Peep's 2024 things of use

[peepeep]

The year not the quantity. I’ll be lucky if I can come up with ten.

[peepeep]

A Rule thing of use:

Wyze plug with Rules is capable of turning ‘it’ ON for a specified period and then OFF in a CYCLE until cancelled.

There are two rules:

1. If Plug OFF for X minutes, turn Plug ON. (disabled until needed)
2. If Plug ON for X secs, turn Plug OFF. (left enabled)

Enabling Rule 1 will not (by itself) start the cycle: you must start it by turning the plug ON via the app or the button on the plug.

Note: When you disable Rule 1 after the cycle has been running, it will run one additional time.

Manual ON Auto OFF: Leave Rule 1 disabled and anytime you toggle the plug ON via app or plug itself, it runs for the period specified in Rule 2 and turns OFF.

My application

Wyze Plug: Sucks down to 1/16 inch?

I have a low spot on a flat roof. Anyone think this can actually suck the surface nearly dry without sucking little gravels into the works and conking out?

waterbug_wayne_0.pdf (2.5 MB)

https://www.amazon.com/WWB-WaterBUG-Submersible-Multi-Flo-Technology/dp/B018LRUDUU

How sensitive to shaft seal failure would it likely be if run dry repeatedly (it’s cooled by the water) but only for minute-or-less duration?

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Wyze plug with Rules is capable of turning it ON for a specified period and then OFF in a CYCLE until cancelled.

There are two rules:

1. If Plug OFF for X minutes, turn Plug ON. (disabled until needed)
2. If Plug ON for X secs, turn Plug OFF. (left enabled)

Enabling Rule 1 will not (by itself) start the cycle: you must start it by turning the plug ON via the app or the button on the plug.

Note: When you disable Rule 1 after the cycle has been running, it will run one additional time.

Manual ON Auto OFF: Leave Rule 1 disabled and anytime you toggle the plug ON via app or plug itself, it runs for the period specified in Rule 2 and turns OFF.

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I contraptioned an old wet/dry vac to test this and it works well but is LOUD and UGLY (so can’t run overnight.) The Waterbug is said to whisper for the most part.

[peepeep]

A cam mounting thing of use.

Cam v3s to be hung together upright under a window air conditioner housing where now two v2s hang upside down separately.

The metal strap between the camera bases allows them to be butted together (otherwise they magnetically repel each other) and the cam mounting holes aligned on an extra drilled strap hole accepts a little 1/2" long ‘bolt’ (w/screw head) and nut/lock washer to secure.

/edit

Here’s another!

Mounting for Dual Cameras using dual power supply

I recently purchased 2 v3 cameras for my side yard to upgrade my v2 cameras. Rather then use the old multiple mounting housing I made a simple mounting on a PVC electrical box cover ($5 on Amazon) it allows a wide adjustment in many directions, one faces back and one forward on mine. I used a dual power supply from Amazon under $10 for two. plus a little foam around the hole and you can pull the wires out if you need to change a camera. I used a screw to mount it instead of the magnet so it is…

/edit

Yet another, simple and clean!

Installing WYZE Cam outside - one approach

You can use these clips on vinyl siding. They just slide under the edge, not permanent. Bolt the steel washers that come with the cameras to the clip then stick the camera to the washer. [71uL7B4jiSL.AC_SL1500]

Plus the link hooks you into the megillah thread from 2018 to present.

[peepeep]

A letter from the founders thing of use.

Dear Friends,

We’re spending the first few days in a new office space here in Seattle as we count down the last few days of 2023. Big life changes like this are a great time to sit down and reflect on where we are and where we’re going, so please allow us to imagine you sitting with us in this unfamiliar conference room to do just that.

First, we want to express our appreciation for you as a Wyze user. THANK YOU for trusting us and for allowing us to to continue on our mission to make great technology accessible to everyone. It’s been six years, and we’ve made incredible progress! There are more than 10M people in our Wyze family now, which is truly hard to believe. It’s been the journey of a lifetime despite all the challenges of building high-quality hardware and software at scale, but we still have so much energy and passion to continue building this movement with all of you.

