Camera Detect to trigger lights in Alexa

Services & Integrations
1

I think it would be pretty cool if you could set up your Camera that is outside watching the front of the house (or anywhere) that if it detects movement enough to make a recording, that it could send a trigger to Alexa to turn on my garage lights. Because I don’t want to have a flood light on the front of my house like I do in the back. That thing would light up the neighborhood

2

See topic from Dec 2020. Seems very similar to your asking.

3

The only camera detection in Alexa is for a person, and that only works if you have some form of CamPlus subscription. You could use a motion sensor to do this.

4

Welcome to the Forum, @mszawronski! :wave:

You should already be able to do something like this by using a Wyze Plug or Bulb as an intermediary, acting essentially as a logical switch and bridge between Wyze Automations and Alexa routines. You could create a Device & Service Trigger Automation in the Wyze app to turn on the Plug (or Bulb) whenever a given camera detects motion and then create an Alexa routine so that when the Plug (or Bulb) turned on that would be the trigger to turn on your garage lights (if they’re smart lights or connected to a smart switch). You should be able to do this even without a subscription.

You may also be interested in these Wishlist topics:

As with any Wishlist topic, you can visit those to click or tap the Vote button above the initial post and share your ideas and use cases in the comments to show your support for the product and feature request/suggestions that are important to you.

5

OK I will try that, I was looking for a way to do this without spending more money. But I do have a plug in the garage that I can turn have turn on and off and use that as my trigger to turn on the garage smart lights.

Thanks

6

You’re welcome. I’m unaware of a direct integration that can do this right now (as in having a Wyze Cam detect generic motion and make Alexa aware of that to trigger another brand of smart bulbs or a smart switch or however you control your garage lights), and that’s why I believe those Wishlist topics exist. In my experience so far, what Alexa can use as a trigger from a Wyze Cam varies depending upon the Cam model and whether or not the Cam is attached to a Wyze subscription (e.g., Cam Unlimited), because all detection types aren’t automatically passed to the third-party integration.

Please note also that in a use like this a Wyze Plug wouldn’t be used to power something else (actually turn something on and off) unless you wanted to use it with an additional light or something. Its primary purpose is to act as the trigger that Alexa can see in order to initiate other action via routine. If you have difficulty getting that to work and want to share more detail about what you’re using and exactly what you want to accomplish, then please reply here and I can try to walk you through specific steps for setting this up.

7

OK, so what I have is a Pan Cam V3, a smart plug 2 pack (on its way actually), and 2 Philips Hue Impress Outdoor Wall Light (Hardwired outside my garage). I figured I would set up one plug in the garage near the garage door. Then I could try to figure out how to get the camera to turn the plug on. Then figure out how to have the plug turn the outside lights on or if I can get the plug to turn the lights brighter since I have them set to 30% all night as of right now. Only because I (and by that I mean my wife) don’t want to put a sensor out there because “it doesn’t look good”.

8

Good to know, and I appreciate the additional detail. This is what I would do:

Add one or both of your Wyze Plugs in the Wyze app after you receive those. Plug one in anywhere it has constant power and a decent Wi-Fi signal. It doesn’t matter where, because the main idea is to have it available as a logical switch for triggering an Alexa routine. You can plug something into it if you want an additional indicator that it’s working (a lamp or something), but if you expect your outside lights to trigger frequently because of motion detected by your Cam, then you may not want something plugged into the Plug itself.

On the Wyze app’s Home screen, tap the upper-right  ➜ Automation ➜ With a device and/or service. Set it up something like this:

  • IF
    • Cam Pan v3
      • Detects motion
  • DO
    • Plug 2
      • Turn on for 10 minutes

I picked 10 minutes arbitrarily. Choose a time that works best for you. Basically this is going to be the “reset” or “timeout” or “cooldown” period for this Device & Service Trigger Automation. You can set it for only a few seconds if you want your Plug to turn off again shortly after it turns on. The Plug is just the trigger.

You probably also want to set a schedule (“WHEN”) so that the Automation runs only during your overnight hours. Once you have it set the way you want, Save it.

In the Alexa app, tap the upper-left menu bars, then Routines ➜ . Set it up something like this:

  • WHEN
    • Wyze Plug: Turned On
  • ALEXA WILL
    • Philips Hue Impress lights
      • Set Brightness: 100%
    • Wait 10 minutes
    • Philips Hue Impress lights
      • Set Brightness: 30%

Again, you may want to set a schedule for the “WHEN”, and the 10 minutes I chose here is arbitrary. The times (timeouts) you set here don’t have to match what you set in the Wyze app. For instance, in the Wyze Automation you can have the Plug turn on for only 30 seconds before it resets, and you can have the “Wait” in the Alexa routine set for however long you want your lights to remain at 100% brightness before it turns them back to 30%. I don’t know how you’re scheduling your Philips Hue lights now (if it’s in their app or Alexa or something else), and I’m making some assumptions about what control Alexa might have over those lights because of what I’m seeing with color bulbs and light strips from three different manufacturers, but I’d probably use your current lighting schedule to guide how you set up this Wyze Automation and Alexa routine.

Looking at the product page for those lights, it appears that you can also change their color and temperature, so you may be able to play around with adding those to the Alexa routine, as well. If I was setting something like this up, I might want a soft or warm color temperature for my nighttime ambient light but then want them to bump to a higher/“cooler” color temperature (along with the increase to 100% brightness) for more illumination during a detection event, but you do you.

I don’t know how many notifications/events you’re currently seeing from your Cam Pan v3, but as you play with this, you may want to tweak the Cam’s settings so that you’re not seeing your lights activate too much overnight. That’s probably going to be a trial-and-error thing.

I hope this makes sense. I know that the Plugs are an additional purchase that you weren’t planning to make, but it’s a one-time expense that gives you extra tools to compensate for integration features that don’t yet exist, and it’s what a lot of us use for this kind of work-around so that we can accomplish certain things now, without waiting on Wyze and/or Amazon to provide a more feature-rich solution.