Pilot: Home Automation Control (iOS app)

[JohnBoy32]

If I may drop a suggestion for geofence I would like to suggest to following to make it more reliable.

It seems that if internet connection is not present Pilot is not updating. But when internet connection is back Pilot is not updating either it location. As far as I can see only when it is crossing the border of a location.
This means that if I am leaving home with WiFi and arrive at work with WiFi (in in between no internet connection) the switch (once switch on) will stay ON at home.

Maybe it is possible to check if internet connection is back (or once in several minutes) the current location and send an “update”.
This means that if I am leaving home with WiFi and arrive at work with WiFi (in in between no internet connection) the switch will switch home OFF and work ON.
This also means in my opinion that if Pilot has “missed“ crossing the border of a location, it can recover this easily.

Hope this fits with Pilot’s architecture and makes it more reliable…..

[patoo77]

If I may drop a suggestion for geofence I would like to suggest to following to make it more reliable.

It seems that if internet connection is not present Pilot is not updating. But when internet connection is back Pilot is not updating either it location. As far as I can see only when it is crossing the border of a location.
This means that if I am leaving home with WiFi and arrive at work with WiFi (in in between no internet connection) the switch (once switch on) will stay ON at home.

Maybe it is possible to check if internet connection is back (or once in several minutes) the current location and send an “update”.
This means that if I am leaving home with WiFi and arrive at work with WiFi (in in between no internet connection) the switch will switch home OFF and work ON.
This also means in my opinion that if Pilot has “missed“ crossing the border of a location, it can recover this easily.

Hope this fits with Pilot’s architecture and makes it more reliable…..

I wish I could do that, but that doesn't fit with iOS architecture itself. :/
I have considered all sorts of things, but at the end of the day, geofence is very limited by the iOS API. I can't let a job run in the background that easily, it's technically possible, but that job might be killed at any point, and I'm not even sure iOS would allow such app in the App Store.

[rgroothuis]

If I may drop a suggestion for geofence I would like to suggest to following to make it more reliable.

It seems that if internet connection is not present Pilot is not updating. But when internet connection is back Pilot is not updating either it location. As far as I can see only when it is crossing the border of a location.
This means that if I am leaving home with WiFi and arrive at work with WiFi (in in between no internet connection) the switch (once switch on) will stay ON at home.

Maybe it is possible to check if internet connection is back (or once in several minutes) the current location and send an “update”.
This means that if I am leaving home with WiFi and arrive at work with WiFi (in in between no internet connection) the switch will switch home OFF and work ON.
This also means in my opinion that if Pilot has “missed“ crossing the border of a location, it can recover this easily.

Hope this fits with Pilot’s architecture and makes it more reliable…..

I wish I could do that, but that doesn't fit with iOS architecture itself. :/
I have considered all sorts of things, but at the end of the day, geofence is very limited by the iOS API. I can't let a job run in the background that easily, it's technically possible, but that job might be killed at any point, and I'm not even sure iOS would allow such app in the App Store.

What about Pilot doing regular updates (alive message) about the status (at home) to Domiticz, this is done as long as there is a WIFI connection. As soon as the phone is outside the WIFI range Pilot cannot update Domitcz anymore. Then within Domiticz it can be configure that if there is not message from Pilot received for an X amount of time it means that the phone is not "at home" anymore. And you can take the required actions what you would normally would do when the phone leaves the house. This is just an idea! Would be nice because then I can use this feature on the phone of my kids as they do not have a data/internet subscription.

[patoo77]

If I may drop a suggestion for geofence I would like to suggest to following to make it more reliable.

It seems that if internet connection is not present Pilot is not updating. But when internet connection is back Pilot is not updating either it location. As far as I can see only when it is crossing the border of a location.
This means that if I am leaving home with WiFi and arrive at work with WiFi (in in between no internet connection) the switch (once switch on) will stay ON at home.

Maybe it is possible to check if internet connection is back (or once in several minutes) the current location and send an “update”.
This means that if I am leaving home with WiFi and arrive at work with WiFi (in in between no internet connection) the switch will switch home OFF and work ON.
This also means in my opinion that if Pilot has “missed“ crossing the border of a location, it can recover this easily.

Hope this fits with Pilot’s architecture and makes it more reliable…..

I wish I could do that, but that doesn't fit with iOS architecture itself. :/
I have considered all sorts of things, but at the end of the day, geofence is very limited by the iOS API. I can't let a job run in the background that easily, it's technically possible, but that job might be killed at any point, and I'm not even sure iOS would allow such app in the App Store.

What about Pilot doing regular updates (alive message) about the status (at home) to Domiticz, this is done as long as there is a WIFI connection. As soon as the phone is outside the WIFI range Pilot cannot update Domitcz anymore. Then within Domiticz it can be configure that if there is not message from Pilot received for an X amount of time it means that the phone is not "at home" anymore. And you can take the required actions what you would normally would do when the phone leaves the house. This is just an idea! Would be nice because then I can use this feature on the phone of my kids as they do not have a data/internet subscription.

I'm pretty sure this is not possible. :/
Pilot 1.8 (which I'm working on) will add support for iBeacons, that could be the best way to use geofence for those that don't have a data subscription.
However, it requires iBeacons!

Oh and by the way, 1.8 will bring support for the iPad.

[mvveelen]

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.

Did the iOS 9.3 update break the geofencing?

I'm having troubles since iOS 9.3, but at the same time we started having problems with the 3G coverage around our house (contacting our phone company every day since....), so it's hard to determine what is causing the problems: iOS 9.3 or the poor data coverage.

[patoo77]

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.

Did the iOS 9.3 update break the geofencing?

I'm having troubles since iOS 9.3, but at the same time we started having problems with the 3G coverage around our house (contacting our phone company every day since....), so it's hard to determine what is causing the problems: iOS 9.3 or the poor data coverage.

