I have one motion sensor in my garage that will notify me 5 minutes after entering my home to remind me to close the garage door.
I need some ideas for the second motion sensor I have. Something other than turning on a light; I already have that covered with my bulbs and Alexa.
Thanks,
How about adding it to the door. An extra alert simply doubles your status
Bought the mount on esty.
Thanks. I already have a door sensor attached to my garage door. It’s a sensor from Ecobee (smart thermostat). It won’t alert me unless I subscribe to their home monitoring service. The Wyze motion sensor works great in the garage for my purpose. It detects me when I get out of my car and I have a routine set up in Alexa to announce “did you remember to close the garage door” after 5 minutes of motion detection.
I am looking for other uses for my second motion sensor.
Is there any possibility that it would work in a mailbox to detect when the mailman arrives
I am sure it would work in a mailbox. Depends on the mailbox I guess. If it’s the standard kind next to your door with a top that closes, you could place the sensor at the bottom face up and then it would detect the motion of the top opening. I have a community mailbox and they all open when the mail is delivered so it would detect motion even if I wasn’t getting mail that day.
Would it actually work in a mailbox, though? I was under the impression that most of these things detect motion not by actually “seeing” something move but by responding to changes in heat via passive infrared.
It seems weird to me that the product page for Wyze Sense Motion Sensor lists one of the “Features” as “IP67 Weather Rating”, but the FAQ seems to indicate otherwise:
Are they weatherproof?
No. Wyze Sense Entry and Motion Sensors and Keypads are for indoor use only.
I’d be skeptical about the reliability of sticking something like this in an outdoor mailbox because of the potential temperature extremes. I wonder about an indoor mailbox in an apartment building, though…. 
I’ve heard of using contact sensors (similar to Wyze Sense Entry Sensor) on mailboxes. Something like that could potentially work even in a community mailbox if that was within range of the base station, I’d think, but that’s a different topic. 
I don’t know what triggers are available for the Motion Sensor 
in Wyze Rules, but if I had that and an extra smart switch, I’d try to use it similar to what you’re doing with the garage door: I’d stick it in a bathroom and install the smart switch on the exhaust fan. Then (if this is possible), I’d have a rule that does something like this:
I don’t know what other IoT devices @Fred_A has available to work with or if such a rule would even be possible with the Motion Sensor, but I’d look to do something like that so I don’t have to remember to turn the fan off after a shower.
Bunch of variables at play here. If you face the motion sensor to look out the front door then whenever someone opens the front door, that should detect motion. Other things at play here is the type of mailbox because if you have a metal mailbox then that might act as a faraday cage and block signal to and from the sensor in the mailbox to the hub. Also, depending on where the mailbox is, you better make sure it’s in range of the hub.
I did think of those two possible issues with using the sensor in a mailbox… I wish Wyze would design a dedicated mailbox senor with an external antenna… That would be ideal… I believe Ring has a similar product.
Okay, time for my 4 cents (inflation, of course, used to be two cents). If you are serious about wanting an alert when the mail arrives - this works. Has been working for 3 years now. Love it.
Get a Yolink hub ~$20, and a Yolink motion sensor. These things have a range of 1,000 feet to 1/4 mile. Always works. Battery last 2 years, standard AA. We have community boxes. Mailman opens the top and tilts the rack of 10 boxes towards his body, it only moves about 8-10 inches at the top. I place the motion sensor facing across from left to right at the bottom, I added a “little hood” on the top, so it doesn’t “see” above, so it doesn’t know there is motion of the box swinging away from the inside top of the cabinet. Only time it triggers is when “he” drops mail down into the box and the sensor sees that movement. I used 3M command strips on the box wall and back of the sensor. It comes with a 2" round disc with sticky tape, so I could stick that against the wall and the magnet in the sensor back would hold it, but sometimes the mailman jerks the box and it slips, so back to the 3M command strips. If you want to know the mail has run, but also want to know separately if he left mail, leave the “hood” off the top (like a ball cap). That way the sensor notices the movement and alerts once/first. Then listen for a second alert and that’s your cue mail was dropped into the box. My box is 155’ from my garage, this has more than enough range to work fine.
The even make a speaker hub that you can program a message to speak in your room where the speaker is. Personally, I have it linked to Alexa and a strip of LED lights turn on, for 30 minutes, and Alexa tells me, You got mail, get off your butt and go get it".
Great to know. Thanks.
Sam_Bam, that is a great idea. I have to look into that option… Since I have so many Wyze products, I wish they had something similar… Or do they ??
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