Find Friends and Fibaro HC2
Smart Home
As you know, your smart home controller can be used to switch lights and appliances on and off, saving you time, energy and money. So, imagine if your controller was so smart that it knew who was in and who was out. Wouldn't it be great if your home knew the exact second you arrived back and switched all your lights on before you even got out of your car? And without you having to get your phone out and use an app!
Why do it this way
Many location-based services require you to install an app. Sometimes these apps can eat into to your battery life. However, 'Find Friends' (also known as 'Find My Friends', which comes pre-installed in iOS 8 and above), uses the GPS feature very conservatively, prolonging the life of your battery.
What you will need to get started
To get started you will need the following items:
- An Apple iPhone with at least iOS 8 installed
- A Fibaro HC2 home automation controller
- A free basic subscription to our website (premium recommended)
How it works
Once you've installed 'Find Friends' from the iOS app store (if it's not already pre-installed). The phone will monitor its current location. When the phone leaves or enters specific geographic locations ie your home, office or school, it sends an e-mail using the data network provided by the mobile phone provider.
The Fibaro HC2 home controller runs a scene which periodically calls our web site, which then looks through the notifications in an e-mail box, checking the subject lines for a match. If a match is found ie "Ian has left Home", then a global variable in the controller is set to indicate the location of the phone.
Lets set this up.
Set up 'Find Friends'
Open the Find Friends app
Then click on Me at the bottom of the screen