I see you plug a Sense bridge on the back of one of the cameras. Do the sensors need to be within a certain range of that bridge?
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I also have this question. Not sure if the sensors from garage doors would reach to my camera in the living room.
Hi all, I’ve pinged Wyze about getting some support documentation up for the Sense devices to help answer questions about them.
the contact sensors don’t work if they are more than 10-15 feet away from the hub. not very useful.
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My experience so far the max range for a bridge is about 8 ft . Even at 8 ft I am still getting offline sensors daily.
I cant believe they are not selling the bridges individually.
Wyze are you listening ?
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I’m getting 50 feet with one of my sensors with a 3 bar connection strength, other is closer 5 feet. Motion sensor is about 25 feet behind a cinder block wall and getting a 3 bar connection also.
Update: After continued and very frustrating Sensor Off Line and Camera / Bridge resets I decided to move the bridge to another Camera - Placed the camera in the same location as the original camera and now I have over 20 ft of range with most sensors and most are 3 or 4 bar strength and now have gone 24 hours with out a single sensor off line …
I moved the bridge back to the original camera and within 10 minutes I had Offline sensors .
Firmware is up to date on this camera . Any ideas ?
Time for a new camera ? What is the warranty on these cameras V2 Wyze Cam.
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I saw something similar - different coverage range with different cams / same position. Weird. Still, it’s apparent that multiple bridges in any decent sized location you want to run these.
yes, but multiple bridges means multiple cams at $20/ea, even in places you didn’t want a cam.
Since the cam detects motion, it will also alert me of someone entering through the door and will also show me the door, so I don’t really need a contact sensor anymore.
it is strange that people are getting vastly different results for the range between bridge and contact sensor. anywhere from 8 - 50 ft. I get about 10-15 feet.
Until they sell bridges separately.
It occurred to me that it looks like all the bridges are getting from the camera may be just power - in which case, any usb wall wart should allow you run them (no camera needed) and put them across larger areas. If it’s zigbee, the thing can mesh. Anyone from wyze want to chime in here?
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The bridges get internet connectivity, power, and firmware updates from the Wyze Cam so they aren’t truly standalone.
I ordered one Sense Starter Kit during Early Access but found I had intermittent issues with one sensor when I placed it at the other end of my house. So when Sense launched I ordered another Starter Kit to go in another camera closer to the other end of my house. I agree it might be nice to have an individual Bridge Kit, but I was going to order more contact sensors anyway and for $20 it’s worth it to get the extra coverage.
FWIW I have noticed that some sensors the same distance away from my primary bridge have significantly different signal strength, so it may also depend on the placement of the sensors as well. For example, I have one sensor about 20ft from the primary bridge, but it kept dropping off. I paired it with the secondary bridge over 50ft away and it has better signal strength than one of the sensors 25ft from the secondary bridge.
I believe the sensors use the 900MHz band so some areas with strong interference may have very poor range.
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I think in the Wyze FAQ they said each sensor is connected directly to the bridge, so no mesh network.
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where can I view the signal bars?
In the sensor setting under device info … Signal strength.
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thank you
not from my experience. i actually have the bridge connected to a pan cam in my backyard porch and my garage door is on the opposite end of the house with walls and everything in between but it works flawlessly. must be at least over 50-60ft
The sensors obviously have to be within range of the camera that has the bridge in it. But what has not been disclosed by the company is if this bridge also acts as a Wi-Fi range extender for the PIR and the contacts. We do know that’s the bridge provides software updates to the sensors but we do not know if the sensors can be outside of the range of the router. Let’s be conservative and say that each camera needs to be within 50 feet of your router and Wi-Fi signal. If one of the cameras has a bridge in it, then can the sensors which are connected to that particular Bridge be an additional possible 40 or 50 seat further away from the Wi-Fi router, or do they also need to be within the same 50-foot range as the cameras and bridges?
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I think all that has been disclosed, if not by the company then in our user notes here, at least. Yes, the bridge acts as a kind of range extender for the PIR and the contacts. But the sensors aren’t on WiFi at all, as the company has noted. They communicate with the bridge separately. So the sensors need to be in range of the bridge, not the router. And a different range, because it is not WiFi. As to 50 feet – I find 20 better. 30 may be an issue. 50? That’d be great, I’d guess. Range is tough because of metal objects and walls.
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I’m not sure if this will help or not but I think I remember somewhere reading that for the camera with the bridge, it may be helpful to use a more powerful brick in the wall then the one that came with the original packaging.
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I found getting the bridge off the back of the cam, and elevated just a few more inches above and away from the cam, increased sensor range significantly. I was able to do this by using a short USB pigtail from the cam port to the bridge port.
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