GeoFence VS Cell Towers

roughnecks

roughnecks

Active member
Hello,

which of the 2 is more accurate? (space range)
Asking because I used to have geofence but sometimes it only triggered when far away my home, so today I changed to cell towers after scanning my whole home (it only found 3 cells) and it was a total mess when I went out: macro activated more then 1 time, my actions were not performed as expected and in general a weird behavior overall :(

So now I'm back to geofence which at least worked quite well so far.. But my question is, what's the range of those cell towers? Do I have to move like 50mt away from my house - for MD to trigger an exit from home - or more?
 
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Pseudocyclic

Well-known member
MacroDroid just listens for Android reporting cell tower connections. It cannot control when or were it happens, it would happen exactly the same if MacroDroid wasn't installed.
 
roughnecks

roughnecks

Active member
Maybe I wasn't clear enough or you didn't understand my question.

If I have Geofence set at 50mt and I have scanned all the cell towers in my house's range, which method would trigger first when exiting from my home? Or, in other words, what's the range of said cell towers? (I know MD doesn't control that :D )
 
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Pseudocyclic

Well-known member
Range of cell tower will vary from one to the next, plus in practice it will depend on the location and strength of neighbouring towers. It's a "how long is a piece of string" thing.
 
roughnecks

roughnecks

Active member
OK then, it seems more unpredictable to me (vs geofence)

oh, and I'm on foot - so that could be an issue too between leaving a cell and entering another one..
 
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dsnz

Well-known member
roughnecks said:
Maybe I wasn't clear enough or you didn't understand my question.

If I have Geofence set at 50mt and I have scanned all the cell towers in my house's range, which method would trigger first when exiting from my home? Or, in other words, what's the range of said cell towers? (I know MD doesn't control that :D )
Click to expand...
best to catch when you exit home is home wifi disconnected ☺️
 
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Pseudocyclic

Well-known member
It's completely unpredictable in general, but will probably be reasonably stable for any given cell tower from one day to the next.
 
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dsnz

Well-known member
when enter home: wifi connected to home network ! 😂

I use this wifi method and it's reliable and very personal (!) , no need to mess with geofence and towers ...
(why to disable wifi ?? no need, mobile data will provide internet when wifi is disconnected)
 
roughnecks

roughnecks

Active member
Wait a minute tho :)

Does it make a difference between "Disconnected from network" and "wifi disabled"?
I know there's 2 different events but just want to be sure, because I'm disabling wifi over night and it wouldn't be cool to have data on; think I'll need to revisit all of my macros if I want to discard geofence.
 
roughnecks

roughnecks

Active member
roughnecks said:
Wait a minute tho :)

Does it make a difference between "Disconnected from network" and "wifi disabled"?
I know there's 2 different events but just want to be sure, because I'm disabling wifi over night and it wouldn't be cool to have data on; think I'll need to revisit all of my macros if I want to discard geofence.
Click to expand...
Just tried and when disabling wifi it also triggers a disconnection from network (rightly), so it's no good for me.
 
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dsnz

Well-known member
okay , everyone has customized personal needs 😂


tho I wonder why anyone would disable connecting to his home wifi at night 🤔🤔
and of course if you disable wifi you can also disable the macros that have to do with entering and exiting home so they don't fire unnecessarily (this can be done as MD action)
 
roughnecks

roughnecks

Active member
You're right, I could disable the macro before disabling wifi and re-enable it at morning.

I'm turning wifi off because if I'm sleeping there's no need to use the network, I guess? :) Also, my phone's battery isn't that great and I keep energy saver enabled at night too :poop:

Soo, I'll do the disconnected from network test and report back when I can.

Thanks everybody!
 
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420

Active member
roughnecks said:
You're right, I could disable the macro before disabling wifi and re-enable it at morning.

I'm turning wifi off because if I'm sleeping there's no need to use the network, I guess? :) Also, my phone's battery isn't that great and I keep energy saver enabled at night too :poop:

Soo, I'll do the disconnected from network test and report back when I can.

Thanks everybody!
Click to expand...
Maybe it could be as simple as putting a "wifi = enabled" constraint on the "disconnected from network trigger"?
 
roughnecks

roughnecks

Active member
hmm, got another doubt/question.

My house has 2 floors and when I go up, there's a time frame when my wifi doesn't reach my phone.. Once I'm up there's no problems because the router is real close, as the crow flies.

So, how can I add a waiting time to the disconnected from wifi trigger, to be sure I left and am not in some spot inside my house where I get no wifi signal? Basically I need a double check before starting my actions.
 
4

420

Active member
roughnecks said:
hmm, got another doubt/question.

My house has 2 floors and when I go up, there's a time frame when my wifi doesn't reach my phone.. Once I'm up there's no problems because the router is real close, as the crow flies.

So, how can I add a waiting time to the disconnected from wifi trigger, to be sure I left and am not in some spot inside my house where I get no wifi signal? Basically I need a double check before starting my actions.
Click to expand...
Just place your actions that run when you disconnect from your home wifi inside an if clause (constraint = home wifi not connected) and add a wait action above it.

Example for a macro with multiple triggers:

If - trigger fired - disconnected from home wifi
Wait 30 seconds
If - home wifi not connected
Your actions
End if
Else if - your other trigger fired
Etc..

The actions will then only run if 30 seconds after your home wifi was disconnected it is still disconnected.
 
roughnecks

roughnecks

Active member
yeah, I did like that but was hoping for something a little more polished.. Lot's of "if clauses" in this macro :)
 
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