Four linked lamp sockets and 3 cameras - HIGH frustration level

I have done ALL of the steps as recommended here: “The schedules I set for my Wyze Lamp Socket are not working.” plus a few others.

I have 4 lamp sockets in the front of my house. They are all linked together - that’s been verified. Latest firmware, latest app - running on Android. Signal strength to the network has been verified to be at least 3 bars.

I’ve tried various automations for one of the cameras to turn on the lights at dusk, off at 2300, then on at 0415 and off at sunrise. That was met with chaos. I had no idea if the lights would turn on when it was time, or … not. Sometimes they’d come on, 10 minutes later all was dark.

Currently I have one camera set to turn the lights on at dusk and off at the given time and another camera to turn the lights on at the appointed time and off at sunrise. There is no difference. Nor is there rhyme or reason to it. They might come on, they might not, one or two may come on, then again… not.

The other thing it seems they DO do ok is come on when motion is detected. Actually, it may be the motion detection that’s overriding the schedule? If it’s on a schedule and it detects motion… if they’re off they should turn on for the allotted time. If they’re already on, that event should be ignored, especially the command to turn off.

HELP?!

I am really close to tossing the whole system and find something that actually works. I went to Wyze on a recommendation. Now I’m wondering if that person actually hates me.

I identify with your frustration, because some location/time-based features of Wyze power and lighting devices have been completely unreliable, in my experience. My last Support ticket with them, which closed without resolution, was about Vacation Mode, which I’ve tried to use on original Plugs, Light Strips, Light Strip Pro, Bulb Colors, and Bulb Color (BR30). Any time I’ve switched that on and gone away from my home for several days, the devices have activated outside the parameters they’re supposed to use, including in the middle of the night, and I know this because lights coming on at odd hours trigger cameras in those areas for “motion” notifications. :roll_eyes:

It’s definitely frustrating, and I include “location” as part of the problem because of your mention of “dusk” and “sunrise”, which should be variable based on your location, but Wyze can’t seem to get that right, either, as evidenced by numerous posts from people whose stationary cameras change time zones whenever those users travel. Oof.

Since I don’t have hands-on experience with Lamp Socket, I’ll ask this:

  1. Can you set Actions for Lamp Sockets in Wyze Automations?
  2. Do you have a Wyze Plug or Plug Outdoor available?
  3. Do you use Google Home?
If the answer to #1 is “no”, then you can disregard pretty much everything else I've written in this section; otherwise, you can click to expand my speculation.

If the answer to both #1 and #2 is “yes” (it appears that #1 is “yes”), then I imagine you could create a Wyze Automation (Device & Service Trigger) for the Plug/Plug Outdoor socket so that if the socket turns on then the Lamp Sockets would also turn on. You’d create a separate and similar Automation for “off”. Note that you wouldn’t have anything plugged into the socket itself; you’d just want it connected to power and Wi-Fi so you can use it as a logical switch.

Then if you use Google Home (#3 above), you should be able to use Google Home Automations (Routines) to set on/off schedules for the Plug/Plug Outdoor socket: Whenever the schedule you set in Google Home turns the socket on, the first Wyze Automation would trigger and turn on the Lamp Sockets; whenever Google Home turns the socket off, the second Wyze Automation would trigger and turn the sockets off.

:information_source: Notes:

  • I’m suggesting Google Home because of my comfort/familiarity with that and because it’s what I prefer to use for centralizing my smart home scheduling, including Automations based on sunrise/sunset offsets.
  • Something similar might be possible with Amazon Alexa, though I haven’t explored this.
  • You might be able to do this without Google Home or Amazon Alexa by just using other Wyze Automations (Schedule) to turn your socket (logical switch) on and off at the desired times, but this is where you would be trusting Wyze’s ability to execute the Automations at the correct time.
  • You might also be able to do this by using certain Plugs’ Local Schedules feature in Settings (the original Plugs that I have don’t exhibit this feature, but my Plug Outdoors do). This is potentially more reliable as it runs the schedule locally (not from Wyze’s servers) based on the device’s internal clock (at least as I understand it), but I’m not sure how well it accounts for sunrise/sunset.

Again, I’m speculating here, but it’s how I think I’d approach the problem if I wanted to attempt a work-around.

When you can replicate that the Lamp Sockets are failing to do what you expect, I’d also submit a log and then follow that by opening a ticket with Wyze Support.

This is how I prefer to submit tickets (you can click/tap to expand this):
  1. Visit the Help Center: https://go.wyze.com/help[1]
  2. Click into the “AI-powered search” box in the middle of the page and enter create ticket.
  3. Click Yes, that is correct.
  4. :point_up: Repeat Step #3. (:face_with_symbols_over_mouth: UGH! :roll_eyes:)
  5. Click No, I do not like chatbots.
  6. Click This is about a product.*
  7. Click Other.*
  8. Click Create Ticket
  9. Enter your contact details and a brief issue description (include a Log ID if you have one) and click Submit.

     * Make your own appropriate/relevant choices here.[2]

It doesn’t really matter how brief the description is. Wyze’s system will generate an e-mail message to you automatically with a Wyze Ticket number, and you can just reply to that message from your e-mail client and add as much detail as you want.

The response you get from Support may or may not be helpful, but if there’s a real timing problem with Lamp Socket (and I don’t doubt that there might be), then logging it might help it to get on the engineers’ radar for a fix. Can’t hurt, anyway.

:thinking:
:man_shrugging:

I like new users here, especially when they have interesting problems and frustrations with which I can personally relate. Welcome to the Forum, @M3rl3n! :wave:


  1. This might be a good one to bookmark. ↩︎

  2. I’m demonstrating my typical path. The number of steps will likely be the same and result in the identical endpoint regardless of the choices you make. ↩︎