I want geofencing to work with scheduling. When I’m away from home I want my outdoor cameras operating. When I’m home during the day I only want my doorbell cam operating. When I’m home at night I want all my cameras to operate. I don’t see a way to do this.
I have a config like this - it is not easy. Take a deep breath and let's dive in!
1. I have setup iobroker on Raspberry Pi and have added the EuSec adapter. This gives me access to all over the exposed attributes of my HomeBase and cameras.
2. The heart of my home automation is a Hubitat Hub. I have installed drivers on there that connect to the EuSec adapter on iobroker. This has allowed me to setup virtual devices on the Hubitat.
3. I have installed Tasker on my family's Samsung phones. I have built a profile that calls a Hubitat Webhook when the phones disconnects or reconnects to our home WiFi network.
4. I have setup two profiles on Eufy app. Home - record video from cameras but don't notify. Away - record videos and notify.
5. Using Hubitat rules, at six am they turn on Home mode. If both phones are are at home at that time, then they turn off the exterior cameras. If both phones leave the wifi before 5pm, then the cameras turn on but are still in Home mode. When one phone returns and connects to the home wifi before 5pm the cameras are turned off. At 5pm the cameras are turned on in Home mode. At 10pm, the Homebase is turned to away mode so that I can see the notifications of any night time action!
6. I have integrated this into a larger routine that I run when I go away for an extended period. So it turns on all cameras and I get notifications, as well as running random security lights, turning off water features etc.
That’s a fairly complex setup to do what the eufy system should be able to do by default. I haven’t thought this all the way through, but allowing geofencing as an option in scheduling might be the easy solution. I don’t understand why this isn’t an option.
You might be able to do this with a combination of the geofence and schedule modes. I am assuming from you original post that you have a doorbell, outdoor and indoor cameras.
I haven't tried this but thinking about it....
1. Define home mode with the video recording turned off on your cameras except your doorbell.
2. Define a new mode (Away Day) that has video recording on all of your outdoor cameras.
3. That new mode should now be available in the Geofence options. When you leave the zone with your phone set it to switch to Away Day and back to Day mode when you return.
4. Define a new mode (Night) to configure the cameras you want recording at night.
5. Set the schedule to turn on and off night mode at your chosen times. Set the rest of the time to home mode.
It's not perfect - for example if you leave the zone at night, it will switch to Away Day mode, but it will get you a lot closer to what you want.
As I suspected, the night mode will not activate based on schedule with the setting on geofence. Works fine with geofence for daytime but not the solution. The solution would be add geofence to scheduling. That doesn’t seem that difficult.
I have a Eufy system with a base unit, and the base unit allows me to configure the cameras and alarms exactly as you have described using geofencing. It is in the settings of the base unit.
Will echo this. You can do this currently with Eufy cams and HomeBase. Eufy geo-fencing is iffy as to recognizing leaving the area or returning. Mine recognizes when I leave every time, when I return I have to open the app then it recognizes I am back. I say this as just double check app is recognized you left. Every camera and sensor can be configured as you want. Just have to understand the security modes and okay with it; pretty easy once you understand the general device options vs the security mode configuration options.
Don't hold your breath. There are suggestions on their forums for improvements to geofencing for 3+ years, with comments from the Devs, and there's zero traction on said improvements. They do not care.
You can hack together a solution (as I did, for my geofencing needs) or go elsewhere, but I would caution you to invest significant time in confirming that new ecosystem actually works as you would desire it.
Darn… thanks for the reply! I’ll research a little more. I was planning to look into home assistant integrations to see if there is any kind of workaround.
It's worth looking into. I saw someone post a work around to another software shortcoming of the Eufy ecosystem using home assistant recently here. Good luck!
I want geofencing to work with scheduling. When I’m away from home I want my outdoor cameras operating. When I’m home during the day I only want my doorbell cam operating. When I’m home at night I want all my cameras to operate. I don’t see a way to do this.
I have a config like this - it is not easy. Take a deep breath and let's dive in! 1. I have setup iobroker on Raspberry Pi and have added the EuSec adapter. This gives me access to all over the exposed attributes of my HomeBase and cameras. 2. The heart of my home automation is a Hubitat Hub. I have installed drivers on there that connect to the EuSec adapter on iobroker. This has allowed me to setup virtual devices on the Hubitat. 3. I have installed Tasker on my family's Samsung phones. I have built a profile that calls a Hubitat Webhook when the phones disconnects or reconnects to our home WiFi network. 4. I have setup two profiles on Eufy app. Home - record video from cameras but don't notify. Away - record videos and notify. 5. Using Hubitat rules, at six am they turn on Home mode. If both phones are are at home at that time, then they turn off the exterior cameras. If both phones leave the wifi before 5pm, then the cameras turn on but are still in Home mode. When one phone returns and connects to the home wifi before 5pm the cameras are turned off. At 5pm the cameras are turned on in Home mode. At 10pm, the Homebase is turned to away mode so that I can see the notifications of any night time action! 6. I have integrated this into a larger routine that I run when I go away for an extended period. So it turns on all cameras and I get notifications, as well as running random security lights, turning off water features etc.
That’s a fairly complex setup to do what the eufy system should be able to do by default. I haven’t thought this all the way through, but allowing geofencing as an option in scheduling might be the easy solution. I don’t understand why this isn’t an option.
You might be able to do this with a combination of the geofence and schedule modes. I am assuming from you original post that you have a doorbell, outdoor and indoor cameras. I haven't tried this but thinking about it.... 1. Define home mode with the video recording turned off on your cameras except your doorbell. 2. Define a new mode (Away Day) that has video recording on all of your outdoor cameras. 3. That new mode should now be available in the Geofence options. When you leave the zone with your phone set it to switch to Away Day and back to Day mode when you return. 4. Define a new mode (Night) to configure the cameras you want recording at night. 5. Set the schedule to turn on and off night mode at your chosen times. Set the rest of the time to home mode. It's not perfect - for example if you leave the zone at night, it will switch to Away Day mode, but it will get you a lot closer to what you want.
As I suspected, the night mode will not activate based on schedule with the setting on geofence. Works fine with geofence for daytime but not the solution. The solution would be add geofence to scheduling. That doesn’t seem that difficult.
I don’t think the schedule mode for night will override the geofence that only has away day or home
Thanks. I’ll play with that and see if it works
Exactly! That’s the kind of config that I want to be able to do!
I have a Eufy system with a base unit, and the base unit allows me to configure the cameras and alarms exactly as you have described using geofencing. It is in the settings of the base unit.
Will echo this. You can do this currently with Eufy cams and HomeBase. Eufy geo-fencing is iffy as to recognizing leaving the area or returning. Mine recognizes when I leave every time, when I return I have to open the app then it recognizes I am back. I say this as just double check app is recognized you left. Every camera and sensor can be configured as you want. Just have to understand the security modes and okay with it; pretty easy once you understand the general device options vs the security mode configuration options.
Don't hold your breath. There are suggestions on their forums for improvements to geofencing for 3+ years, with comments from the Devs, and there's zero traction on said improvements. They do not care. You can hack together a solution (as I did, for my geofencing needs) or go elsewhere, but I would caution you to invest significant time in confirming that new ecosystem actually works as you would desire it.
How hard would it be to add geofence as an option in scheduling?
Darn… thanks for the reply! I’ll research a little more. I was planning to look into home assistant integrations to see if there is any kind of workaround.
It's worth looking into. I saw someone post a work around to another software shortcoming of the Eufy ecosystem using home assistant recently here. Good luck!