At this time last year, we told you 2023 would be “The Year of the Camera.” Over the last 12 months, our small team launched five new cameras and released 89 app and firmware updates for cameras that fixed bugs, improved reliability, and added cool new features. We also added new ways to listen to and implement feedback from users. Of course, there’s always more work to be done, but the Wyze team put in so much hard work this year, and we’re proud of the results we delivered.

If we were to pick a theme for 2024, it’s tempting to call it “Year of the Camera v2.” We have some unique cameras coming next year that we’re excited to show you! But new cameras alone aren’t enough to satisfy our 2024 ambitions.

Since the beginning, Wyze has mostly innovated on supply chain and driving down prices of products that were already in the market. Low prices have been and always will be a core feature at Wyze. But next year, more than anything, we want to invent new products that don’t yet exist.

In 2024, we will focus harder than ever on building camera AI 2.0. AI that adds significant value, ease, and automation to your life. It’s hard to make specific promises about our ability to deliver new product experiences that still need to be invented. Still, we’ve made great progress and are excited to get your feedback. With your input, we will make rapid iterations to our models and together we will democratize AI applications in the smart home.

We’ll share one more monumental goal for 2024. Over the last six years Wyze has seen unbelievable growth, but that growth consumed a lot of cash from investors and bankers. In 2023, we became more efficient and reduced our cash burn significantly. In 2024, we believe we can officially break even and be fully cash flow positive for the first time ever. Instead of taking new money from investors, we can invest cash from operations back into the company to continue to fuel growth and improve user experience.

What will that mean for you as a Wyze user? Being cash flow positive means freedom. It allows us to grow and operate the business the way we want to without additional influence from outsiders. It allows us to be more aggressive in pricing decisions and fun with our marketing. It allows us to explore more unique products like we used to in the early days. Being a sustainable company will enable us to operate in ways we never have been able to before, and we can’t wait to see how that freedom feels. It’s been a challenging transition, but we’re so grateful you’ve stuck with us through it all. We’re almost there!

We love you Wyze users, thank you for everything.

Happy New Year!

Wyze Founders,

Yun Zhang
Dave Crosby
Dongsheng Song

[12.30.2023 via email]

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Official post w/comment thread:
https://forums.wyze.com/t/a-letter-from-the-founders-what-to-expect-in-2024/285304

[peepeep]

Others TBA

[carverofchoice]

Thanks Peep. I ran to check my email to read that letter. I like it.

[peepeep]

Yeah, they’re personable and earnest. Genuine, I think

[peepeep]

@peepeep

A Rule thing of use:

@Omgitstony gets some new users up to speed with Rules pretty quick in this thread

Siren sounds upon rule selection

I’m having the same issue. I guess I’m not smart enough to figure out how the triggers should be set. I’m trying to use the location settings. We winter in Arizona and when we leave to go back home (or leave for a long weekend), I want my camera that is on our patio to sound the alarm, turn on the add-on spotlight, and send me a notification if there is any motion whatsoever on my patio (I’m making the assumption that unless I specifically turn off motion detection, it is always on??). And w…

[Omgitstony]

@peepeep

Wyze plug with Rules is capable of turning ‘it’ ON for a specified period and then OFF in a CYCLE until cancelled.

I have a similar set of rules for a plug that use a entry sensor to help control the plugs on and off.

Setup: I have an older litter robot for the kids that doesn’t automatically do its cleaning cycle, so I have an entry sensor on the globe that tells me when it’s been open, is still open or is closed. I have different rules that turn the plug that powered the litter robot off of different conditions are met, then one rules that after the plug has been off for any reason, through rules or manually shut off by me in app, to turn the plug back on. When the litter robot gets powered back in, it automatically cycles itself.

Turn off:

Turn on:

[peepeep]

Useful!

