you have mobile internet (3G/4G), when you have wifi only then it is not switching (the switch in Domoticz).

It seems that it's only functioning when it is online when you cross a border of the set location. I you are using wifi at home (without mobile internet) and you leave the house, it is obvious you have left the wifi-zone before you have left the location based on GPS. So at the moment you leave the location it will not switch.
Even when you enter another location (at work) and a new wifi zone (at work) it will not switch. I expect for the same reason. So that means that if your switch is reporting you are at home and you (only wifi-user) are work it can (and will) report that you are still at home.

Correct me if I am wrong but this leads to the conclusion that Location Services is of no use if you do not have mobile internet or weak mobile internet when you cross a border of your set locations.

Well yeah, if you don't have access to the internet when the location changes, it won't be able to send the data to your server.
If you have weak access, it can also fail. FYI, when the location changes, Pilot tries to send the data 3 times (once every minute). If it fails after those 3 attempts, then the data won't ever be sent.

Hope that answers your question!
Cheers

[Nautilus]

Well yeah, if you don't have access to the internet when the location changes, it won't be able to send the data to your server.
If you have weak access, it can also fail. FYI, when the location changes, Pilot tries to send the data 3 times (once every minute). If it fails after those 3 attempts, then the data won't ever be sent.

Hope that answers your question!
Cheers

I have an iPhone6 and as i've had some bad experiences with geofencing on some other apps I decided to try if it would work more consistently with this I was able to trigger an "off" action once by opening the app when I was away and also "on" action when I came back but this is from few days ago and otherwise there hasn't been any reaction to me being away from the "geofence zone" (ie. home in this case ). What could be the reason, something wrong with my phone perhaps? The other apps I've been experimenting with for geofencing (IFTTT and TellEvent) have noticed that I'm away from home during this time even though they have not been proved as bulletproof in this respect either...

Would there be any idea to be able to combine the geofence to wifi network or something similar? It would be great for my home automation purposes if I would be able to reliably determine whether there is anyone home or not

Not sure if it is just my phone then but also Pilot works very unreliably with the Geofence. Maybe about 50% of border crossings are reflected as a switch change. In my case the Wifi / 4G should not be an issue as perhaps it is with JohnBoy. But as said, I haven't had a great experience with other geofence capable app either (e.g. IFTTT and TellEvent). Wonder what would be the best way to have a reliable presence switch in Domoticz, pinging with iPhone does not seem a good idea either...

[simon_rb]

Geofencing used to work 100% but recently both mine and the wife's phone have become unreliable.

[JacquesMulders]

Ive also had a issue with geofence, both iphone 6, my phone works fine, wife's phone didnt work..

Found on the internet (dont have a link) that when you reset the privacy settings of the iphone it should work.

Dit the reset on my wifes phone and now it works fine.. 99% of border crossings...

Reset is in settings, general, reset, reset location and privacy settings...

[patoo77]

Ive also had a issue with geofence, both iphone 6, my phone works fine, wife's phone didnt work..

Found on the internet (dont have a link) that when you reset the privacy settings of the iphone it should work.

Dit the reset on my wifes phone and now it works fine.. 99% of border crossings...

Reset is in settings, general, reset, reset location and privacy settings...

Well that's good to know, kinda weird though.
To everyone, did you notice a change after upgrading to iOS 9.3? Or did it stopped working consistently all of a sudden?

[Truff]

Is anyone using Pilot with OpenVPN ? Seems like it would the best solution to avoid having expose your Domoticz server to the internet and still get the geofencing with Pilot to work with an iPhone.

I'm just wondering if these something I've missed before I start installing ?

[Truff]

To answer my own question - I've now played with Pilot and OpenVPN and they work great together for when your actively using the app so the phone is awake.

The limitation is VPN isn't active when the phone's screen is off so the location services notification from Pilot will fail (as there would be no route to the Domoticz box). This looks like a deliberate limitation in how iOS handles VPN - from pressing a button to turn the screen on its then about 5 seconds before the VPN automatically reconnects.

So while I'm still happy I have a way to securely use pilot without opening my Domoticz server to the world, I'll have to come up with a 'Plan B' for how to do geofencing.

[rgroothuis]

Ive also had a issue with geofence, both iphone 6, my phone works fine, wife's phone didnt work..

Found on the internet (dont have a link) that when you reset the privacy settings of the iphone it should work.

Dit the reset on my wifes phone and now it works fine.. 99% of border crossings...

Reset is in settings, general, reset, reset location and privacy settings...

Well that's good to know, kinda weird though.
To everyone, did you notice a change after upgrading to iOS 9.3? Or did it stopped working consistently all of a sudden?

Same experience with my iPhone. Pilot geofencing behaved a bit strange suddenly and after the upgrade to the latest iOS everything was working fine again.

[Nautilus]

Well that's good to know, kinda weird though.
To everyone, did you notice a change after upgrading to iOS 9.3? Or did it stopped working consistently all of a sudden?

I've had the reliability problem since starting to experiment with the feature a few weeks ago. At that point I was still not running iOS 9.3. I just updated so I'll have to wait and see if that has any effect on it.