Ion-popover positioning with isOpen

Is it possible to position an ion-popover when using the isOpen property? I have created a popover using isOpen as I need to control the opening of the popover programatically rather that a responding to a user click. When I use a trigger, the popover shows up as shown below, exactly where it needs to be with a small arrow pointing to the correct element.

However, when I change it to use the isOpen property, it always appears in the middle of the screen. I have read the docs and reviewed the Positioning section but this seems to be very focused on positioning using a trigger element. I can sort of get what I want by combining trigger and isOpen but that will always show the popover when the element is clicked. I need to be able to control this to only display based on the isOpen value. Anybody know how this can be accomplished?

Hello, maybe the solution discussed here using an empty div could inspire you:

Wow! That’s exactly what I am trying to do. I used the workaround described there and the outcome looks very promising. Thanks for your help!