[HowTo] Location and Presence (Owntracks)

[MartinO]

Hi all

I tried to
https://[cloudid].connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/?token=[tokenid from user]
for hours but it should be:
https://[homey cloud-id].connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/[user token]
As you can read in an older post above.

?token= is removed

[MartinO]

@MartinO

https://[homey cloud-id].connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/[user token]

It should be:
https://[homey cloud-id].connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/[user token]

[MartinO]

It should be:
https://[homey cloud-id].connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/[user token]

[Gregory_JENISCH]

Hello Everyone !
This Is My first Day Here but I have already read a lot about setting Owntracks / geofences and all your posts have helped me a lot so thanks guys
I still have a few questions though as it is not working for me yet…

I have a HP2023 v10.3.1 & iPhone 14 Pro iOS 17.3.1

On homey :
Owntracks / Location and présence app installed.
HTTP mode.
I created a user and received my token. So far so good… but … when I create a geofence I get '0’s for the lon/lat/rad and I can’t input the proper settings. Is that normal? Is the data entered somewhere else?

Thank you so much for your support/help and please shoot if you need more info from me.

On my iPhone:
Owntracks app installed.
Settings page: url ok (?) with homey host ID and token … but there is a connection status error: invalid certificate ???
Also I guess the big red dots are not normal for the regions that I have created (same name as in the HP App geofence tab)?!

[Peter_Kawa]

@scanno

The URL you have to enter here is as follows:

https://< cloudid >.connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/?token=< tokenid from user >

Dear Menno @scanno ,

Is it possible for you to update that deprecated URL in post #1 to this one below?

@MartinO

https://[homey cloud-id].connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/[user token]

Much appreciated!

[Gregory_JENISCH]

Hello Everyone !
This Is My first Day Here but I have already read a lot about setting Owntracks / geofences and all your posts have helped me a lot so thanks guys
I still have a few questions though as it is not working for me yet…

I have a HP2023 v10.3.1 & iPhone 14 Pro iOS 17.3.1

On homey :
Owntracks / Location and présence app installed.
HTTP mode.
I created a user and received my token. So far so good… but … when I create a geofence I get '0’s for the lon/lat/rad and I can’t input the proper settings. Is that normal? Is the data entered somewhere else?

Thank you so much for your support/help and please shoot if you need more info from me.

On my iPhone:
Owntracks app installed.
Settings page: url ok (?) with homey host ID and token … but there is a connection status error: invalid certificate ???
Also I guess the big red dots are not normal for the regions that I have created (same name as in the HP App geofence tab)?!

[Peter_Kawa]

Hello Gregory, welcome,

Did you read the howto, as linked to in post # 2?

This might be the “invalid certificate” fix:

@scanno

In case you get a 401 error, then you need to adjust a small setting. The 401 is generated because the Owntracks app on your phone (at least on Android) expects HTTP authentication. Since it is not used on Homey that setting needs to be disabled. Go to Preferences/Configuration Management. There select the menu and select editor. And fill out the key and value field as shown in the picture below:

.

And, as a result of the fact it cannot connect, the L&P app can’t fetch the geofences you created within the Owntracks app

@Gregory_JENISCH

when I create a geofence I get '0’s for the lon/lat/rad and I can’t input the proper settings. Is that normal? Is the data entered somewhere else?

So, when the connection is up, the geofences should pop up in the L&P app.
You can’t, and must not enter them in the L&P app…

[Gregory_JENISCH]

Hi Peter,
first thank you For your welcome and Then For your answer.
YES I had read the referred « how to », which was what Had got me that far…

As per your suggestion I deleted the geofences displaying 0/0/0 in the geofence tab in the L&P app on may HP23.
Thanks.

Now, about the connection problem…

-1-
On iOS there is no such menu as Préférence/configuration management. The closest thing i could do in thé same spirit was to disable the 2 authentication option boxes. Hope you’ll be proud of me on That one . See picture.

