I just received my Sensor starter kit. I’m a bit confused as to its usefulness. The camera already detects motion, so I don’t see the usefulness for the motion detector. I use a camera in my garage to alert me if the garage door is opened, so I don’t see the use for the contact sensors.
Maybe I’m just not creative enough to figure out where the sensor fits in the scheme of things, but it seems as the sensor function basically duplicates what the camera already does.
What am I missing?
Camera by itself has a cooldown of 5 minutes between notifications/cloud clips. Motion sensor triggered videos have a cooldown as low as around 40 seconds between videos, contact sensor triggered videoes have no cooldown. Motion sensor has less false alerts from things like bugs and lights turning on and off than the in camera detection. Contact sensors and motion sensors are more useful than the camera when trying to trigger other smart devices like lights, thermostats etc.
Thanks for the response. One question - you indicate “Contact sensors and motion sensors are more useful than the camera when trying to trigger other smart devices like lights, thermostats etc.”
What’s the connection between the sensors and other smart devices? Does this only work with Wyze devices?
FWIW, I can’t seem to connect the motion detector - keeps timing out after I reset the motion detector. The LED flashes red 3 times when I reset it, but it never connects to the bridge.
What a great answer (no sarcasm). Not the OP but thank you for the info.
The connection with other smart devices of different brands is usually Alexa or google home routines or an IFTTT applet. I mostly use Alexa routines since that seems to work the best. Example: in my garage I have a wyze cam v2 with a motion sensor on the wall and a contact sensor on my garage door. There are some super bright “dumb” LED shop lights mounted on the ceiling plugged into a non wyze smart plug. When the motion sensor detects motion it turns on the shop lights. When the motion detector detects no motion for 2 minutes it turns off the lights. When the garage door opens during daylight hours I set a 10 second delay before turning off the shop lights (garage door is fully open allowing natural light in).
What firmware version is in the camera with the sense bridge? I’ve had issues with a recent firmware version and wyze sense so I downgraded the firmware. The motion sensor might also have a bad battery or battery may not have a good contact inside. Try opening it, taking out the battery, wait a few seconds and putting everything back.
I plan to put a motion sensor in my walk-in closet with a bulb, so that it will turn on the light when it senses motion, and turn off the light after a few seconds of no motion. If you want the camera in your garage to stay off until motion is detected, you’d use a motion sensor to turn it on, and possibly to send you an alert that motion is detected in your garage. I might do this in my shed to record video in case of thefts, or in my wife’s garden to detect varmints. Applications are endless. It just depends on one’s ingenuity.
Okay, here’s part of my setup - I have a motion sensor set to turn on basement lights when motion is detected, then after 5 minutes some of them to turn off, after 15 minutes others turn off. Contact sensor for open/close doors I get alerts that door was open/closed. Also use an contact sensor in mailbox, when door opens I get alert and have a light come on, other members in house know when mail has arrived. I have also tested sensors on dryer, to alert cycle complete. For hearing impaired the sounds may not be heard. I have lights flash when doorbell is pushed, again a hearing impaired person may not hear the doorbell ring. I have tested many other ideas as well. Both indoors and outdoors. For visually impaired, I have an Alexa announcement, ‘you’ve got mail’ on one of my echo dots. Contact sensor used to turn on light when closet door opens. Just a few basic things to do with motion/contact sensors, other than a camera motion sensor. I could use cameras for some things but not all.
I have a camera in my garage and a contact sensor on the big door and a contact sensor on the service door. My camera records what occurs in the garage. I use the sensors to tell me just by looking at the sensor page what is open and closed. I have in the past had notifs for if my overhead door was open for more than 5 minutes, or my service door open for more than 1 minute. My camera can’t do that. Camera only notifys if it detects pixel change.
The Sense motion sensors and the cameras detect different types of “motion”. The Sense motion sensors are PIR sensors, which detect Infrared signatures, and the cameras detect pixel change within their field of view (light changes, actual movements of object s, etc)
Our biggest use for motion detectors is to protect against bedroom break-ins thru windows. My wife (and I’m sure others) won’t let me put a WYZE cam in the bedroom … and I know most are cautious against putting WYZE cams in children’s bedroom. I have motion detectors for areas where I don’t have and/or don’t want a camera. The motion detectors are named for the protected areas, and stored in a drawer where they won’t alert … and only deployed on a table or dresser when we are leaving for an extended trip away. The motion detectors have never given me a false alarm … so I know if one alerts, the odds are good that someone has entered the area. I then monitor the nearest camera (hallway, etc) to see if an intruder passes by.