Okay thanks. From what I understand the bridges have good range and my house isn’t that big. More importantly this was only one “use case” example for Home Assistant. If I run down that path I can see setting up a primary server on a remote VPS, a full PC based server at home, and have everything else - a collection of best and/or cheapest of breed from various vendors – either Ethernet or WiFi. Roll your own cloud… If I ever get around to actually doing it.
Edit: I realize this thread is specific to standalone bridges, so apologies for the tangent. I’m just discovering Home Assistant’s existence and thought at first that the video had the guy connecting directly to it via WiFi - not so.
I know a number of folks that are very happy with Home Assistant. It just depends on the mix of your devices I guess. Another growing group are those in the SmartThings camp. Both have very active subreddits on Reddit if you want to learn more.
Being that the range for the Wyze Sense bridge is 30-feet or so, it would be nice if there was an outlet based, no camera, hub to use for areas where we would like Wyze Sense to be reach, but have no need for a camera in the area.
I’m thinking, either a smart outlet that can be used as the bridge or a plug-in for the wall that the existing bridge can use.
With my current living situation, what I have works, but moving forward, I want to have the flexibility of where my bridge(s) go. Not sure if anyone else has a need for something like this.
I am not a fan of HomeAssistant, which does support the Wyze Sense Bridge running on a Pi. HA is bloated and runs slow on anything less than a Pi3. The WyzesensePy code, however with a simple mod adding the PyCurl library has proved to be an excellent standalone bridge for the Wyze Sense hub. I run mine with 10 sensors paired on an old Pi2 and use the PyCurl to feed IFTTT recipes for cloud usage. It has been running now for at least 6 months without a hiccup (except for one power supply fail on the Pi). In fact the program is so lite weight, I can run it on a Pi combined with my Plex server as well as my NAS unit.
I wasn’t thinking as a way to bridge all the cameras. I was thinking as a way to have a Sense Bridge without a camera. However, the idea of being able to bridge all the products to a hub instead of all independent is a thought.
As to the stand alone bridge for Sense devices, I feel like it would benefit some who like other cameras, but want a cheap sensing solution. Or they have Wyze outlets and want sensing control.
@WyzeGwendolyn with the recent announcements for a Wyze Sense2 line and home monitoring service, it would seem an external sense bridge might be part of this effort. When do you expect beta testing be opened up for testing that new product line? Will it be posted in this thread or another thread to keep an eye. I have so much now invested in Wyze sense door sensors and motion sensors, i would love to participate.
You’re correct, @barrygabler! I don’t know when testing will open up but we will probably post here if there are any specific criteria we need for the testing that isn’t already covered in the general application form.
@WyzeGwendolyn is it possible that if there is a a stand alone bridge that it could be something that bridges all Wyze products? I have 3 cameras and Wyze Sense currently and so far everything has been great. However, I have a different product for lighting. I recently replaced my router and noticed how much easier the switch would have been if I had a hub based system instead of all wireless. I understand that having such a hub/bridge would additional man hours to produce and support and add cost, but the convenience of being able to connect to a central point and then a hardline connection to the router would be worth it. I understand that not everyone likes having several different hubs/bridges taking up space on the router and electrical outlets. However, one bridge to rule them all for Wyze products might be a selling point. Could also give way to being able to store camera data in one spot rather than individual or on the cloud.
I don’t think that the one we’re currently working on is able to do that but I know we’re having this as a larger conversation at Wyze. Thanks for bringing it up!