-2-
On HTTPS mode
When i use the following url (with personal cloud/user id of course replaced with « XXXXX …. » in the error message) :
https://.connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/?
I get this message :

error NSURLErrorDomain -1202 The certificate for this server is invalid. You might be connecting to a server that is pretending to be “homey-XXXXXXXXXXXX.local.connect.athom.com” which could put your confidential information at risk. {
NSErrorClientCertificateStateKey = 0;
NSErrorFailingURLKey = “https://homey-XXXXXXXXXXXX.local.connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/?XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX”;
NSErrorFailingURLStringKey = “https://homey-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.local.connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/? XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX”;

-3-
On HTTP mode (i tried…instead of https)
When i use the following url (with personal cloud/user id of course replaced with « XXXXX …. » in the error message) :
http://.connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/?
I get this message for 10 seconds :

Connecting

Then i get for 2 seconds (then back to « connecting ») :

error NSURLErrorDomain -1001 The request timed out. {
NSErrorFailingURLKey = "http://homey-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.local.connect.athom.com/api/app/ni.scanno.owntracks/events/?
NSErrorFailingURLStringKey = “http://homey-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.local.connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/? XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX”;
NSLocalizedDescription = “The request timed out.”;
NSUnderlyingError = “Error Domain=kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork Code=-1001 "(null)" UserInfo={_kCFStreamErrorCodeKey=-2102, _kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=4}”;
“_NSURLErrorFailingURLSessionTaskErrorKey” = “LocalDataTask <570DB2F0-0E46-49F9-B5B9-DCDF37887A59>.<12>”;
“_NSURLErrorRelatedURLSessionTaskErrorKey” = (
“LocalDataTask <570DB2F0-0E46-49F9-B5B9-DCDF37887A59>.<12>”
);
“_kCFStreamErrorCodeKey” = “-2102”;
“_kCFStreamErrorDomainKey” = 4;
}

Does any of this make sense to you ?
Thank you !!!

[Peter_Kawa]

@Gregory_JENISCH

The closest thing i could do in thé same spirit was to disable the 2 authentication option boxes. Hope you’ll be proud of me on That one . See picture.

You can’t imagine how proud I am you found out , It’s also somewhere in the L & P topic:

@Peter_Kawa

EDIT Together with Ilja we found out if you use the * IOS * app, Authentication is a settings option which can be disabled with a slide switch. So no Editor and stuff needed.

.

@Gregory_JENISCH

https://xxxx.connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/?xxx

@Gregory_JENISCH

Does any of this make sense to you ?

Aahhh, I spot a wrong character here;
There is no ? in the URL …
(but unfortunately the URL format is not updated (yet) in the L&P topic 1st post)

But / And, it was mentioned right above your post in the L&P topic

.
So, this is the correct URL format:

Example URL:

https://[homey cloud-id].connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/[user token]

This works with my Homey:
https://624xxxxxxxxxxxxxx123.connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/f85xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx321

.

@Gregory_JENISCH

Also I guess the big red dots are not normal for the regions that I have created

It’s a special feature for iphones I guess
Android view:

[Gregory_JENISCH]

Hi Peter !

thanks for your help ! sorry for not seeing myself the “?” in the Url… it balances with my “authentication” discovery.

I modified the setting on the Owntracks app accordingly and… abracadabra… it worked :

• status passed from “error/connecting” to a steady “idle”, and
• status bar (see picture) went from “red/orange” to “blue”
  
  

short victory unfortunately : as soon as I added a “region” (understand a geofence zone) the status went back to ERROR and a RED status bar.

error message reads :
error NSURLErrorDomain -1002 unsupported URL {
NSLocalizedDescription = “unsupported URL”.
NSUnderlyingError = "Error
Domain=kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork Code=-1002 ["(null) “”;
" _NSURLErrorFailingURLSessionTaskErrorKey" =
"LocalDataTask
<6BOB13CC-2369-4437-8B69-692D4519BFA>.<5>
";
" NSURLErrorRelatedURLSessionTaskErrorKey"=
(
"LocalDataTask
<6BOB13CC-2369-4437-8B69-692D4519BFA>.<5>
"

• );*

any idea ?

---

Another question if I may :
i your previous Post you advised not to input any geofence (problem was that lat/long/rad = 0/0/0) in the related Tab in the L&P app on the Homey. I did that and then created a “region” in Owntracks (you have to define a fence somewhere don’t you…?) on my phone app.
==> when there is no geofence in the Tab on L&P, there is no geofence to choose from in the list of the “when trigger…” Card when creating a Flow.
I must admit i am quite confused…

---

Last but not least :
i created this morning 2 regions (radius = 45m & 60m and the center = my home)
how come the number of notifications rose from 1 this morning to 261 as I write, given the fact that I stayed home all day ?

thanks for your precious help and advices

[Peter_Kawa]

Hello Gregory,

You’re welcome.

