Using Bulbs for Person Detection

Is there any way to set my wyze bulb to go off when my wyze cam v3 detects a person, but specifically only do it during the night?

when you say “go off”, you mean turn off ( hello darkness my old friend ) correct?

you can make that type of rule with a device trigger and at the bottom of the rule setting page just set the rule to activate between time A and time B of your choice.

to do the person detection it will require cam plus though.

@Bam gave a good explanation how to do it with Wyze rules.

My disappointment with using Wyze rules to do this is that it is harder to turn off once motion clears. You can tell the bulbs to automatically shut off again any time they’ve been on for X minutes though. Then they’ll be ready for the next Detection.

Alternatively, you can create a rule using Alexa routines instead of Wyze. Then in just a single routine you can tell the light to turn on whenever it detects a person (during certain hours) then wait x minutes after it detects a person and shut off the light again. I do this with an Alexa routine.

I have been experimenting with the Alexa routines to turn on lights when my Outdoor and v3 cameras detect a person. It was easy to setup.

My hope is to use a routine to turn on smart bulbs in a outdoor floodlight base.

Sorry that I wasn’t as clear as I should have been. I meant, if the camera detects a person only, the light bulb would turn on, but otherwise stay off. Also, it would be scheduled to only light up (as in the rule would only be in effect) during the night time hours. Hopefully I articulated that better.

1 Like

I’m assuming the alexa routine is with a different bulb though, or is it still a wyze bulb?

It happens to the best of us. Yes you can definitely do that although as I had previously stated the person detection will require the cam Plus subscription. But to make the turn off a lot easier, you can buy the home monitoring service hub and use sensors as well so that person detection will turn the light on but, use a motion sensor and the adjustable time after it clears to turn it off. Other than that you have to set up another rule to turn the light off after it has been on x amount of time which if you’re going to be in a room for a while it might turn off and then turn on however long you have it set for. Not a huge deal breaker, I actually do have one in my house like that but it’s something to be aware of

I do it with Wyze bulbs and Wyze cameras on Alexa routines.

What Alexa rules are you talking about? Are you talking about IFTTT? Thanks.

Sorry for the delay in response. I was talking about the rules in the Wyze App. I did actually set them up and they did work. However, there was a significant delay that caused me to undo it. For example, the camera would detect a person, then send it to the cloud which would initiate a response, the bulb would then be triggered. So by the time a person set off the camera and the time the bulb went on, it was a good 10 seconds or more. I know that doesn’t seem like much, but it was enough to miss lighting up in time.

My light turns on within a second. I can see this from my event video: I open my door (which I see) and the light turns on within a second. You situation may be different but for me it works pretty well. My even video starts pretty much as the door opens–there isn’t 5 seconds before the door opens–maybe 1 second–so that’s a little strange.

Perhaps you should check your event video (or SD card video) and see when the camera detected motion versus when motion actually occurred. Turn on the detection zone setting so that you can see when motion is actually detected. Maybe the camera does not detect motion for 10 seconds for some reason? Just a thought.

Edit: Another strange thing with my (V3) camera. Under Settings/Event Recordings, the ‘Detects Motion’ indicates off when I went to look at it but I am getting events. I turned it on and hopefully this is just a display glitch.