I live on a condo and want a securuty cam and Wyze bulb in the window of my distant garage. I can connect the CAM fairly OK (72% signal strength) to my router’s LAN. But my new Wyze Bulb is harder to get connected and set up. It sees the WIFI Lan and seems to get a connection but the next step in the setup requires me to connect the app to the bulb’s own private network designed as Bulbxxxxx to complete the setup. The problem is that the bulb’s own LAN signal is too weak to be detected properly all the way through the network and I can’t complete the setup.
Is there a way to boost the bulb’s internal network signal gain or to route it through a WIFI extender near the bulb so I can get connectivity? I don’t understand what Wyze is trying to do with its own bulb network connection since it does not follow the same network paradigm as the CAM setups. The CAMs connect fine if they can register a good Router WIFI signal but the bulbs are a different network concept it seems.
Ah - I was thinking that but was not sure if that was a temporary set up network connection or a dedicate back door into the bulb. Thanks - will give it a try.
OK that worked. BUT. the bulb control from the app is unreliable. I clicked it off and that took it off the network and now it won’t come back on. The cam sitting right next to it works fine. So the bulb NIC interface is apparently wimpy and not in the same class of network robusteness. Had a 55% network signal last I looked before it went offline. should have been plenty of network connectivity to put it back on line from the app. Very disappointing.
In WiFi terms anything below 75% is usually considered a bad connection, below 60% is considered unusable. I think your only option is to put some type of WiFi extender out there. But I honestly question if you have enough signal strength for that to work.
You said that you “clicked it off “ If by that you mean that you turned off the power to the bulb did you accidentally turn it on/off twice?? That resets and it will have to be reconnected to the wifi. If you get it set up and then control thru the app you should be ok. If not the post by @angus.black is a good suggestion. Amazon offers a number of extenders and remote gateways.
Before you spend much $ on it I would highly recommend looking at a mesh system. Changed mine to an Eero six months ago and range is vastly improved.
Wyze is missing an opportunity to sell cheap integrated range extenders - or at least antenna add-ons for cases like this.
The problem in a condo is to mount anything external one needs permission due to aesthetics etc.
I think I can sneak in a small extender on the garage door side wall area where my existing keypad door opener is. Should be unobtrusive.
The mesh systems are very good but more money if the garage is the only problem.
Just don’t buy a cheap Wifi extender. They technically do extend the signal distance but cut the transfer speed.
Thanks Tomp. I am looking to go el cheapo on this given that its’ just a light bulb that I want to turn on and off is someone is lurking near my garage window late at night and hanging out drinking etc.
I turned it off at the app interface but it then went to a cloud icon on the associated devices home screen. Re-clicking it on at the app does nothing.
Even in a window would work. You want the extender where it gets a good signal not at the garage where the signal is weak.
How far away is your garage?
Angus - I have line of sight to the front of the garage where the metal garage door is. My problem is the window is around the corner of it and the signal around that angle does not bend 90% to get to where the cam or the bulb are. The cam, as I say, works reasonably ok (most of the time). Just the bulb is flakey - more sensitive apparently to connection quality. I am betting that the LED electronic noise in the bulb ballast and control are interfering with the WIFI signal. Wish I could connect directly to my smartphone wireless network provider since I have lots of strength with it.
I could probably get away with just an external antenna if the wyze bulb actually had an external jack to support it. Wish they sold a base for the bulb with such a feature.
You don’t actually need line of sight from the extender to the light bulb. Just wondering how far away the garage was.
The extender should work for you.
Understand that! Live downtown a few blocks from a bar district. So far three videos this year to the police for drunks around our house. @angus.blackand@rbruceporter have given you good advice IMHOP. My understanding of extenders, from the one I tried pre-mesh, is that they work best place near but not at the outer edge of the signal you are trying to extend. Also some rename your SSID which will require a delete/readd of Wyze products. The one I used was this one. Moved it to my in-laws and it’s still working well. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GT37484/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I have my wifi wireless router in my home-office near my garage facing window. I could try moving it directly into the window area and boost the power to max as a first try. I really don’t like that much WIFI radiation near me all day though. The garage is about 150 feet away - not very far really.
I just don’t understand why Wyze makes us connect to a WIFI local network. I should be able to connect it direct to the internet by logging external distant devices into my Smarphone ISP using my account log on. The Datagram protocol should support this but the other networks do not show up in the connection list.
I use an extender on my back side of condo in the patio area already (TP Link Archer C7) since signal is weak to that location. If I need to get another extender for the front side to get the garage area more reliable I will probably need an external extender variety. That metal garage door I suspect will act like a Faraday Cage and block most of the RF into the interior. So I would likely have to mount a more rugged weather proof extender on the garage side door fascia area where the kepad entry is.
