EDITI got it working…see thread with Crease who figured out a way for it work for me.
I wasn’t able to get any of the automations to work for awhile there and stopped trying again until tonight. I have one working using a V3 including having my hue lights turn colors but I have the same exact automation set up using the OG but the automation will only work correctly if I manually trigger it (test the automation) through the Google home app but when I’m actually detected as a person the automation never triggers. Any ideas why? Literally everything is the same aside from the camera being used for the wyze trigger and Google starter.
Sorry it has been so long I’m going to try to answer your questions best I can.
when I manually activate the automation through the Google home app, by pressing the play button.
Wyze V3 which I have the automation working for and Wyze OG which the automation only works when I manually activate it but not when I’m actually detected as a person event in the Wyze app. I can’t figure out why when everything is set up the same way other than obviously the camera. I’m also using a Kasa smart plug, a Google home hub, and a Google home mini.
Okay, that’s helpful. Thank you for sharing the screenshots! I’m interested to see what they look like for the Google Home automation involving the Cam OG now. Nothing is immediately coming to mind except that maybe Google Home sees the Cam OG “Turns on” in a way that differs from when your Cam v3 does that. I don’t have the answer for that, and I also don’t have a Cam v3, but I can maybe test a Cam OG against a Cam Pan v3 and a Cam v4 tomorrow if your next screenshots don’t make the problem clear.
What if you try this? If your Cam v3 automation is working as expected, and if your Cam OG is correctly detecting you as a person (and marking that as an event that you can see in the Wyze app), then
Edit your Wyze app Front Door Person Automation so that
IF
Front Door Detects a person
DO
Deck Turn on the camera
Edit your Google Home app Front Door Person Automation so that
Starters
Deck Turns on
It shouldn’t matter that your Deck Cam v3 is already on. If sending the “Turn on” signal successfully initiates your Google Home automation when the Deck Cam v3 gets the “Turn on the camera” Action from your first Wyze Automation, then having your other Wyze Automation turn on the same camera (i.e., use it as a trigger to execute the other Google Home Automation) should work as well, right?
I hope that makes sense. I’d try that to see if it works. If it doesn’t, then you can change things back to how you have them now, and we can think of other possible solutions.
Ok, yeah, I can try that. Hold on a few minutes and I’ll try it. I just tried doing the same automation using my V4 and it was the same outcome as the OG, doesn’t work unless I manually trigger the automation. I will try what you mentioned above though
It worked!!! Yay!! Thank you!!! That was some smart thinking that never would I have come up with. I’m way too much of a concrete thinker to think like that Thank you so very much!!
Oh and I tried again tonight to add the go home in the same routine, it works but then the camera view disappears off the home hub right away which obviously defeats the purpose. I literally would have a couple seconds to look at the home to see who was at the door. So, I’m going to leave it as is since it’s FINALLY working!
Hey! I’m really glad that worked for you. Now I’m curious about why Cam OG (and especially Cam v4, like you said you tested) didn’t work. I kinda get that Cam OG has some significant differences from other Wyze Cam models, so maybe that “Turns on” signal from Cam OG has some funkiness, too, but I would’ve expected Cam v4 to work as well as Cam v3 does.
What do I know, though?!
As far as the “Go Home” Google Home Automation is concerned, I see that one of your Actions is an announcement (“Announce to household”). Instead of that, I’d edit your routine this way:
Tap + Add action.
On the Choose what the Routine will do screen, scroll to the bottom (swipe up) and tap Try adding your own.
On the Add action screen, type “go home” and tap Done.
Tap the announcement Action you already have, and then tap Remove action.
In the Configuration section of your Routine, make sure Play on has Bedroom display selected.
Tap Save.
Doing it this way treats the “Go Home” action as if you’re saying it to your smart display (your Hub), so you’ll need to make sure that device is selected in the Configuration section, because it’s going to act like you’re saying “Okay, Google, go home” to that speaker.
Hopefully this combination will stream your selected camera to your Hub whenever your Cam v3 turns on, and then 5 minutes later will stop the stream whenever your Kasa smart plug turns off. If that doesn’t fix it and if your combination of automations is still terminating the live feed to your Hub prematurely, then the next step is probably troubleshooting the part that involves the Kasa smart plug, and I believe it’s possible to control that via either the Kasa app or the Tapo app, depending on what else you might be using. I don’t have any Kasa smart plugs, but I do have Kasa smart switches and Tapo smart plugs, so we should be able to figure something out if that’s the last missing puzzle piece.
I only have Google Home Minis. I have had tried the “Turns on the camera” in Wyze’s Automation and Google Home to announce whenever a person is detected too on my Cam V3. What I found out is that it only triggers it once for the first time then afterwards it won’t announce anymore until I either disable and enable back the rule in Google Home or restarting the camera. I don’t really remember which one causes it to trigger it again. At first, I thought Google Home had a timer to cool down before announcing again (to prevent spamming), but it won’t announce no matter how long it’s been.
In the end, I gave up on it and just relied on my Alexa Echo devices, but it requires Wyze subscription for person detection IRRC.
I wondered about that, too, like if you use a Wyze Automation to trigger a camera to “on”, and then if Google Home sees that camera “turn on”, then maybe it just persistently thinks it’s “on” unless it actually “sees” it turn “off” at some point? I think that was my experience trying to use the Cam OG as a trigger once before, but I haven’t tested it for months, because the Plugs work so much better and can be automated to turn on or off on their own after a specific time using self-referential Wyze triggers.