Feels like people are getting mixed feelings about 9.3: for some it fixed geofencing, for others, it broke it.
At the moment I'm not sure where the issue comes from.

[mvveelen]

Let's hope 9.3.1 will be released soon (with a fix for this too).

[rgroothuis]

The Geofencing is working correctly on my iPhone 6 Plus with iOS 9.3. I just got home and received the nice message to get comfy

[patoo77]

Let's hope 9.3.1 will be released soon (with a fix for this too).

Apparently, disabling a geofence and reenabling it inside Pilot fixes the issue.
Please try

[mvveelen]

Let's hope 9.3.1 will be released soon (with a fix for this too).

Apparently, disabling a geofence and reenabling it inside Pilot fixes the issue.
Please try

So: disable, save, enable, save ?

Just did it, now I have to wait until I'm finished at work Will try it on my way home and set some different 'home'-locations.

[patoo77]

So: disable, save, enable, save ?

Yes Let me know how that goes!

[mvveelen]

Well, here I am, letting you know

During the ride home (with traffic jams it took me almost 2 hours ), I tried several times the above mentioned tips. A few times it seemed to work, but every time I got a message that the server couldn't be reached. Strange, because I could read all data from the server, switch on/off switches, so I wondered what was going wrong. During a gasstop I decided to reboot the Synology NAS, and after that I tried again. Same error messages.

Finally I decided to delete the Pilot app, restart my iPhone, and install the Pilot app from scratch.Something I already did a few days ago, but what the heck. And....Eureka !! It worked !! From that moment on I tried a few times and it gave me a 100% result back. 20km's before I arrived at home, I set the right home location, and when I finally got home I got the well known message to get comfy In this case the traffic jams were a real gift

I immediately did the same with the iPhone of my wife, without the restarting by the way. Tomorrow we will know if it's al working again.

Oh, and the coverage problems are not solved yet, but somehow there was enough coverage to switch the dummy switch in Domoticz.

[Bikey]

@Patoo:
Love your App, I'm using it everyday, but based on that experience, here some suggestions for the next release:

• Just like for lamps, tt would be nice to see at a glance which door contacts are "open" or which PIR's are active ("On") by giving these a different color (green or orange perhaps). Same for a smoke detector that is active ("Panic").
• I would like to see the log of PIR's and door contacts.
• A separate screen for the general Log would be nice!
• I am really interested in the Geofencing based on BLTE-beacons.
• Please, please, please make absolute dimming from 0 - 100% with a right swipe possible (again)!

[Bikey]

@Patoo: it has been silent for a while, any chance version 1.8 is released soon?

[Steven84]

Is it possible to implement RGBW dim able lamps?


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[patoo77]

@Patoo: it has been silent for a while, any chance version 1.8 is released soon?

Lots of work-related stuff lately, I don't have any free time to ship 1.8!

Is it possible to implement RGBW dim able lamps?

RGBW are poorly implemented on the Domoticz side. The API doesn't let you retrieve the current RGBW status.
For that reason, I decided not to implement RGBW in Pilot.

When the Domoticz API gets better, I will definitely add support for it.

[SimonH]

@Patoo:
Love your App, I'm using it everyday, but based on that experience, here some suggestions for the next release:

• Just like for lamps, tt would be nice to see at a glance which door contacts are "open" or which PIR's are active ("On") by giving these a different color (green or orange perhaps). Same for a smoke detector that is active ("Panic").
• I would like to see the log of PIR's and door contacts.
• A separate screen for the general Log would be nice!
• I am really interested in the Geofencing based on BLTE-beacons.
• Please, please, please make absolute dimming from 0 - 100% with a right swipe possible (again)!

...what bikey said, and please, please, please x.509 authentication. I have it set up if you would like to test it.

It would also be great if I could send notifications to multiple pilot apps, so both me and my wife get an alert when the alarm goes off.

[patoo77]

...what bikey said, and please, please, please x.509 authentication. I have it set up if you would like to test it.

It would also be great if I could send notifications to multiple pilot apps, so both me and my wife get an alert when the alarm goes off.

I wonder how that would work on the iPhone side. What I am planning to do is add my.domoticz.com compatibility as soon as the service is ready. Regarding x509, I can't promise anything!

Sending notifications to multiple iOS devices is one of the new features of Pilot 1.8, currently under dev.

[SimonH]

...what bikey said, and please, please, please x.509 authentication. I have it set up if you would like to test it.

It would also be great if I could send notifications to multiple pilot apps, so both me and my wife get an alert when the alarm goes off.

I wonder how that would work on the iPhone side. What I am planning to do is add my.domoticz.com compatibility as soon as the service is ready. Regarding x509, I can't promise anything!

Sending notifications to multiple iOS devices is one of the new features of Pilot 1.8, currently under dev.

Hi @patoo77

Thanks for the update!

I set up X.509 with Nginx using the guide on the wiki. X.509 works just fine on the iPhone when signing into the domoticz web ui. This works really well, you don't have to mess around with VPNs and it is extremely secure. But me and my wife would much rather use your app!

I'm not that interested in my.domoticz, the whole reason I started using domoticz was because I found the cloud services provided by paid for home automation tools to be unreliable (piper, Yale).

I've seen other apps use client certificates from the iOS cert store just like safari. Is this hard to do?

Would you accept a donation to your PayPal account to help you get it working?! PM me...

[patoo77]

Hi guys,

1.8 is about to be released to beta-testers!
* Selector switch support
* iBeacon support
* iPad support.

I am also looking for people to help translate the app to following languages: dutch, german, swedish, send me a PM if you're willing to help
Not that much work to do, only a few strings to translate here and there. Any help is appreciated.

Cheers!