Motion Sensor v1 longevity?

I keep having motion sensors die. They aren’t exactly dead, their red light blinks, indicating they’re working. But they cannot connect to any of bridges. I’ve troubleshooted up the wig wang. They seem to last between a year to 18 months, in my experience. Then they need replacing.

What is your experience?

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Did a battery die and then you replaced it?

If yes, then your Motion Sensor v1 is kaputt. If the battery does completely, the sensor loses it’s memory and will not every pair with anything again.

If that’s accurate that sucks. Does Wyze warn customers about that?

I don’t think the batteries died. They still go into reset mode (red led flashes). But i have removed them and replaced them with Energizers.

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how many flashes does it do when you put the battery in?

More of an issue…how many flashes when you try to pair? If 5, sensor is dead.

3 I believe.

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I misread your post…you are having a problem with the motion sensor, not contact sensors. I know the link I posted is not very specific, but I’m pretty sure it applies to the contact sensors specifically. I haven’t seen anything about a similar problem with the motion sensors.

So just to re-hash everything…have you removed one of the bridges from the camera, power cycled the camera, reinserted the bridge and then tried to add one of the sensors? Another question, which type of camera–Pan or V2? Pans seem to have a power issue with the sense hub installed.

Here’s an excellent explanation on why this happened. The issue actually wasn’t Wyze’s doing, but an issue with the sensor chip.

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I know about the loss of MAC on the contact sensors. Does it apply to the motion sensors as well? I haven’t seen anything specifically about that, but I may have missed it.

They both use the same base chip, so probably. But the motion sensors use a larger battery, and anyone who bought the starter pack got 1 motion sensor for every 2 contact sensors, so the issue is less likely to come up with the motion sensors.

Well, sort of. Technically both TI and wyze are partially at fault. Wyze stored the MAC address of the sense v1 devices in part of the cc1310 chip that gets wiped when the low battery causes a crash and the chip resets. Wyze has fixed this in later devices that use the same chip, like the doorbell, which does not lose its MAC address when it loses power for an extended time period.
However, at least wyze tried to fix this mistake by replacing these sensors when they failed, if a customer contacted them. I don’t know if the replacement sensors also have the same fault, or if it was rectified by then.

Tried it with both cameras. Same results.

Lee Bosset

Oh, I did all the troubleshooting steps. I’ve switched bridges too.

And so, just so I understand, a dead battery can mean a dead sensor? What’s the difference between a dead battery, and changing the battery? The device still loses power either way. By extension, once the battery is dead, the sensor is dead, since you can’t change the battery without killing the sensor.

Lee Bosset

I don’t have all the details, but it seems it is a LOW battery, not a dead battery that causes the problem. So long as you change out the battery before it gets too low the sensor is fine.

Except that even removing the battery for a long time can cause the wyze sense to lose its MAC address. There is probably a capacitor keeping the chip from wiping the MAC address when you swap batteries, but it, too will fall into the 1.8v threshold and cause the reset to occur if it is left without a battery for a long enough time.

There is probably a capacitor keeping the chip running in a very low power state so that it can be without power for a short amount of time without resetting.

Well, before I replaced the battery, the red led light was still working. Iow, when i pushed the pin into the hole, the led would flash. I don’t know what that suggests as far as battery charge.

Lee Bosset

I’ve changed the batteries on mine several times without them dying. Maybe you just let the battery run too low for too long.

I just replaced the battery in my Motion Sensor v1, and it doesn’t seem to make good contact with the negative “post” on the circuit board. The “post” is more of a pad, and it seems almost flat. I still have a spare sensor, but I might try dropping a small glob of solder on there to see if it helps make better contact.

That’s not entirely true. Out of the 22 contact sensors and six-motion sensors that I had seven are now dead…

Some, the battery did go dead and when I replaced it the sensor would not function anymore
…others, I replaced the battery proactively before it went dead and even a couple of those also were bricks forever…

It’s a seriously disappointing situation
Wyze has completely abandoned the V1 sensors, and once they were over a year old, (out of warranty), they will not replace them. (If they did It would probably bankrupt the company and that’s why they have abandoned them)
I have a pile of them now in the junk drawer…

It wouldn’t be so bad if they would let you buy the version two of the sensors without having to pay a monthly fee …but they still have not allowed that yet…
I am currently searching for a contact sensor and motion detector replacement.