Mode switching on a schedule

#1

Hi there! Totally new Canary user. We have our Canary in a shared art studio space with 10 members.

  1. Ideally, I wanted to be able to just schedule to have the Canary record at night. From what I’ve read, Night mode is just if someone is on the premises. Did I read this correctly? Is there something I missed: can I set up Canary in this way?

So, I have our artists set up their apps in this way: Set to Away Mode with Auto Switch, and set the Home mode to Private (so we aren’t all seeing activity when someone is there).

  1. So far the Canary recognizes when I leave and arrive, but it does NOT switch from Away to Home mode.
    What am I doing wrong?

OH and I have an iPhone 5 ios 10

Thanks for your help!

#2

Hi @KBoScho,

It’s important that each Member of your Location is logging into the app using their own email and password. They also need to keep location services on at all times and give the Canary app permission to access their location for auto-mode switching to work.

That can be a little tricky to coordinate with 10 people, so if you really only want it to record at certain times of night, it may be best to try to have it switch on a schedule. There’s a couple of ways you can do this.

First, you can trick the app into always thinking someone is home so it will operate using Night mode scheduling. To do this, while you’re at the studio confirm that the app shows you as being at home. Then have everyone turn off the location permission for Canary. Canary will think that someone is always home, so it will stay in Home mode and not record until your scheduled Night mode kicks in between the hours you set.

The other option would be to download the Wink app and sync it with your Canary. Wink is a separate app that integrates with Canary, and has an option to switch modes on a schedule. This will let you set scheduled mode switching regardless of location. If you do this, you’ll want to turn off auto-mode switching in the Canary app and let Wink handle it. You can find more information about Wink here: https://www.wink.com/help/products/canary-all-in-one-security/

Hope that gives you some ideas of where to get started! Let me know if you have any questions.

#3

Hi Angie! Thanks for your help. If I was to do either a) trick app into going into scheduled night mode or b) download wink and go to switching modes on a schedule…would it still notify all of us members if activity was detected, or just one phone? Thanks!

#4

It will still notify any Members who are logged into the Canary app. If they delete the app or logout it would not be able to send a notification.

#5

Hi Angie!

I’ve decided to try Wink for night scheduling. This is what I would like it to do: Turn on at 8PM and turn off at 7AM.

So I turned off auto switch on the Canary App, then went to Wink and chose Settings>Schedule. I clicked on the the + and created two schedules “Night Canary” which turns onto “Away Mode” at 8PM, and the “Day Canary” which turns to “Home Mode” at 7AM. Is this correct?

Also, we have our other 8 members with Canary apps. Should I have them delete their apps and just have mine…? Or if they keep them do they all have to get Wink and have it do the same? Or should they just keep their Canary apps, and turn off auto mode switch?

Thanks for your help!
K

#6

Hi @KBoScho,

Your Wink setup sounds correct. Wink robots will apply across the entire Location, as will the decision to turn off auto-mode switching, so other account Members won’t need to do anything. They can delete the app if they’d like but that will prevent them from getting notifications when activity is detected.