Event-driven access to my home after a run • Hacker News Board

Re: Event-driven access to my home after a run

#31

Post by bmilleare » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 1:44 PM UTC

rwestergren wrote: post #25

ho_schi wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suggest this tiny thing named "key" is an appropriate solution. Hard to break through dropping, no battery, the home doesn't need electricity and so on. While I understand the tinkering here for fun, the author did ignored the actual problem of the drained battery completely?

I shared this elsewhere but I could have expressed the initial problem a little clearer, which actually was "enter my home without unlocking my phone which causes my phone to die in the cold." Unlocking the screen caused the battery to drop immediately - it still had network connectivity prior to that.

I had no idea this was a thing. How cold are we talking for this to be something that happens often?

Re: Event-driven access to my home after a run

#32

Post by notacoward » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 1:45 PM UTC

For extra fun, you could set up some speakers and have them start playing some appropriate piece of music as you approach. Some sort of triumphal march, perhaps?

Re: Event-driven access to my home after a run

#33

Post by yummypaint » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 1:45 PM UTC

I like this idea in principle and think it could be turned into a great alternative to a hide-a-key, or used to let a pet in though a small door. A typical garage door spring is rated to last 10k cycles, make of that what you will.

Re: Event-driven access to my home after a run

#34

Post by jacobrussell » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 1:47 PM UTC

jacobrussell wrote: post #29

This is awesome! I love reading about projects like this. Always gets me thinking about how I can do little things like this for my life workflows. > installing MyQ W-Fi connected garage doors Haha you were already light-years ahead of me before you even started. I typically slide my key into a little pocket and pray it doesn't fall out. I think using events from your router is a great idea. I have recently been play…

If anyone has FortiNet FortiGate routers, they have something called "automation stitches"[0] which are a way to action on nearly any event, and they can be created in the routers config file. They can even run scripts and chain together. When the criteria is met they can send to a Slack channel, email, Lambda Function, or any webhook URL. Pretty fun to play with.

[0] https://community.fortinet.com/t5/FortiGate/Technical-Tip-Us...

Re: Event-driven access to my home after a run

#35

Post by mellavora » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 1:50 PM UTC

jacobrussell wrote: post #29

This is awesome! I love reading about projects like this. Always gets me thinking about how I can do little things like this for my life workflows. > installing MyQ W-Fi connected garage doors Haha you were already light-years ahead of me before you even started. I typically slide my key into a little pocket and pray it doesn't fall out. I think using events from your router is a great idea. I have recently been play…

>I typically slide my key into a little pocket and pray it doesn't fall out.

my little pocket has a zipper to prevent things from falling out.

Re: Event-driven access to my home after a run

#36

Post by francisofascii » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 1:55 PM UTC

bmilleare wrote: post #7

Automating such a narrow edge-case seems totally pointless. A much more likely scenario is that your battery dies while you're out, in which case you're still screwed. A better tried-and-tested real world solution that covers all scenarios is a simple key safe.

It is more common than you think. Turing on the screen in cold weather is usually the thing to make the phone shut off. The solution still saves you the trouble of having to take off your gloves to access your phone.

Re: Event-driven access to my home after a run

#37

Post by rwestergren » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 1:57 PM UTC

ivanbakel wrote: post #30

rwestergren wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I shared this elsewhere but I could have expressed the initial problem a little clearer, which actually was "enter my home without unlocking my phone which causes my phone to die in the cold." Unlocking the screen caused the battery to drop immediately - it still had network connectivity prior to that.

I think the initial problem was clearly-enough stated, and the GP's point is valid - why bother accounting for the case where your phone is so close to dying that you can't unlock the screen, when just a bit less battery life would mean that your phone dies regardless (and you're stuck outside anyways)?

The battery level isn't actually close to dying, in my case it just rapidly depletes from up to 40% when it's very cold. But that 40% remains intact seemingly with the screen off. Could be my phone also, but it has happened often enough that I wanted to solve it and thought this was an interesting approach.

For me, this was just a matter of convenience and not optimizing for most resilient or reliable solution. I do have backup plans for home entry.

Re: Event-driven access to my home after a run

#38

Post by francisofascii » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 1:58 PM UTC

This is very clever and useful. I wonder if this could be done with a GPS watch rather than the phone. AFAIK, GPS watches typically send out Bluetooth signals but probably don't connect to Wi-Fi.

Re: Event-driven access to my home after a run

#39

Post by JohnBooty » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 2:11 PM UTC

First: Cool project!

Second: I'm probably missing something, but:

     Therefore, I would at least need to start a process 
     that would understand my intent to leave

How did you solve the "intent" issue? It looks like your solution simply detects when your phone stops responding to pings, and then unlocks the doors when it resumes.

This doesn't seem like it would distinguish between "going for a run", "going on a car trip", "turning the phone off for 10 minutes and then back on again, but never leaving the house," etc.

I suppose one (fun, overkill, probably) solution would be if the phone's sensors could be queried. Once the phone "returns", your home network could query the phone and ask it if you've been exercising or not, based on your heartrate/motion since the phone was last seen by the network.

Re: Event-driven access to my home after a run

#40

Post by waste_monk » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 2:32 PM UTC

iansowinski wrote: post #6

mrweasel wrote: post #4

My feelings about these kinds of projects are a bit mixed. I certainly understand why, writing code that controls something in the real world is so much fun. However I actively avoid any kind of smart device in my home, beyond my vacuum cleaner. Having a computer control lighting, heating or access to my home is out of the question, I simply don't want to deal with it. I trust keys, switches and knobs.

Dumb solution: hiding place for a key. Paradoxically it may be safer than smart solutions :)

Less dumb solution: Getting a key custody safe [1] and mounting it to the exterior of your house so you can lock up the key while you're out running. Ideally it would be mounted somewhere discreet (perhaps inside a fake utility enclosure, which would also help protect it from the weather) but in plain view of the street so if someone does attempt to break in they're forced to draw attention to themselves.

You also have to be careful to get one that suits your threat model, a key custody safe designed to be installed in a semi-secure part of a building may not be resistant enough when mounted on the exterior with street access - many are only designed to resist covert tampering and are not that strong against a determined attacker with an angle grinder or similar overt attack.

[1] something like this: https://www.safeguardsafes.com.au/product/cmi-class-b-key-cu... - includes a very nice Kaba X-10 lock that is kinetically powered so you don't have to worry about wiring it to mains power or changing batteries.