I’ve recently installed several Wyze Bulbs around my house, and I’m trying to figure out how to do something I naively assumed would be simple. I’m looking for a way of toggling the state of a group of Wyze Bulbs using a physical light switch or button.
Currently, the only way I have found to turn off a group of bulbs is by using the Wyze app, or by using a voice command on Google Home, or Alexa. Neither of these methods are ideal for visitors, my kids or my spouse. The only other way I can find is to manually turn off the power to all the bulbs in the group, which defeats much of the purpose of having a smart bulb set up in the first place.
Is there a device I can purchase that can be used to toggle the lighting state of a Wyze bulb group?
So far I’ve been unable to find any information about how to get Google Home to trigger an event on a switch, or what products can be used for that purpose.
Do you know where I can find information about this kind of trigger in Google Home? I’m afraid I don’t have Alexa.
I haven’t been able to find anything documentation that says that switches can drive google home devices though. Nothing in the Geeni docs (or any other switch I’ve looked at) says anything about driving devices from other brands through Google home,
I just spoke to customer service for Google Home, and they told me that it’s currently not possible to control a Google home devices with a physical switch, and Google only supports voice triggers.
Any kind of switch support would have to work within the framework of the device provider. Since Wyze don’t currently produce a switch, the only option would be to modify a Wyze Sensor (as suggested by muerte33). Perhaps there’s scope for an Arduino project?
It would take some work, but I believe you cold set up a trigger for the light on the switch, and set an action for the group you want. As an example, I have a trigger for my nightstand light. When it turns off, the lights in the rest of my house are set to turn off. When I turn it on in the morning, the lights in my living room and dining room turn on. It took a few tries to get the routine the way I wanted it with color and brightness, but it does work seamlessly now.
How do you turn on/off your lamp? I tried setting a “when bulb turns on/off” trigger, then powering it on/off from mains, but the action never triggered. I guess the trigger doesn’t occur if the WiFi connection to a bulb is lost, and also doesn’t occur when the bulb is booting? Is this different to your experience?
Han’t considered that. I just tried it on one of my other lights, and it doesn’t work from the wall switch. I have a shortcut button in the app for that light in the bedroom.
Smart bulbs require constant power so that they can maintain their connection. That means if you’re tying it into a switch, that switch can’t actually kill power to the socket. In that sense, what you’re asking for is more of a “smart controller/smart button” than a “smart switch,” since a smart switch would be something that could turn dumb bulbs on and off, for example.
Yes, any logic tied to the bulb turning on or off assumes that you’re turning it on or off programmatically, (through the app, through Alexa, through another device trigger, etc) not physically turning it on or off.
In my setup, I only use smart bulbs in my lamps. Using them in fixtures which are already tied to switches is inherently somewhat limiting. If I want the ability to control bulbs at the switch level, it makes more sense to buy a smart switch and dumb bulbs, rather than a smart bulb.
I do have one instance of a smart bulb in a socket tied to a smart switch and it has worked for me so far. I have a smart bulb in my porch light that is set to 50% cool white all the time, when the cam sees motion it turns it to 100% daylightfor a few minutes and then back to the original setting. However I don’t want it on all the time and there are also 2 dumb bulbs connected to the same switch. So I have a smart switch that turns on at sunset and off at sunrise. Yes the bulb loses connection when the switch is off, but when it turns on it connects in under a minute and starts working according to the rules, the rules just fail when the switch is off.
Smart bulbs require constant power so that they can maintain their connection. That means if you’re tying it into a switch, that switch can’t actually kill power to the socket. In that sense, what you’re asking for is more of a “smart controller/smart button” than a “smart switch,” since a smart switch would be something that could turn dumb bulbs on and off, for example.
My bulbs are just lamps, too and you’re right - I just want to control them. I’d still call it a switch though - the thing on the wall is a light switch!
So far as I can tell, nothing exists to do this with Wyze bulbs right now though, although it looks like there are such things that work with HomeKit. That might be an option if Wyze add support for Bulb / HomeKit integration.
I have two Alexa Echo buttons that I use in my house to trigger two Alexa routines. One in my Kitchen which triggers a scene that has Geeni led strips, Wiz RGB LED Flood lights and a Wyze switch that controls a led light over my sink. The other scene is in my home theater room that has multiple brands of lights as well. The buttons can only recall one Alexa routine and wont turn that routine off although you could build in a wait time in the routine to shut off after say 30 min. Flic buttons are another option but the reviews on them are terrible so I have yet to try them. The echo buttons do require that you have an Alexa Echo to setup pairing. The button in my downstairs theater room is pretty far from the Alexa Echo in my upstairs Kitchen and works fine. I believe it is using bluetooth to communicate.
I also use two Echo Buttons to control a Wyze Plug (into which I have plugged in a lamp). Buttons work well as do Alexa voice commands. Problems are the buttons are pretty big and they don’t toggle - i need one button setup to turn on the plug and a second button setup to turn off the plug. Setup is done in the Alexa app. Amazon intended these for use with games and not as general purpose “switches”. I believe Amazon has received a number of requests to add toggle capability to the Echo but to my knowledge have not implemented that basic feature.
