Wyze Smart Button

A Wyze button, two types, One being solar powered doorbell button momentary. While the other being momentary rotary, also act as a lighted alert status indicator, pressing the button would initiated a playback window on browser on the corresponding camera, acknowledging the alert and button stop flashing, then with PTZ control and double press to take photo on the same button.

I would definitely like to see a Wyze button. It could allow you to turn existing wyze cams effectively into doorbell cams or allow push to talk from the camera side. This would definitely open up tons of possibilities for automation. Iā€™m surprised that this topic doesnā€™t have more votes especially considering how many votes Video Doorbell has. This would be a cheap and easy way to turn existing wyze cams into doorbells

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How would you feel if this was a part of the Wyze Sense family? And therefore required the Wyze Sensor Bridge?

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No problem for me. Seems like an understanding for low powered devices today.

I did have a thought about the bridge though. I have a family member that wonā€™t get the cameras because he wears a tinfoil hat. But he has not problem with the sensor. Maybe a stand alone bridge plug might be worth looking into.

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To keep battery life long with small package and costs low, part of the sense ecosystem makes the most sense to me.

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I personally would be fine with that. I know I could pop open the Contact Sensor and make my own button, but Iā€™d rather have a nice, polished look rather than whatever case I could cobble together.

I agree that a standalone bridge would be nice for some people. It shouldnā€™t be that hard to make, either. Just take the camera and mic out of a camera. Of course then setup would have to be re-thought. So maybe itā€™s not that simple.

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I think as long as Sense gets exposed to Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, IFTTT and possibly HomeKit/SmartThings this would be fine. When it comes to a smart button I think users want to have the flexibility to control multiple devices in and out of the Wyze ecosystem. If you were to put it behind the bridge today it limits it to just the Wyze ecosystem. If Wyze already had a full color bulb, light strips, etc. this might not be as big of an issue but I am sure it will take time for those to come out if at all.
It would be easy to build a smart button today. The tech is already built in the Wyze plug you would just need to take the power delivery part out, drastically reduce the size and add a battery. I think this would be a home run and something that probably should have been out with or before the bulbs.

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One item that would be really helpful would be a switch module that had a push button that would send a code if just quickly pressed another code if double pressed and a third code if held, similar to the smart things push button. It should be in a small case that could be attached to a wall or a wall switch plate that when pressed could be used to turn on and off one of the Wyze Plugs or a Wyze bulb.

I am sure that I can fake one of these by taking a contact sensor apart and hooking wires across the reed switch and running them to a push button. My biggest problem is some kind of case to put it into.

Just as an interesting possibility, if you are putting a Wyze Bulb or Plug in a room that has a switched outlet for a table light or floor light but still has a standard wall switch to turn it on or off (I have 3 of these in my house) if it could be in a box that would fit over the current light switch to prevent it from being turned off and have the remote control buttons/switch that would kill 2 birds with one stone.

rvl

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Iā€™m a big fan of this idea as well. I started out looking for something like the wireless Phillips hue ā€œdimmer switch,ā€ for use in a room with no light switch. While a switch would be nice, this button idea would be able to accomplish the same goal, and so much more. I have hue lights in my home, but just purchased 8 wyze bulbs and I love them so far. Only problem that Iā€™m having is that some visitors, say a mother-in-law :stuck_out_tongue: , canā€™t seem to figure out voice commands. A physical option would be nice.

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Any idea if theyā€™re working on this I would super love a button and they could use it with a sense infrastructure. Your ideas fantastic but now that the bulbs are out my idea for it would be to have essentially a light switch anywhere you possibly could want it. It could control multiple lights, basically anyway you want to set it up. Currently I am using the motion sensor and the Magnetic sensors for this but a button would be significantly more useful.

When or if they start working on this the title wii change from ā€˜maybe-laterā€™ to ā€˜researchingā€™, after that it would get switched to the #roadmap area of the forum

Ok, well here is what i decided to do. Hopefully you guys like it. If you do, you guys should make some noise about telling Wyze some of these 3d models should be mass produced. I already messaged about creating some sort of program to create Wyze accessories like you would find on the Apple store. Wyze isnā€™t going to waste their time with little stuff like this nor should they. But no reason why everyone cant benefit from it. Seems like a win/win/win to me. Customer get great accessories, Wyze get sales of the accessories and probably sells more hardware and the designer gets a cut from the accessory sale. I mean 3D printing is great and all but the quality is not as good as it could be and lets be honest maybe like 0.05% of wyze customers would ever do anything with 3D printing (even ordering a print)

I hope to make improvements to this design over time.

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Thanks for sharing. Thatā€™s a really cool idea! :smiley:

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Love it! For cosmetic purposes, it might be nice to design it in two pieces, so that thereā€™s a solid piece of plastic (with a round hole for the button) as a top layer. It would just look more like a traditional button that way.

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Yeah I had a similar thought. I also want to make a bottom plate so you can easily mount it to something with screws or double sided tape. However if using tape it may be easier to just stick the sensor where you want it and slide the button over it. Sense you responded how do you feel about Wyze actually working with makers like myself to make official accessories. At least if I mass produced them myself allowing me to sell them on their site?

What do you mean? Like having a section on the official shop for third-party accessories? That sounds fine to me. There are already a bunch of third-party accessories available through Amazon/eBay/etc. It could be pretty useful for them to sell some of those things, I think.

But if youā€™re talking about 3d printing stuff yourself and selling it through them, Iā€™d be surprised if theyā€™d go for that. 3d printing is great, but itā€™s not really suitable for mass-market products, Itā€™s a bit too hard to control quality, and the quality of the finished item isnā€™t the same as something injection-molded. It definitely has a place, Iā€™m just not sure if Wyzeā€™s official shop is that place.

If I didnā€™t understand the question correctly, maybe you can explain a little more. Haha.

You understood correctly. I am thinking a third party store similar to how Apple sells third party accessories for their devices. I would expect them to pass a certain level of quality though. So I would never expect to see any printed parts. I would either mass produce them myself and handle everything with orders and shipping. Or what would be even better in my opinion even if it is less money is to just get Wyze to use their manufacturing contacts and their order/shipping infrastructure to do it all and the designer of the accessory gets a small cut of the profit.

Sure. Iā€™m all for Wyze encouraging third parties to build accessories. Giving those products exposure on their own storefront is a great way to do that. As you said, theyā€™d obviously need to pass Wyzeā€™s own standards. I suspect there are some things they may not go for because theyā€™re too hacky, or they encourage people to use the products in unapproved ways. From Wyzeā€™s perspective, I can see a conflict of interest with the outdoor housings, for example, because it encourages customers to use an indoor camera outside. Obviously plenty of people do it and it works out just fine, but the fact remains that itā€™s an unapproved use. So if Wyze sells those accessories through their own website, it sort of puts their stamp of approval on that unapproved use.

And as much as I love the button idea, Iā€™m guessing it may be too much of a hack for them to go for, just because the software isnā€™t really set up to treat it as a button. Itā€™s going to say ā€œopenā€ or ā€œclosedā€. In theory, you could certainly cooperate with them and they could push a software update that would let the user define the sensor as either a button or a traditional sensor. (Kind of like how you can change the mode of a smart plug in the Alexa app so that it lists the plug as a light in the UI) But if they did that, Iā€™m not sure why they wouldnā€™t just release their own button instead. Haha.

Anyway, overall Iā€™d certainly be for it. But my motivations and concerns might be different from Wyzeā€™s. Haha.

Yeah I agree the button may be too Hacky but for the most part no one is looking at the state of the button but more looking to trigger other events. And like you said it wouldnā€™t take much to customize the message. The button is just 1 idea I have though. I have already posted other stuff like recessed brackets for hiding the sensors in the door jam. although they are so simple and cheap not sure how much people would be willing to pay for them. I do have more valuable ideas though that I am holding on to. I just hope to start a conversation so Wyze will see it and take interest in the idea.

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I saw your recessed brackets a while ago. Those are cool!

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