We need your input and we have a GIVEAWAY - Wyze Home Monitoring Week 4

Spot on! The good news is that most of the issues are solvable by software updates, not new hardware.

I think multiple PIN numbers would be the best place to start or the ability to share with others through the app. I have 4 people in my house 3 have phones and shared access to most of my devices, but there is also an 8 year old that should have his own PIN that he can remember (he has his own door code with our wyze lock)

That is my biggest hold back in activating the alarm system. Hope this is in the top to be fixed! Thank you!

Welcome to the forum community @mlhenry !

Having multiple pins would be a good start… Along with being able to schedule the time of day the HMS is to be armed and disarmed.

Another though would be so that there is integration with Amazon Alexa or Google… Or something like the Flic 2 button so that one can activate/ deactivate the alarm with the press of a button…

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Been using home monitoring for a few weeks and here are my suggestions:

  1. Door/Motion Chimes (would be nice)

  2. Allow self monitoring. I get not everyone wants to pay for service, but yet they expect Wyze to make high quality products. This costs money. The equipment they are selling is not cheap. I bought an alarm with a year of monitoring for $59 and change. Seriously, what do people expect? Wyze to distribute free products? Your getting hardware and monitoring for a year. There are people that pay $36 a month for other providers. How can you complain? With that, I would like to see Wyze allow self-monitor after maybe a year of paid service and this is why. What happens if noon-light backs out of a contract like has happened with Wyze and AI before? Then who monitors my service? My point is, businesses change, and maybe noon-light decides alarm monitoring is not for them and decides not to renew with Wyze. I would like to still be able to monitor my own service as some have noted. As of now, I have no problem paying $5 a month for professional monitoring,

  3. I have noticed that if you setup initially with WiFi, then the Ethernet does not work unless you reset. I have it plugged into Ethernet and connected to WiFi. It would be nice if an access point locks up, to use my Ethernet instead since it is already plugged in. Currently, it does not switch if I unplug the access point. This has happened and until I fixed the access point, the alarm was offline even though it still had an Ethernet connection.

  4. Multiple contact numbers would be nice. Maybe at least 2 or 3. I don’t know why anyone would need more than that.

  5. Multiple PINS especially for those that are using this in a business

  6. External Siren

  7. Water Sensors (Would be really Nice)

  8. Smoke/CO2 Alarm (Would be extremely nice)

  9. A Keychain remote would be cool. My last one had one, and although it works fine for me as is, it would be nice to have a Keychain remote to give to a neighbor if I am away. Include a Panic button too.

  10. Custom mode, outside of Home/Away. For example if I want to leave my front door open and screen door locked, I configure custom mode that does not include that door sensor but maybe another sensor instead.

  11. Allow the alarm to trigger Wyze plugs. I have an outdoor alarm tied to a Wyze plug. It would be nice if the alarm triggered the plug to alert my neighbors.

  12. Fix the reset button. Pushing it once requires me to setup my hub again. It was accidental, but you should push and hold to reset.

  13. Ability to add a secondary base station as a backup (if a user wants to) just in case one is damaged in event of a burglary, a secondary one can still contact the monitoring service.

  14. Smaller Window Decal by 50% or so

  15. Yard Sign

  16. Extra magnets for sensors. If I leave my window open a crack, but not enough for someone to get in, it would be nice to have an extra magnet so that if it opens further, it also triggers the alarm. Currently, only one magnet is included.

Again, I have no problem paying for these devices and service. This isn’t for everyone, and I understand that. For me, this is exactly what I needed. I have since purchased multiple sensors and additional keypads.

For those that want a cellular option. If you are willing to buy a separate plan for the alarm, use a Hot spot instead. Adding cellular will lock you to either GSM or CDMA service which is not compatible in some areas. Why build in cellular capability and add to the hardware cost when WiFi already exists and is easy to do? I like the idea, but I can use a Hot spot today and it won’t change the cost of the equipment. Integrating cellular is a bad idea in my opinion.

A couple other thoughts

  1. I pre-ordered mine in December 2020 and received in April. I order one for a relative a few weeks ago and it already arrived. Once thing I notice is the new one I received, alerts you when the power is out, but the one I ordered in December does not. If I unplug it, it says it is running on battery backup where mine does not. Is this a different piece of hardware or a firmware feature?

  2. For the people that don’t like the chime when arming at home. Change the time setting to ZERO in the app. When I arm Home, I hear nothing. It arms immediately without the chiming.

  3. For the people who think the tone is too loud. Go into the base station settings and change the volume from Medium which is default, to Low instead. Simple fix.

  4. If the power goes out, the unit does NOT reset. It has a battery backup and continues to work. The people noting this are incorrect.

  5. GeoFencing sounds cool until someone steals your phone or transmitter and deactivates the alarm. The safest thing is a PIN in my mind, but I get why people want something like GeoFencing.

At the end of the day, this is a reasonably priced system that I am happy with currently. Everyone wants a magic device that does everything, but wants it for free. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work in real life. Research and Development take time and money. If you like Wyze and want them to stay in business, then stop complaining about the price. They are far cheaper than the alternatives.

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Well said!

Initial feedback for Home Monitoring

Ask the Community

androidimportantsupporttroubleshootingwyze-sense-v2-preorder

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Luckyleft

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24d

Hello all.

Just received my home monitoring kit this week…working through initial setup to replace my Ring home alarm.

So far, I’ve just setup one keypad (I have 2), the base unit, and one door sensor. I want to be sure that I like it before removing all Ring sensors.