That’s right! I’ve had this happen to me previously too and I had thought it was fixed but it doesn’t appear to be. I wonder if I can somehow have an automation to turn off the camera and then turn it back on ends the automation until a person is detected again??
With the devices you currently have, you could use other Automation types, like a Shortcut, to restart your cameras manually a few minutes after one of the detection triggers runs, but then you have to remember to do that and it’s not really “automatic”. You could also do Wyze Schedule Automations and reboot your cameras that way, but then how do you decide how frequently to do that and at what times? I think that’d be likely to miss something.
Your best option at this point might be to consider getting Wyze Plug or Plug Outdoor, just because that’s going to be a more direct path for triggering your Google Home Routines and resetting everything without manual intervention since you can control it within the Wyze ecosystem. If you live near a Home Depot store, you can sometimes find these on unadvertised clearance. (Last year I picked up a couple of Plug Outdoors, not because I had an immediate need, but because they were $5 (US) each and I can find uses for them, including situations like this, and each one of those gives two independently-controlled sockets that can be incorporated into Automations.)
You’ve hit one of my limits, 'cause I don’t have an Echo Show and have only dabbled a bit with Alexa automations.
I have both the 1st gen of Echo Show 5 and 1st gen Echo Show 8. They both work, but I get an odd screen flickering issue on my 1st gen Echo Show 5. It seems to be quite prevalent on Echo Show if you search on Google so YMMV.
I have attached the Person detection notification which announce “Person detected on Driveway Cam” like every ~15 seconds as long as it detects a person there. It does get annoying if I am doing some work on the driveway, but I have a few routines that stop it like setting DND mode for 1 hour on the Echo Shows.
Here is some proof of concept, but still very much work in progress. I have also attached a routine for your reference. It complicates things a little bit because I have TP-Link light switches and I am relying on Alexa to communicate via Wyze to turn on the lights for 3 minutes on my Driveway / Front Door when person is detected at night time.
I still need to work out some specifics like tweaking the wait time and suppression time as it’s not as good as I want it to be. Also, I am testing if asking alexa to turn on the light for 3 mins is better vs turn on light function, wait, turn off light function. There are some differences to each approach as you get a timer counting down if you ask Alexa.
One disadvantage of this setup is that it only supports on Person detection trigger from Wyze so motion / vehicle / pet detection trigger will not work in the Alexa app. If you are using Wyze’s light switches then you can set this up within the Wyze app to control the lights for more specific triggers (Person, Pet, Motion, Vehicle, etc).
I suggest you to buy one and play around it to see if it is to your liking at first before getting more or return it.
The Wyze Plug can be controlled directly by Wyze app Automations (unlike the Kasa smart plug), so it would be a more useful and reliable trigger for responding to your Wyze Cam notifications and initiating your Google Home Automations/Routines. I don’t know what your situation is with your current smart plug use (i.e., what you have your Wyze and/or Kasa smart plugs controlling), but I’d consider using the Wyze Plug as the Starter switch for what you’re trying to do in Google Home.
This can work even if you have your Wyze Plug powering something that you want to be on all the time or almost all the time (if it’s okay that whatever the thing is can turn off briefly on occasion). For instance, I’m using a Wyze Plug that I call Doorbell Trigger, and it’s on most of the time because it’s powering a plug-in air freshener in a storage room where cats go to use litter boxes. I don’t care if it turns off for a minute every once in a while, but I do care that the on/off state changes in a way that I can use, so I do this:
Wyze Automation: Doorbell Press ➜ Google Home Routine
IF
Front Doorbell Is pressed
DO
Doorbell Trigger Turn off
Google Home Household Routine: Doorbell Announcement
Starters
Doorbell Trigger Turns off
Actions
Announce to household “Someone is at the front door.”
Chromecast HD Turn on
Stream Front Doorbell*
Show Front Doorbell on Bedroom TV*
Show Front Doorbell on Chromecast HD*
Configuration
Play on Kitchen display + more†
Wyze Automation: Doorbell Trigger Reset
IF
Doorbell Trigger Has been off for 00:01:00
DO
Doorbell Trigger Turn on
Google Home Household Routine: Doorbell Reset
Starters
Doorbell Trigger turns on
Actions
Go Home.*
Bedroom TV Turn off
Chromecast HD Turn off
Configuration
Play on Kitchen display†
* These are created with Add action ➜ Try adding your own ➜ [typed in custom command]. † It’s important to set the Play routine on for your chosen Hub because that’s the device you want to execute the custom commands like “stream [chosen camera]” and “go home” as if you’re speaking directly to Google Assistant on that device. The first Routine says “+ more” because of the “Announce to household” action early in the Routine that broadcasts to all Google Home smart speakers/displays in the house.
In your case, I’d go to Wyze Automations you’re using and instead of having them turn on your Cam v3, I’d have them turn on (or off, depending on your situation) your Wyze Plug, and then adjust your Google Home Routines accordingly. Then you’d need to add an additional Device & Service Trigger Wyze Automation to reset the Plug to its previous state after some chosen amount of time.
I hope this makes sense. Let me know if pictures would be helpful or necessary.
I see that @grapefruityoda has offered input on the Alexa/Echo Show piece, which is good, because I don’t have experience with that.
Ok, I see what you’re saying. My Wyze plug was controlling my fish tank light so nothing that can’t be switched to a Kasa Plug. I’ll try setting up the automations using the Wyze plug and see what happens.
Wait! So I can have the automation play on my TV through my Firestick or Google Chromecast?? I have 3 Firesticks and 1 Chromecast (it’s not currently in use but it can be).
I’m going to try to answer your questions best I can.
Thank you so very much!!
Remove action.