[peepeep]

A split screen thing of use:

You can mimic the dual-view wide angle & zoomed feature of two OG cams by:

• Running both the Wyze and tinyCam apps simultaneously
• Streaming the same cam in both apps
• Using Android 10+ ‘split-screen’ capacity to view both apps live simultaneously
• Zooming-in on the tinyCam instance (it has greater max software zoom plus it ‘coasts’ when moving the focus of the zoomed image)

also

• Displaying cams 2- to 4-up in tinyCam while viewing a single cam in Wyze
  (tinyCam has better/more-flexible group viewing options and performance)

Another application I’ve found useful:

• Displaying the Wyze app home page to toggle a device (bulb, plug etc) while
• Viewing a cam live in tinyCam to monitor the effect

Can’t be done with the Wyze app alone.

[roborant]

At the same time there is a growing part of your audience that is becoming disillusioned from the ‘news’ we are always given while so many “problems” continue to go unresolved. A big one for me is you still haven’t solved the problem with mapping in the robot vacuum cleaner…oh but that’s not a camera. It’s quite apparent that if it’s not a camera than it’s not sexy enough for you to address it. Another issue I have is how your cameras and light bulbs and plugs like to drop off my WiFi. This includes those sitting within 3 feet of a router. Plus installing a competitive brand next to the Wyze brand makes Wyze look pretty lame. Should I just go ahead and move on or is Wyze going to support what they already sold?

[habib]

You are barking at a wrong tree my friend. @peepeep is user like you, he’s not affiliated with Wyze in any way. Choose your battles and enemies.

This forum is primarily a user-to-user community and not a substitute for Wyze Customer Support. Wyze employees do not monitor this forum. If you wish to speak to a Wyze employee/representative, please contact them directly at:

Wyze Labs, Inc

Contact Us

Customer SupportHow can we help? You can chat with an agent or create a support ticket on our help center.We’re open for support between 6:00 am - 6:00 pm PT Monday through Friday, and 8 am - 4pm PT Saturday and Sunday. CommunityFollow us…

or by phone at: 206 339-9646 (US) or 581 500-1166 (Canada)

[roborant]

Oh my. The king has really told me off. Since I commented on a letter posted by Wyze, I’m quite sure that they saw it but quite apparently you make the rules here so I bow to you superiority.

[spamoni]

@roborant , I believe that @habib was only pointing out that the Forums is primarily a user to user forum and not a place where Wyze Staff frequents regularly and that @peepeep is not a Wyze employee.

You are always welcome to provide your opinions and comments as long as it adheres to the community guidelines.

There are a few of us who are community volunteers and at times can escalate items if a ticket number has been provided.

[peepeep]

Hey roborant, yeah, the founders sent their letter by email before they posted it in the News category.

I posted it in this topic as a ‘useful thing’ to know, and later linked to the official topic and commentary that developed.

Founders may be more likely to track comments there than here but who knows. They can be inscrutable, sometimes.

[peepeep]

A ‘getting on the same page’ thing of use:

@peepeep

What you see in Settings may depend somewhat on:

1. Which cams and services you’re running (and on which app.)
   I have v2s and v3s and Cam Plus Lite set to detect Persons. I use the Android app.
2. Your current settings.
   Eg, I can’t change some settings I may need to change unless Record motion events is toggled ON - other menu options only appear when this is so.

[peepeep]

Ensure the app is on the ‘same page’ as the server (re settings):

@Omgitstony

if your app is slow to connect to the camera, make sure you are fully connected to the live stream before you enter the cameras settings. If you go into settings before they can be populated correctly, it MAY show that your motion detection/notifications is disabled, when in fact it hasn’t populated and per the cloud they are enabled.

And simplify Rules when possible, also key:

@Omgitstony

Another note, enabling and disabling “detects motion” also controls if you get notifications or not. No cloud events, then nothing to notify you of. So if your normal practice is to enable and disable detection and notifications together [via Rule], just enable and disable detect motion and leave the notification settings enabled. Simplify your stuff.