CELLULAR BACKUP OPTIONS FOR WYZE HMS
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For while you’re at home, you can create a tasker trigger where if you’re at home (location based condition), and your WiFi goes out (for X amount of seconds or whatever you interval choose, even no interval), then your phone turns on your hotspot with the same SSID name/password, and your system will be able to connect using internet and now it’s guaranteed to work even while you’re sleeping at home.
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A few other options fairly similar to each other are as follows:
- If anyone can convince Wyze ( @UserCustomerGwen @WyzeTeam ) to simply copy the “Power Loss Recovery” option/subroutine that the bulbs have into the Wyze Plugs, I can tell you how to do a 24/7 Celluar backup option with no monthly recurring costs (I’m sure there are other plugs out there that will already work this way, would just be nice to keep it in the Wyze family):
- There some companies that offer pretty cheap mobile hotspot data. With a quick search I saw some that are apparently even free every month as long as you stay under X amount of data used every month (ex: apparently Netzero includes 200MB free, others said 500MB), and others just charge by the GB used, or have really cheap plans for low amount of use. Remember, you’re only ever going to be using it in EMERGENCIES when the power or WiFi cuts out, so it doesn’t really need much data at all…it’s just a backup. Now, get one of those inverters or a battery backup outlets that kick on when the power goes out. Connect the Wyze plug to this device and turn it “off.” After setting the mobile hotspot’s SSID and password to match the WiFi’s, connect the free mobile hotspot to the turned off plug. Set the Plug’s theoretical future “Power Loss Recovery” option to “After the power is restored, turn the plug on.” There you go. Now when the power goes out, the plug will turn on the free hotspot, the Wyze Security system will connect to it and be able to send out any alerts. Won’t even cost any extra monthly fees or anything…of course Wyze would have to add this functionality to the plug, or you’d have to buy a different plug that already allows this, but it’s a good cheap solution to give awesome backup protection for those who feel it’s a MUST.
- Alternatively, you could bypass the Wyze Plug thing entirely. Get one of those mobile battery chargers that won’t do any power output as long as it is connected to power/charging itself. Leave it plugged into the AC outlet, so it never outputs anything until the power goes out…as soon as the power goes out, it outputs power and turns on the Mobile Hotspot, allowing the HMS to connect to the internet still. Simplest method.
- Just plug your Modem/WiFi Router into a battery backup plug. Then if the power goes out, your internet still works and the battery in the hub will allow it to keep the security sensors online and send alerts (though if they cut both the power lines and AND your cable/fiber lines, then you’d be out of luck since there would be no network access coming in anyway).
Personally, I don’t think cellular backup makes much difference. Firstly, most burglaries are committed by people well known to the victims, not strangers. Secondly, I have talked to some former burglars. If they are going to go so far as to cut your power, or internet lines, they are going to bring a cheap signal jammer too. Several burglars told me they brought signal jammers with them just in case they needed make sure cops couldn’t be called on them quickly before they had time to escape. So, honestly, I don’t think cellular backup even matters if they are willing to cut power and internet. But hey, it will make people feel safer, and boost Wyze’s sales, so they should just copy the subroutine to their plugs so people can implement this for free and not be so upset that it’s not included. (there’s always rare opportunist, though most of those will still run away when your battery functioning siren goes off, making the cellular backup unnecessary)
- Monitor how much data your Wyze HMS hub uses on your network for a month, then just get a separate cheap mobile hotspot plan that will cover that amount of data running 24/7 just dedicated to the HMS system (nothing else running on it). Then run the hotspot through a battery backup that never switches off even with power loss. The hub might even use less than 200MB-500MB of data a month anyway since all it really processes are Pings and then logs of when the sensors open and close, which is hardly anything, so you might be able to totally bypass option 2 and just do this free option running 24/7. Even if you pay for your own dedicated monthly cellular hotspot service, you can still get sufficient plans to do this separately and have your total cost be significantly lower than most competitors. I am VERY grateful Wyze isn’t forcing us to have cellular backup but still ALLOWS us the option to out and get our own plan for it if we want to pay more than everyone else wants. That way nobody is excluded (just go do this option yourself and still have everything cheaper than basically every other alternative out there), but the rest of us aren’t forced to pay for something we don’t even want. THANK YOU WYZE!
But of course, it is a lot more fun to complain and give excuses than look for solutions…so anyone who’s not ACTUALLY looking for solutions can disregard this entirely, I totally get it. 