How do you choose a device for location?

[picklepete]

How do you choose a device for location?

[coddingtonbear]

@stevenmcastano -- the instance of PyiCloudService has a property devices that returns a dictionary containing every device found on your iCloud account, and the values of that dictionary each have a .location() property you can use for updating their location.

Here's a rough example:

>>> from pyicloud import PyiCloudService
>>> svc = PyiCloudService('[email protected]')
>>> svc.devices
{u'abcdefg': <AppleDevice(iPhone 6: Adam Coddingtons iPhone)>}
>>> svc.devices['abcdefg']
<AppleDevice(iPhone 6: Adam Coddingtons iPhone)>
>>> svc.devices['abcdefg'].location()
{u'timeStamp': 1471294340008, u'locationFinished': True, u'longitude': -122.6736735274295, u'positionType': u'GPS', u'locationType': None, u'latitude': 45.56516553745192, u'isOld': False, u'isInaccurate': False, u'horizontalAccuracy': 10.0}

[coddingtonbear]

Let me know if that doesn't help!

[stevenmcastano]

That did it!! Thanks!!

Quick question on device/API usage. I want to use this for a home automation system so it knows when I've left my house far enough that I'm about 1 mile away, then again when I come back to about 5 miles away.... so I can control air condition/lighting/etc...

Do you know how many API calls you can make per day? And/or if making calls as frequently as once per minute is going have an effect on battery life? Does each request actually cause anything to happen on the phone?

[coddingtonbear]

I'm afraid I have no idea about API limits, but I've never hit them. Regarding battery life, yes, every request will impact your battery life given that your phone will then be asked to update its location by checking to see which GPS satellites it can currently hear. That's not a tremendously expensive operation, but it does take more battery power than just sitting idle.

[stevenmcastano]

Well that's to know on the API limits at least...

As for the battery drain, I'm going to let it run for a while with the 1 minute loop and see how it actually effects the battery. I guess if it's too much of a problem I can slow down the loop based on how far away I am.

I'm using geopy to compute how many miles from the lattitude and longitude of my house is, so I can I could set it to check how every often I am as miles away, so if I'm under 2 miles away, check every minute, or even 30 seconds. Beyond that, every time I'm another mile away, slow the loop down by 1 more minute. So when I drive to NY let's say and I'm 240 miles away, it'll only check once every 4 hours.

I'm basically thinking I can't outrun it, even if I'm driving 60 mph, I'm only going to get closer by 1 mile per minute. The only thing that could ever happen is if I out-fly it... which I think maybe I can set so if it checks when I'm in airplane mode and it knows it can't reach the iPhone, then I check more often until I can...

I just don't know how to figure that part out yet... maybe if isAccurate and isOld fields will come into play there.

I also want to know what is the meaning of isAccurate and isOld fields?