I follow the logic, and this is a great solution as I just happen to have a handful of those smart plugs.
Thank you,
I follow the logic, and this is a great solution as I just happen to have a handful of those smart plugs.
Thank you,
You’re welcome! I can’t take full credit for this, because I learned how to do this after @carverofchoice pointed me to @Thesilente’s solution in another topic for getting voice announcements from Video Doorbell v2 on Google Home devices, but I’ve used this sort of work-around to do other things (even outside of Wyze, like using Tapo cameras and smart plugs in similar fashion to get an automatic stream on a Google TV). Something like this could even be a solution for @fmills1d:
Using a Wyze Plug or Plug Outdoor as the bridge, it would be possible to get Alexa to make Echo announcements for vehicle detection.
It’d still be cool if all this could be done without a work-around, but I don’t know if the onus is on Wyze or Amazon to build the necessary integration in order to make that happen.
Thanks for the tag-in. I’m good with cam spotlight for now as a means of notification. Wanted to monitor vehicles entering driveway with my cam pan v3 and farther into the driveway from my FL cam v2. The spotlight from the v4 I am using does get one’s attention indoors.
BTW, my objective is a voice announcement of vehicles. Your referenced sources when I viewed them gets a verbal alert on GH display or Echo Show. The spotlight is more immediate as an attention getter opposed to words on a screen that you are probably not near when the event occurs. I believe the future is bright for this feature.
This was my understanding of your previous post that I quoted earlier. In the past I’ve used Alexa Routines to make Echo devices say things (you can make Alexa say whatever you want), so my thinking was that using the above example as a framework you could do an Alexa Routine like this:
Obviously you’d write the Alexa Routine to be more specific to your goal, and if you were using several cameras and wanted to know which specific camera detected a vehicle, then you’d want a separate Wyze Plug (or socket, if using Plug Outdoor) and Alexa Routine for each “signal”/trigger.
Also, you have to decide what’s acceptable lag, because since this isn’t a direct Wyze-Cam-to-Alexa path, there’s going to be more delay than you’re likely to experience just by using Wyze Automations to trigger a spotlight turning on.
I do have a single Wyze plug not in use and outdoor outlet plug that I use for Christmas decorations. I’ll explore the Wyze plug solution in my next spare time. Thanks for the informative follow-up. I’ll keep you posted on the future outcome. The lag could be the unacceptable results.
I set up the Wyze smart plug as oulined. Then added it as a 2nd action to an automation I had already for vehicle detection using the v4 spotlight. Next I created the Alexa routine for the announcement on my echo speaker. It went very well. I just had to tweak the message in the announcement after hearing it a few times.
Surprisingly, lag is almost nonexistent. The spotlight and annoucement are literally simultaneous. When I view the timestamp on the event and compare the time on my watch of seeing the spotlight and hearing the announcement, it is within 5 - 7 seconds. Well within the timeframe of person detection.
Happy with this outcome and will certainly look to get more smart plugs and expand this feature.
Thanks again for the assist. Appreciate you!!!
This has been my experience, as well.
I’m glad that you were able to get it to work as expected! Using a Plug as a work-around/bridge really opens up a lot of possibilities for home automation.
Worked wonderfully with my application as well and certainly opens up so many possibilities.
Thank you again for the work-around