Next school year, my son will be left home after school for a few hours while my wife and I are at work. I’m looking for a way to detect when he’s home and have the front door unlock (among other automation scripts that are in place).

I came across this post and was going to get the Tile Pro as it seemed to check off all my requirements:

  • I could put it in his backpack where it can be forgotten.
  • long battery life.
  • Through the Home Assistant integration, it can trigger when it gets in range.
  • It also has a few other beneficial things, so I was thinking of putting one on each of our bicycles in case they’re ever stolen. Hell, I could look into putting one on my cat’s collar in case she ever gets out.

Then I came across some concerning articles regarding data harvesting. The whole reason I started self-hosting was to prevent data harvesting, so it seems like the Tile is a non-starter for me.

Has anyone been in this (or a similar) situation? Mainly, I’m looking for a device I can put in my son’s backpack that can trigger when he’s within range, so the house will open for him. BLE seems like it might be a solution, though I run my server on an old Dell r720 enterprise server in my basement, so I don’t currently have Bluetooth functionality (and it’s pretty far away from the front door, 20+ feet), though getting that is not a dealbreaker for me.

  • Addendum: To people saying just get a key: we have a key for him. I have a monolith sized server in my basement that automates most everything in my house these days, and was curious if anyone had set up something similar to what I was thinking. Home automation is very much a hobby, and I’m using it to learn new things.
  • frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io
    18·
    6 months ago

    So they are old enough to be home alone, but not have phone access in their home? What’s the plan for if they need to call out of the house? Go somewhere else and borrow a rando’s phone?

    • meleecrits@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      9·
      6 months ago

      We have a “landline” (3rd cell phone). He’ll be going into 5th grade (age 10 for non-Americans). He’s not allowed to have a cell phone at school. I also don’t want it lost. This will be for an hour or so before my wife gets home.

      • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        It’s possible that the school would allow him to drop off a phone in the front office every morning and pick it up before walking home. Depends how nice you are to the office ladies, but that’s always a good idea anyway because they’re more powerful than you can imagine. (Some school office staff may not be ladies these days but the principle still applies, and in elementary school most probably still are.)

      • DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.comEnglish
        9·
        6 months ago

        Don’t be a dick, mate. Engage just a little bit of critical thinking before calling people names like that.

        By law where I am, our kids aren’t allowed to have their phones at school. My daughter’s school’s policy, then, is that phones are left at the school office.

        We want to give our soon-to-be 10yo daughter her first phone later this year (times with a planned family trip, so it can be her new camera as well). But if she takes it to school and has to leave it at the office, I can guarantee she’ll absolutely forget on more than one occasion to pick it up before coming home.

        So, her phone will have to stay home. But we’re also getting to the point where she can be trusted to let herself in and wait for one of us to get home (like OP, maybe an hour or so). So a presence detection option can’t be based on whether the phone has moved into the geo zone in HA.

        This is a legitimate question for modern parents. Denigrating OP without knowing or understanding all the facts certainly does shine a light on ignorance at play here. Just not OP’s ignorance.