Almost there
I noticed you being naughty and don’t use the correct homey cloud id . It does not start with hom and it does not end with 2.local for sure:

No clue how it could have worked nonetheless
But the error msg says

@Gregory_JENISCH

“unsupported URL”

meaning, it has no idea what to do with it.

What you should enter as homey cloud id, is a long number:

@Peter_Kawa

https://624xxxxxxxxxxxxxx123.connect.athom.com/api/app/nl.scanno.owntracks/events/f85xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx321

which you can find in the web app url, it looks like this:

You can also find homey cloud id in System / General:

@Gregory_JENISCH

and then created a “region” in Owntracks (you have to define a fence somewhere don’t you…?) on my phone app.
==> when there is no geofence in the Tab on L&P

Correct, you define the ‘region’ / geofence solely in the Owntracks phone app.
When you use the correct URL, it connects to the L & R app,

and the geofence will show up in the L & R app settings.:

@Gregory_JENISCH

i created this morning 2 regions (radius = 45m & 60m and the center = my home)
how come the number of notifications rose from 1 this morning to 261 as I write, given the fact that I stayed home all day ?

I guess it’s all error msgs for now, and I like to advice to start with a little bigger radius, like 100m. GPS does not provide for a 100% fixed location, so it can trigger in/out geofence without you moving. No clue how far it can be off.
So, better start with a bigger radius, and make it narrower bit by bit until it reports you in/out/in/out etc.

This is my status of this evening being home:

Also check the ‘Locator’ settings from the Advanced tab
For me it’s:
Inaccurate locations: ignore
Min. location displacement: 100m
Location interval: 90s
Location interval (move mode): 30s
Limit max locator frequency: yes

The intervals are a balance of update speed and phone battery life; shorter interval = shorter battery life.

Well, I hope you get it to work now, don’t hesitate to ask if not

~Peet

[Gregory_JENISCH]

’

Thank you MASTER PEET, all up and running……
Well… almost as my garage door just openned unexpectedly .
Fine tuning i guess.

There were 2 problèms :
-1- the one your expert eye saw : as it was for the input in the HOST Line of the CONNECTION dialog box (android »how to above ») i mismatched HOST ID for CLOUD ID.

FYI : for me it is not a « big number » but a 24-digit alphanum ID.

Problem solved

-2- the one your expert eye did not see There was an unspottable vicious blank « Space » character at the Very end of the url/userID !

Problem solved

Thank you AGAIN VERY MUCH Peet
See you (probably very) soon
Greg
.

[Peter_Kawa]

Thanks Greg, I’m glad it now works as it should.

@Gregory_JENISCH

There was an unspottable vicious blank « Space » character at the Very end of the url/userID !

Ahhh, didn’t think about that. But you’re right hehe, I can’t see unspottable whitespaces

@Gregory_JENISCH

FYI : for me it is not a « big number » but a 24-digit alphanum ID.

It was very late Greg, couldn’t find the words for it

@Gregory_JENISCH

almost as my garage door just openned unexpectedly

Yeah, you can consider temporary sending notifications first, instead of the actual door opening/closing, until it works as expected.
Or, you can temporary add this confirmation card below to the flows involved; the flow gets paused, until you confirm the push message question within 30 minutes:

[Gregory_JENISCH]

Hi Peter,

→ I do !

→ you are right and that’s what i did, i mean temporarily disable all L&P related flows and test them one after the other… I had already added for each one of them a push notification card in order to make sure the flow had triggered… but imagine the mess that happened in the middle of the night the first time OT/L&P connected and initiated 8 flows…
→ good idea, the confirmation card, i will definitely try it, thanks Peet !

Talking about Cards…
You surely have noticed by now, i am not a developer/ITengineer…
Is there some reading/tutorial you recommend i should start with ? My goal is this (you may have more excellent pointers or solutions) :
→ I have 2 cars and 2 garage doors. I would like the garage door of the car i am driving to open when i come back home.
. When i leave it is no big deal as I have 2 flows, one for each door, with a 30"-delay before locking the house door, shutting off garage light and closing the garage door.
. When i come back (=enter a specific geofence) i don’t know how to proceed : 1) (best solution if it is possible) reverse last flow of user Greg ? 2) get a prompt asking for which door to open (could it be vocal by Siri for a vocal answer) ?

Thanks again for past and future help !!!

[Peter_Kawa]

You’re very welcome, Greg.

