Stand alone Wyze Sense Bridge

Can you give out any kind of update now 4 months later?

This is the program I used:

HclX/WyzeSensePy

HclX/WyzeSensePy

A python script communicating with WyzeSense gateway - HclX/WyzeSensePy

It was originally implemented as a gateway to be used with Homeassistant, which is a standalone hub system that integrates many vendors into a single system. I tried HA and found it to be overly complex for what it needed to do, so I used the straight up Wyzesense.py as a hub on the Raspberry Pi.

I don’t know if you are at all technical, but the combination of this python module and the Pi makes a great hub.

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I’ve been using a python script (WyzesensePy) on a Raspberry Pi for the past 4 months as a standalone hub. It’s cheap and it doesn’t require a camera. (My camera is mounted outside which make it useless as a sensor hub.) My homebrew sensor network uses a REST interface, so with a simple mod to the python script I hit my main monitoring system. I love the price of these sensors and the range is quite nice. Currently I have 2 motion sensors and 4 contact sensors.

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I am still hoping for this stand alone Wyze Sense Bridge. I hope the bridge will allow quicker, consistent alerts with solid rule reliance. Multiple times my sensors have went offline for a few hours. It seems to have happened more often in the last couple of months.

Wyze posted about the rules stopped working recently. (https://support.wyzecam.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015979872-Service-Status-Known-Issues)

I keep thinking these would be minimized if they were not heavy cloud reliance. (Wyze cam, Wyze sensor always go to Offline mode)

I’m also hoping that general availability for this will be soon enough. I have a sense attached to a garage door, and since I live in a townhouse, the camera hub doesn’t reliably know when it is open or closed. I’m hoping the standalone sense bridge will solve this. Alternatively, it’ll be great to see if the bridge/ hub for the outdoor camera can handle this as well.

I use 6ft. usb cables to better locate bridge for my window and door sensors. This way they are somewhat out in the open as my cameras are not. Have not had a problem using the cables.

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[Edit: Nope, I was wrong. Read ahead anyway if you like. :slight_smile: ]

Guys wait, wait. Are we all living a lie, merely ASSUMING the existing bridge needs to be attached directly to the Wyzecam or via a USB extension to it? I ask because in this year old video a Home Assistant user is just casually accessing the bridge using any old USB power. He even mentions how the bridge has an antenna of its own. Everything seems to work with nary a camera in sight.

Excuse my ignorance - I haven’t even set up a single Wyze bridge or sensor yet - but is the bridge getting nothing from the Wyzecam except power?

Well I used to have two bridges and there was no way to enter WiFi info, like your credentials. So I always assumed it used the cameras connection. I don’t recall the bridge showing up as a WiFi device but to be honest I was not really paying attention.

The bridge is dependent on the cam for wifi, yes it has an antenna to communicate with the sensors

The bridge does not show up on the list of devices, instead is listed as a extended device in the cam it’s plugged into

That has always been my understanding as well. I honestly don’t see how it could work any other way.

There would be no need for a stand alone bridge if it wasn’t

Exactly, although an interim solution is using a USB extension cable. But I would prefer the stand alone bridge. Or I would have when I still had Sense stuff. Sold/gave it all away.

Here’s how it worked “another way”. At the 6 minute mark he is attaching the Wyze bridge to his ordinary Raspberry Pi 4 server box with a regular USB cable. With the drivers configured it lights up blue and works fine with the Wyze sensors, reporting everything back to Home Assistant running on the Pi. No Wyzecam. No Internet / cloud / IoT.

So instead of the Wyzecam driving the bridge (and providing WiFi connectivity as you indicated) it’s the home server itself that is driving the bridge. Seems pretty cool.

Edit: So no, still not a “standalone bridge”. :slight_smile:

Yep you can hack dang near anything with time. And Raspberry Pi’s are great little systems for just that. But a Raspberry Pi costs more than a camera and a Sense bridge so it’s not very economical. Especially when you need multiple bridges.

I have 7 pi’s, all different models etc. A model 3 runs my pi-hole. And I have a model 4 running Homebridge. Most of the rest are in a drawer but could be repurposed.

Sure but that is a wee bit apples and oranges. In this scenario that single Pi is taking the place of all the Wyze + Amazon + Belkin + Leviton + Ecovacs + etc. servers, ecosystems, and apps. And I would imagine adding another Wyze bridge is another 50 cent USB cable away.

Only real question for me is just how hard it will be to string together something workable.

Ah you missed it. The only real reason to add another bridge is if some sensors are out of range of the first bridge. In that case you need another Raspberry Pi, power supply, USB cable etc. So no not just another USB cable. That’s significantly more expensive than a V2 camera and Sense bridge.

And I know I can run pi-hole and nothing else on a Raspberry pi, same with Homebridge. Each app pretty well consumes the resources of the Raspberry. So you will end up like most of us that use them. You buy one for each purpose. Figure 70 bucks for a 2 gig model 4 including a case, fan, power supply and the pi itself. Then an SD card for the OS and whatever your going to run on it. Plus any USB cables you may need.

Okay thanks. From what I understand the bridges have good range and my house isn’t that big. More importantly this was only one “use case” example for Home Assistant. If I run down that path I can see setting up a primary server on a remote VPS, a full PC based server at home, and have everything else - a collection of best and/or cheapest of breed from various vendors – either Ethernet or WiFi. Roll your own cloud… If I ever get around to actually doing it. :wink:

Edit: I realize this thread is specific to standalone bridges, so apologies for the tangent. I’m just discovering Home Assistant’s existence and thought at first that the video had the guy connecting directly to it via WiFi - not so.

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I know a number of folks that are very happy with Home Assistant. It just depends on the mix of your devices I guess. Another growing group are those in the SmartThings camp. Both have very active subreddits on Reddit if you want to learn more.

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@UserCustomerGwen Any update on the standalone bridge? I would love to not have to rely on my cams to maintain my sense environment.

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No update yet but it’s still in development. :slight_smile:

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