Trying to talk my wife into letting me use this to replace our old ADT alarm box. I use a Smartthings hub. Is there a way to have the alarm activate when all three family mamber are out of the geo fence known to smartthings? If so is there a way to have it set when we leave but do not disable alarm, having us use the keypad to disarm?
The issue is that SmartThings presence sensor is highly unreliable. Use it for a week and you'll see that it often reports the wrong status and doesn't pick up on the fact that someone arrived or left.
John, I would like more clarification on your thoughts of "one option that I'm considering is using a new smart garage door sensor..." Is this in lieu of using any proximity devices?
Not necessarily. You just want any solution that is reliable. Unfortunately Samsung's implementation with the geo-fence on the phone hasn't been for me and others...at least not on Android (Galaxy S8+), not sure on iPhone. But that's not at all intended to discourage you. Other proximity sensors out there may work, so it's worth the research. if you can find a reliable proximity sensor of sorts, then that is your solution. If you can't, you can probably get creative by using a combination of sensors and rules. I'm currently researching using my Nest thermostat's proximity sensor, but I just got it so haven't tested it much. Also considering the smart lock + smart garage door opener + old adt door sensors with rules, as mentioned above
I just reread your original post and saw that you already have the ST hub. Setup a rule in the ST app to send you a text message when your phone is away and then another text when your phone returns. Then just test it out for a few days and you'll see how reliable is for you. If it works well, go with that approach. If not, I'd still recommend the project (just ordered a Konnected board myself), but I'd just come up with a different plan for detecting that you're away/home.