Glue a cam between both doors, and this app should do the trick!

[APP][PRO] License Plate Recognition for Homey

ANPR License plate recognition for Homey Use snapshots from a camera connected to Homey, and let Platerecognizer do AI based licence plate recognition. For every plate the app detects, a flow will be triggered. The app will also provide vehicle type and region. [ANPR] Use cases Presence detection Security Open garage door Fun Privacy The Homey app uses a cloud based license plate recognition service called Platerecognizer. Using the Platerecognizer service has privacy impli…

[Gregory_JENISCH]

Hi Peet

Thank you, i found and installed the app yesterday after digging in the community/tutorials ! I see this more like a workaround than a solution…

…and where is the fun ? :

More seriously…. I already have a camera above my two garage doors but it won’t be able to see the license plates, because there is a gate to our property at approximately 20 m away.
Why not install a new camera on the gate you would ask me? Well, at the gate, there is a very very poor and unsteady Wi-Fi signal, even with a repeater plugged in the Garage . I used to have a iSmartgate running to open and close the gate but I had it removed because its functioning was too random. That’s why I wanted an OTA solution, but not Wi-Fi such as L&P/OwnTracks using GPS and 5G.
We are still not connected to fibre and we have only a small 6 MB aDSL connection.

By the way is my idea of using a “Reverse last flow” crazy or not implementable?

Thanks :!

[Peter_Kawa]

@Gregory_JENISCH

Is there some reading/tutorial you recommend i should start with ?

Oh wow, I got myself started with the KB at https://support.homey.app
And you have to get familiar “how Homey thinks”, especially with the possibillities of using logic.

About the ‘reversing’ a flow

@Gregory_JENISCH

and closing the garage door.
. When i come back (=enter a specific geofence) i don’t know how to proceed : 1) (best solution if it is possible) reverse last flow of user Greg ? 2) get a prompt asking for which door to open (could it be vocal by Siri for a vocal answer) ?

Idk what you had in mind for ‘reversing’, but yes, the ‘depart’ flow is the opposite of the ‘arrive’ flow.

But, the problem is to distinguish the cars from eachother;
it’s imho not possible to use geofencing to determine which garage should be opened. I assume they’re next to eachother?
When each driver always carries a phone with f.e. Bluetooth enabled, you can consider sticking a Shelly somewhere near the doors, which can determine if your phone is nearby.
I think it’s better to hide a Ble beacon somewhere under the hood, which can be detected by the Shelly
(please ask f.e. uncle Uwe @Undertaker for Shelly details, he knows his stuff).
BUT, it also needs a wifi connection to connect with Homey.
If somehow you could arrange for a network cable to near the garage, you could add a wifi access point there, an old wifi-router would do f.e.

Let me know what you think is possible.
I still like the licence plate trick hehe, but it’s not fool proof I now realize.

~Peet

[Gregory_JENISCH]

Hi Peet,

thanks for your answer !

-------- about my garage doors --------

• what i mean by reversing the last flow : Homey keeps track of all activity (entering, leaving, flows,…,…) so i was wondering if someone would know how to write some code (or any other solution ;-)) i could use in a flow to play the last item in the activity log but this time in the reverse order.

imagine :
→ i start my flow “leaving with car 1”. My garage door 1 opens and 10 seconds later the gate opens too. Then i have 30 seconds to pass through the gate before the flow’s last 2 cards are played : close door 1 and gate (30" delay). . Log#1.
What i would love is this : when i come back and cross the region/geofence 30m before the gate it triggers a flow playing the last entry in the activity log (=Log#1) in the reverse order (open gate and door 1 and 30" later close gate and 10" later close door 1)
→ it solves your question about distinguishing the cars or drivers

is it clearer ?

i like your idea with the Shelly/BleBeacon which indeed solves the car problem but i wonder how it will distinguish whether the BleBeacon is INwards or OUTwards

thank you
Greg

[Mikl]

Hello !
Is there a solution to send the information to two different Homeys?
Unfortunately it’s not possible to configure multiple HTTP HOSTs in the mobile application.

[Peter_Kawa]

That’s possible when you use MQTT instead of https. Not sure how easy/difficult it is to set up secured MQTT for using it on the internet.

Or, have the configured Homey send a webhook to the second Homey, with a flow, when users enters a geofence (and a similar flow for users leaving a geofence):

@ the other Homey, create two receiving flows for every user, one for entering a geofence, and one for leaving a fence: