I have several Wyze cams and I love them. I’m thinking about getting the Wyze bulbs. I’d like to have the bulbs in my outside lights and have them turn on when one of my cams detects a person then turn off after a period of time. Is this possible?
Yes, but the motion detection “event” on the camera fires about 12 seconds after the motion, because it’s tied to the video clip notification. If you want a more immediate response, you should use it with a Wyze Sense motion sensor, not the camera.
It should also be noted that person detection is temporarily going away. You mentioned wanting to tie it to person detection. This is possible for now, with the caveat of the 12-second delay, but at some point in January, this functionality will be going away temporarily while Wyze works on their own in-house solution.
Tying it to motion in general using a Wyze Sense motion detector is a more elegant solution all around, though. Minimal delay and no issues with false negatives. (Person detection isn’t 100% accurate, and doesn’t work at all in certain circumstances – during the cooldown period, for example, or if a person appears AFTER 12 seconds into a motion event with the CMC feature)
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Thanks for the quick detailed response. I’ll keep this in mind.
Much appreciated!
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I have just such a light. I put the Bulb in a small 9" Edison Lantern from Walmart, and put that under my TV stand. It lights whenever the front porch motion sensor activates, OR if a person is detected on the front door camera.
Like @nerdland said, the motion sensor picks up the person and turns on the bulb much quicker than person detection does. Quick enough so I see the light before they even get to the doorbell. However, I do like the addition of person detection as alternate criteria to alert me if someone is loitering just outside sensor range. So far that has not been necessary though, so I could probably do without it.
You have to be careful about the placement of the motion sensor. You can’t let it see the street, or the sidewalk in front of your house. You can’t let it see the neighbor’s kids, or pets, or lawnmowers, etc.
I am lucky to have a nicely sloped overhang, and I turn the sensor about 30 degrees to eliminate the neighbor activity. The only false alarms I get are the occasional cat, dog, squirrel or rabbit in my driveway, and the corresponding clip tells me there is no issue.
I turn the bulb off with motion clear, and if lit by person detection, after the bulb has been on for 1 minute.
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Thanks Newshound!
Can the bulbs be set so they only come on during specified time frames? I’d like to only have them come on during the night so they’re not coming on unnecessarily during the day time.
Sounds like your use is a little different that mine. I use mine as a signal light to alert me that someone is near the front door. Sounds like you may be interested in using the light to scare people away while you are sleeping. No problem, the device trigger can be assigned a range of hours now, so you can say only to do it from 11 PM to 6 AM, for instance.
Regardless of how you use a bulb tied to a sensor, you should probably dedicate it to that use. If you also use it as regular lighting you may find you flipped the power switch off when you went to bed, and now it can’t come on if motion is sensed.
You’re right that our intended use is different. I’m looking for them to come on only at night when company comes over, if someone goes outside, or when we’re getting home late. Sounds like I could get what I’m wanting with the Wyze Sense and Wyze Bulbs. What are you thoughts on me placing the motion sensor outside underneath an overhang (to keep it out of the weather) and placing the contact sensors on the door? Then I’d just create a rule for the lights to come on when the sensors are triggered.
Sounds like a plan. My front door sensor is outside under an overhang. Haven’t been through a winter yet, though. The battery may not like cold, we’ll see.
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As others have said, the person detection will be disappearing in January (they are looking into their own solution though). However, I do currently use “schedules” and “device triggers” to turn my lights on. Fore example, between the hours of 10pm and 5am, I have a device trigger that turns my indoor Wyze Bulbs on when a person is detected on either my front or back porch. It does take about 10 seconds, but that’s enough time for me. By the time a person walks up my porch and ends up at my door, the lights are turning on inside. I didn’t figure out how to have it automatically turn off after a certain amount of time, but I have a general schedule that turns off lights at 5am (if they happen to be on).
What if we don’t upgrade the firmware on our cams in Jan, will we lose the person detection functionality that we have today?
Unclear. Gwen replied at one point and indicated that may not even know yet. Frankly, they might need to ask a lawyer. Haha.
I suspect both the camera firmware and the app will be updated. And even if you avoided updating either or both the clips are stored in the cloud so that part is server controlled.
In short while not impossible I would wager it will be difficult to keep the existing Person Detection. That is just my guess but I am sure contractually Wyze will be required to remove all traces.
That said the impression I got from the announcement was that they were hard at work on a replacement. So hopefully it will only be for a short while.
I still would love to know Xnor.ai’s thinking. Does not seem to make sense. But like most business decisions it’s probably money driven.
As @nerdland stated it is unclear, while the actual work is done on the camera the notifications are done at the server, if they have to remove the server part due to contract obligations the notifications would stop working even if you avoided updating.
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Thanks all for your help. I was hoping that since the person detection software is on the cam, we could forgo the update. I didn’t think about the server aspect of it though. I guess we will know in due time. 
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May I suggest that when talking/teaching perimeter security you discuss the “layered onion” approach. Using this approach there are layers that reach as far outside the perimeter as possible and eventually get to the house. This approach can provide time for prepared response. Wyze can map products to the layers ( e.g., not knowing the specs, I think the solar powered wireless cam fits nicely into the top layer!) Notification of a potential perpetrator outside my front door is not an optimal situation for me.
Having set up custom security systems for stores in the Bronx, I await the suite of products that can meet my holistic needs. Hope this helps.