Wyze Sensor-Triggered Automation Rules?

Sensors
1

Hello everyone,

I’m exploring the automation capabilities of Wyze devices and wondering if anyone has experience with setting up sensor-triggered automation rules. Specifically, I’m looking to create a rule where a plug controlling a heater is triggered by a temperature range, but this rule would only be active when a motion sensor detects a person in the room.

Is this type of conditional automation possible with Wyze products? If so, how would I go about setting it up? Any tips or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

2

I don’t have an answer (maybe someone else does), but your questions make me think about another topic:

Specifically, it seems like you want a Wyze Automation (Device & Service Trigger type) to do something like this:

  • If
    • room motion sensor detects that someone is in the room
      • AND
    • room temperature sensor detects that temperature is below x°
  • Then
    • turn on the plug for the room’s heater

I don’t see a way to add more than one “If” to an Automation currently, much less using logical operators (like AND, OR, or NOT) to check whether certain conditions have been satisfied before proceeding within the Wyze environment, but I believe this is one of the things community members have requested, and there are Wishlist topics where you can vote and add comments about your own particular use cases, such as the one you described.

3

Carefull with this. The power used by the heater may be to much for the plug and be a fire hazard.

From the faq on the product page.

Screenshot_20240810-192853
Screenshot_20240810-1928531008×445 40.6 KB

Current rules don’t allow that many conditions. Here is a wishlist that applies here.

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4

I do similar things with rules, so it is possible. Do you have a Home Monitoring System Hub and Climate Sensors?

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You have my attention. I’m ready to learn.

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I do similar based on humidity. I’ll run some tests based on temperature to make sure there are no snags/bugs and post up later today.

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After exhaustive testing, I’m going to have to retract my statement. The combination of using motion sensors with climate sensors to activate plugs to run non-thermostat controlled heaters won’t work well and leads to possible dangerous overrun conditions. But using motion sensors to activate plugs to run thermostat-controlled heaters works very well assuming the heater draws less than the plug’s max load.

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That’s mildly disappointing, but it makes more sense given my understanding of Wyze Automations. I wondered how you managed to create an “AND” in order to ensure that two conditions are satisfied before an Action triggers. I don’t actually have the Sense Hub or any Wyze sensors, but I think it’d be cool if Wyze’s Automations system was overhauled to allow for more complex programming conditions.

Thanks for doing the work and reporting back!

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Plug a Wyze Plug into a Wyze Plug. Plug connected to outlet activated from motion for X time. Motion resets X time. Plug connected to Plug activated by temp < X degrees and inverse trigger for temp > X degrees. Problem is that temperature triggers can’t do real-time polling of temp, so temp triggers have to rely on variable push/pull climate sensor updates.

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So you’re creating the “AND” not with software but by using actual hardware switches (basically binary logic controllers in sequence)?

:exploding_head:

Nice.

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thumbsup2

Kind of a pain in the butt. Would be nice to have conditional Boolean logic in rules, it is what it is. That plug into a plug method works well for me for humidity control. But a little over/under humidification is not something that would lead to a fire. :grin:

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Very impressive use of logic.

:thinking:

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Y’know, because he doesn’t have enough to do already. :wink:

14

You can MOSTLY do this. I’ll tell you what I am thinking.

Here’s what you need to do:

Get a climate sensor, motion sensor and at least 2 plugs (you might need 3 depending), preferably the newest indoor plugs that will also warn you if they get overloaded.

Put Plug A (motion sensor plug) into the outlet.
Put Plug B (Spacer heater plug) into Plug A
Plug Heater into Plug B

Set a rule to have Plug B turn on when the climate sensor gets below the minimum desired temperature
set a rule to have plug B turn off when the climate sensor gets above the maximum desired temperature.

Have the motion sensor turn on Plug A whenever it detects motion
Have the motion sensor turn off Plug A whenever it has been clear for X amount of time.

So now, when there is no motion, Plug A will shut off and not allow Plug B to turn on. Plug B can only turn on when a person is there because otherwise it doesn’t even have any power.

Here’s the problem though…If the temperature is ALREADY lower than the minimum temp you want, Plug B may never be triggered to turn on because it’s already below that and I think the trigger will only happen when it crosses below that line, not as long as it is below that line. So you might have to figure out a way to make it automatically turn on the first time. You might be able to work something out in an advanced manner, such as with a 3rd plug and a timer or something, or by leveraging Alexa or Home Assistant instead. Actually, I know you could definitely make it work through 3rd party solutions, but it is complicated.

What is probably easiest is to get a space heater that will set it’s own maximum temp. Then you can stop worrying about all the extra stuff and can make this work with a single plug:

Motion detection = turn on the plug with the heater in it. Heater will turn on as long as there is a person in the room and because it has it’s own temperature limit on it then it will shut off on it’s own when it hits that temp and turn back on when it gets below it. It will keep working until the motion sensor no longer detects motion for X amount of time, and then the plug shuts off the heater from working anymore. Simple.

This is actually what I do for my home office. I have a space heater that is controlled by a plug. I have extra rules set just as a safety backup…if the climate sensor detects the room gets above a certain temp, it automatically turns off my plug to the heater. If the motion sensor doesn’t detect me at my desk for X amount of time, it also automatically shuts of the plug to the heater. If the heater has been on for more than 1-2 hours, I have it automatically shut off the heater until I personally tell Alexa to turn it back on manually.

All I use is a Space Heater, Wyze Plug, Wyze Climate sensor and Wyze Motion sensor.

The heater itself would stay running and keep things between a certain temperature on it’s own, but I am too paranoid to let it run 24/7 so I only allow it to run when I am in the room and I set up extra rules to make sure it’s shut off when I leave or when it has run for too long just to ensure it can’t overheat or something. I like to play it safe.

15

I tested that scenario, both with stable temp and fluctuating temp, when temps are below min trigger threshold. Plug B will turn on, but not immediately upon Plug A powering on Plug B and connecting to server. Rule executes on server based on temp, also on server, not real time driven by climate sensor. Server does routine sensor polling and rule triggers upon next poll even if temp hasn’t changed. I also tested the inverse, temp already higher than max temp, with same successful results. The issue, and why I don’t recommend using this for non-thermostat controlled heaters, is that inverse scenario. Even though Plug B will always successfully trigger, it is rarely ever immediate. The possibility exists for Plug B to turn on and run for X mins (~1-25 minutes, waiting for next poll) even though temp exceeds trigger threshold.

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Is this what you use for reference?

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