I have a WYZE plug (ver 1.2.0.93) and I have schedules created to turn ON and OFF a water pump 5 times a day for 3 minutes each time. It turns on at the correct time, BUT for only for 1 minute. Currently each schedule has the start time and a end time. Any help will be appreciated.
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Can you post a screen shot of one of the rules? And the rules history from the app? Maybe fresh eyes on it will see something.
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As Omgitstony mentioned… can we see your rules? I can try to duplicate the same with a plug here.
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My gut thinks that maybe the rule is set to trigger at the top of the hour, and maybe doesn’t actually trigger until the :01 or :02 mark due to peak server load at that time. Then the end of the rule triggers at :03, ergo the one minute of on time. We shall see! 
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Hmmm. What about the “rule history”? It’s under “account - rules history”
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I did some tests with my plug. I’m not sure I replicated your scenario exactly, but here are my results and some thoughts.
I set a 3 minute schedule using rules. See screenshots. Tests were successful, and my lights stayed on for 3 minutes.
Comparing my screenshots to yours. I had my rule set to turn on at 2:55, and off at 2:58. My “Rules History” shows both of those events, right at those times. In your rule, it looks like you have it set to come on at 4:30, and off at 4:33. I see that it came on, but not until 4:36. And then no history of it going off. Something strange there. Do your other plugs miss their on-time schedule by 5 or 6 minutes like that? Also, does your history show other plugs recording the on event as well as the off event?
Could there be other rules with actions attached to “hydroponic pump”, or a group of plugs with that plug in it? I only ask because I’ve renamed devices before, forgetting to remove them from the actions list of other rules, only to wonder why my lights and things were not behaving properly. (Might check any routines you may have setup with Alexa or Google as well.)
It’s a pain…but you might try disabling all your other rules and try this 3 minute test again. Or, if you’re in a production environment…setup a test Wyze account, and add this one plug to it, and try the 3 minute test.
You might also try deleting the plug from your account, and re-adding it. I think that would remove any old references in rules, etc.
Let us know what you find!
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Well, I missed the first timer at 4:30 am for the pump today … but i’ve changed all the start times to be 13 minutes after the hour and end times to be 16 minutes after the hour. The plug shows it has two minutes of run time so far. I should add 12 more minutes of run time by 7:30 tonight. If I dont, I will remove the plug and start over.
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It seemed to work much better moving the start times. But this morning the 4:13am - 4:16am timer ( in rule history) didn’t start until 4:19am and only ran for 1 minute. So tomorrow I will delete the plug from service and re-add it…
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The starting late and running short thing is off-putting. Is it only this one plug that’s doing it? The rest are consistently correct?
Yes, I think … but the rest of the plugs have schedules that run hours not minutes… I will watch them closely this weekend.
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After watching the Fan, UV light, the Grow light, and Pump they all can be off by tens of minutes from time to time. The grow light this morning was scheduled to come on that 4am… didn’t come on until 4:16. The Pump was scheduled to turn on at 4:13 and off at 4:16, turned on at 4:19 and turned off at 4:20.
#Omgitstony hinted at it might be WYZE server loads and that sounds plausible. For now, I have just increased the pump timer to be on additional minutes to mask the issues with the plugs. I would appreciate any new thoughts and I appreciate all the help so far.
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Even if your disregard everything else, the starting late issue is baffling. Maaaybe server load, but offsetting by 6 or 10 minutes seems like it should handle that. If you don’t mind, what time zone are you in? I want to try and recreate the same conditions. I’ll set a plug or two for the same time and zone and let it run for a few nights.
Once you set the schedule in the app, the plug doesn’t wait for the phone to tell it to turn on, right? The instructions are coming straight from the server over the internebz, afaik.
Any network-wide VPN going on? Just trying to think of anything that might cause a weird delay.
I’m in Pacific time - California. I currently have the wyze sprinkler controller, 2 wyze thermostats, 7 active wyze cameras, and 6 wyze plugs. 4 of the plugs are used for the hydroponics. No Alexa or goggle assistant. Just the out-of-the box Spectrum internet router for the home network. Which offers no settings controls except for the SSID and wifi password. Other devices on network include 4 smart TV’s, 3 PC’s, 3 iPhones, 1 printer, 2 Raspberry Pi’s. Speedtests show download speeds at around 400Mbps and upload speeds at around 22Mbps. Thanks again for your time.
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Thanks for the info. A similar setup to mine in a lot of ways. I’ll set a few timers and see what happens.
L. I. B. … I was able to reproduce what you’re seeing. I set three plugs to come on at 530am. Two regular plugs, and one outdoor plug for good measure.
All three came on about 5 minutes late, and only stayed on for 1 minute. Even if that’s an off-by-a-few-seconds error due to network latency or something, that’s still on 5 minutes late, and not on long enough.
I reset them to do the same test at 130pm. (I also added a bulb in the mix, just to get a good spread).
All 4 came on right (smack) at 130, and turn off a few seconds before 133 (they show 132…that’s why I wonder about the off-by-a-few-seconds that I mentioned before.)
So…successful in the afternoon, not successful in the morning. Now I’m looking harder at @Omgitstony’s idea about server load.
I think I’ll do some more tests with the same set to try and feel out the trouble window. 430amPT is 730ET. Could be a lot going on server wise as people wake up. I think I’ll try a few hours before that, when presumably the bulk of the country is slumbering.
Note: 530 is not exactly the same timezone as I’m Central Time…but we’re up and around at 630 and the lights would be coming on via motion sensors.
Also… @UserCustomerGwen If anyone there knows about server load in the morning causing a delay, and what the time window with the heaviest load is, that would be really helpful and would save us some tests.
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Out of curiosity, I’ve been playing around with different scenarios. Times-of-day, lengths of schedule, etc. While I think it should work how/when you want it to for your use case…it doesn’t.
So here are a few workarounds that might be worth trying:
- Use an indoor plug with a rule to turn it on, but use a second “has been on for 3 minutes” rule to turn it off. That way even if it comes on at 3:06, it’ll still run for 3 minutes.
- Use an outdoor plug, and use the “Local Schedule”. Those local schedules don’t rely on the internet to work. In my tests, the ODP with Local Schedule turned the plug on/off precisely as expected at all the times I tested (including early morning.). One drawback here is that the local schedule actions don’t show up in the Rules History.
And here are some additional thoughts that don’t amount to much that you could skip:
- It really does seem like a server related issue, probably load that happens in the mornings in the US.
- With a short run-time, I think you’ve found a solid edge case.
- Ok fine wyze…have a server issue if you must…but it’s still too bad that when the plugs delay turning on, they then seem to realize they’re already late turning off off (in the case of a short 3-min schedule), so turn off right away. I think that’s why we get 1 min runtime.
- It would be awesome to have local schedules on the indoor plug.
- It would be great to have local schedules show up in the rules history.
Local Schedule settings on the Outdoor Plug
Example of an “Off after being on for 3 minutes” rule.
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Thank you! I will be trying your first suggestion - turning it off after 3 minutes. I don’t own any outdoor plugs at this time, but the local schedule seems like a feature that the indoor plugs should have. I will make the changes to my timers and report back in a few days. Thanks again!
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Using the 3 minute “Device Trigger” is working well!! No matter what time the pump turns on, it turns off after the three minutes. I feel that my garden is not going to have a bad day anymore. Do you think that the Wyze engineers are aware of the plug/server load issue?
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