First impression…not bad…I like the compactness. Setup has been pretty easy thus far - no main issues.

A few things that I’ve noticed for improvement. I checked the boards, but didn’t spend a ton of time looking through, so forgive me if already addressed. If I Arm the alarm via the keypad, I get audible feedback …“Armed Home” etc.; however…if I Arm via the app…I only hear this feedback through the base hub. In my use case, I have an upstairs where I sleep. I want to hear the keypad provide audio feedback that the system is armed no matter how it is set. My base hub is downstairs…can’t hear it. Also…can the keypad serve as the alarm chime as well…so I can hear all over house? I want to know when a sensor state changes (for some sensors - internal door opened, etc - need ability to allow chime or not) and I want to hear the alarm if tripped through keypad.

This gets me to my next point. How can I arm the system via Alexa? One of my favorite features of my Ring alarm is to say, “Alexa, arm the fortress.” (This is what I named my house). In fact…I have a routine that allows me to say “Alexa, Goodnight”…and it turns off my bedroom lights, arms the fortress, and tells me goodnight. My Ring alarm keypad (located upstairs) gives me the audible notification that it is armed. Can we do this with Wyze / Alexa yet?

Any way to force the Alarm notification/sound on Android? - I want to be disturbed if the alarm is tripped - even if volume is set to vibrate.

That’s it for now. I think if I can solve for these…it’s a rip and replace.

One last thing…the UI needs an update. I already have way too many Wyze devices in my home screen…when I add every sensor that I have for home monitoring…it’s just way too many. Perhaps you allow collapsible menus…one heading for Alarm…all sensors below. One for Cams, etc.

Thanks so much!

Groups will be your saving grace. For the monitoring, I have 3 (doors, windows, motion). You could set this up by rooms too, but that would add a little more to sort through.

Will say that Wyze needs to allow some group “mixing”. Some newer items can’t be grouped at all for some reason. Like Doorbell cams & the keypads,

But ya, groups make the app much more bearable.

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My guess is the battery in the hub is a high quality lithium-ion that will last years (5 or more) before it really needs to be replaced. I had another alarm that I had for 8 years before the battery went bad. I am sure that this battery can be replaced, it just may not have a battery door like the sensors.

If you are stuck in the reset mode, delete the hub from the app and add it back. This should fix the issue. You don’t need to delete any sensors that I am aware of.

Not having cellular for the monitoring system is the only thing holding me back. Xfinity goes out all the time and I want my home security to operate despite their terrible service.

Alternatively, since the hardware comes free with the annual subscription, I would think that if something dies, while under subscription it would be replaced for free.

Welcome to the forums!

Currently there is no option for cellular backup… but if it is critical, then you can try to use an an option such as a mobile hotspot connected (or USB tethering) to a router… Then connect the HMS to the router that’s using the hotspot… Of course, just make sure you have an unlimited plan…

Geofencing and the ability to have moonlight notify more than 1 number. I would also the ability to manually sound the alarm, not just a silent one.

I think you missed my previous point. Even with the additional door sensors, motion sensors and keypad I purchased, I paid maybe $100 and get a year of service. I just looked at the closest DIY system, and not only are the siren, keypad, and other accessories ugly to look at, the cost is $320 and that is just the hardware. A base kit from Wyze is $59 and shipping. I am not sure what you expect them to replace? There is no reason to think the hardware will fail, and I doubt it will. If it does, I’ll buy another sensor and try again. But if you think Wyze should replace hardware that cost $59 only because you are paying a monthly $5 monitoring fee, I think that is an unfair expectation. There are plenty of other alarm companies that build their monitoring fee around hardware cost, and who will gladly replace your unit if it breaks while paying $50 a month for monitoring. I’ll take my chance with the Wyze equipment, and even if it were to last only a year, which is unlikely, I’d still buy another kit at $59 which is still cheaper than the next DIY kit. My point is you can’t expect Wyze to hand out free equipment while charging $5 a month for service. To clarify, my starter kit was Free because I pre-ordered back in Dec 2020, however the cost has gone up since then, but even now I still think this is an an affordable system.

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Well said, Wyze is the best deal in town, enjoy it. They have an excellent entry product that will only get better with updates that are coming.

Here are a few suggestions:
-Option to mute dinging when arming
-Chime when sensors are triggered/door is opened
-ability to set up multiple user profiles - my wife and I both need the ability to arm/disarm, but she prefers not to see all notifications and I do
-I’m also having issues having the video event feed display video for the recent notification (i.e. video motion notification, so I click the link, but no recent video)
-Notification settings based on alarm status - motion sensor when away or home, but not when disarmed
-it would be nice to have a status light on the keypad so we can quickly see of the alarm is armed or not

I opened the garage door so I could mow the lawn… and set off the alarm w/o knowing the alarm was going off. A couple hours later I saw the noonlight response.

My use case would be for noonlight to ONLY call police when they hear from me that there is some actual emergency (presuming there is no self-monitoring option).

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The option to mute the dinging while arming would be awesome!

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Running the modem/router power to an uninterruptable power supply is an option I’ve considered to remedy this. I haven’t purchased one yet, but I think there are options available for as low as $30-$40 that will power the modem/router for a at least 2-3 hours.

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WOW, I need to get my police department to do this by default: Refuse to ever come to my house (and fine me for a dispatch) unless I personally call 911 instead of the security company. Then I would take my system out of test mode and use it completely normally knowing the police will never come and fine me unless I dial 911. That’s exactly how I want my system to work!

They didn’t say they wouldn’t fine you, lol.

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