Wyze Room Sensors - which are “active”

I just setup a few room sensors but unsure how to tell if they are setup properly. Is there any indication in the app that a sensor is “active” based on motion detection? FAQ says it goes inactive after 30 minutes of no motion but the app just lists all my sensors as “Included in Comfort Control”. I am missing something here or is there just no way of knowing which sensors it’s currently using?

Also, if a sensor is included in Sleep mode, does that affect is motion section status? i.e. in a bedroom at night there will be little to no motion but I would still want the thermostat to take that sensor into the average calculation.

Any help is appreciated!

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**Edit - while this appeared to correctly move in and out of comfort mode earlier, now I have not been able to get a sensor to move even after a couple hours of no motion. Reached out to support, they did not immediately have an answer for knowing if a sensor is reporting motion but said someone would get back to me.

Update in case anyone else is in the same boat as me trying to figure these out. Here is what I found from my very unofficial testing.

I was able to successfully have a sensor automatically change from Included in Comfort Control to Not and back again based on motion activity. It does appear that this only happens during “Home” mode. The sensors I had set to “Sleep” mode stayed active/included all night even though they had no motion. Once the thermostat changed to Home in the morning, the Home sensors started activating and deactivating. It does take a few minutes for a sensor to become active after motion, the FAQ says that they sensors only send data every 2 minutes so that makes sense. -See edit, this was not repeatable for me.

In summary, the system appears to be functioning the desired way. What still throws me off is when Auto Comfort Mode is on, you are able to manually include and exclude sensors. Not sure if you move one manually if that temporarily or permanently makes the change. Also, their video and instructions say to move any sensors you want automated to included, which I was (mistaking?) doing when I first set the system up every time I noticed one move to not included.

I still have not found any documentation on how Sleep mode reacts to motion(the picture in the Feature Tips section implies that it does but my testing showed otherwise) nor what happens when manually moving devices within Auto Comfort mode. If anyone has a link to these instructions that would be awesome.

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If the sensors are stuck in the “Include” mode, try going into edit and selecting the RED button and then it will go into the NOT Included area. After that the sensor will work as it should.
During the thermostat sleep mode, the sensor will stay included until the mode switches to home. It’s set that way because there’s usually no movement during the night to get any motion.

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Here is what I determined:

You can only set Home and Sleep if you enable the Auto Comfort Mode. After Enabling, you can Click Edit, Top Right and then select the sensor to add to Comfort Control by tapping on the “+”. To remove Tap on the “-” next to the sensor in the Included in Comfort Control Section.

Here is what I believe is happening, but still waiting for a response. Anything included in the Included Comfort Control will utilize the sensors on the Included remotes for the Selected Mode(s): Home and Sleep. Anything included in a Mode (Home or Sleep) but not Included in Comfort Control will be used based without Motion. So the Real Temp is used regardless of motion. Again, speculation on my part until I get a response.

Speculation again for now: Anything without a Mode selected (Home or Sleep) is then ignored fully and the sensor is nothing more than a display of Temp and Humidity.

There is no way in the App to see if Motion is triggered or not. This can only be seen on the Remote Sensor by the Presence of a Dot on the display.

Will Post the response when I get it.

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I had this same thought but didn’t seem to work for me. I moved a sensor to not included, then put in on my desk while I worked so that I could keep and eye on it to confirm it was sensing motion, but after 30 minutes it never moved back to included. I suppose I could just have a bad set of sensors.

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After many hours of testing and waiting and pulling my hair out, I believe I finally figured out how the remote sensors work. :sweat_smile:

Ok, here is how I believe it works:

  • Only those sensors in the Comfort Control Section will be used in conjunction with the T-Stat to regulate the Temperature.
  • If you want to include Motion, you will need to make sure the Auto Comfort Toggle is on. Then it will look at the Sensors in the Group and provide a higher weight to the rooms which are occupied. It is important for you to select Home or Sleep to ensure the sensors are doing what you need them to do during those periods. Or are included as you needed.
  • If you don’t care about motion or setting a higher credence to a specific room, then turn the Auto Comfort off. Then the sensors in the room will simply act as additional T-Stats and averaged together, including the main T-Stat. So The system will see 4 T-Stats if you have 3 remote sensors in the Comfort Control Section.
  • Any sensors in the Not included in the Comfort Control section will only be used as Temp. and humidity displays in that room. But will not be part of the comfort process algorithm.

HOW DID I FIGURE IT OUT

I tested each scenario and finally found out, you can turn off the Auto Comfort Mode and the Sensors in the Selected Comfort Control Section actually adjusted the overall temp on the T-Stat. Took almost 24 hours of testing, but I am certain that this is how it works. Will see when I get a response.

Another thing I noticed, When you go to the Remote Sensor Page on the T-Stat, the Temperature and Humidity values displayed are the actual values including the T-Stat. When you go back to the T-Stat control page, the Temp displayed there is the adjusted temp. So this added to my evaluation as I could take my Remote Sensors and add them with the T-Stat, divided by the Number of Remote Sensors + T-Stat and the Temp displayed was the adjusted value.

When I tested with motion, I would do the same, however, with motion selected, the value was a little off and seemed to lean more towards the room I was in. Not sure If it ignores the other Sensors (possibly) or if it lowers its weighted value to enhance the occupeid room.

In any event, I welcome feedback, but am sure this is how it works. It is very similar to the Ecobee. The only difference is that you can remove the Main Ecobee T-Stat all together and allow one or more remote sensors to be the T-Stat.

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EDIT - posted this at the same time as your most recent reply so may not be relevant.

I’m going to do some more testing. Your comment on modes has me wondering if maybe the opposite is true - if any mode is assigned to a sensor, Home or Sleep, that maybe it will just always include that sensor in that mode. i.e. if Home mode is assigned then when on Home it will aways include that sensor regardless of motion. Would be fantastic if instead of us having to guess through trial and error how a product functions, if Wyze would just publish the details…

Figured this was probably the case. If Wyze would make this information available it would help a lot with figuring out why a sensor is included in auto comfort. I’m not interested in if the sensor sees motion, rather if the Thermostat thinks that sensor has motion. Right now we have no way of knowing if they sensor is sending that info, especially considering we are not seeing sensors move in and out of the groups with consistency.

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Thanks for doing this thorough testing and reporting back.
Sounds like it may be working correctly, we just don’t get anything from the app to tell us what it is doing aside from just doing the math. Even then, we don’t know if they sensors are sending whole numbers or not which could skew things.
Also the wording on the app is still weird if this is indeed the intended functionality “Automatically includes or excludes sensors based on whether movement is detected” right above a list of included and excluded devices should imply that it will actively move sensors from one group to another.

Assuming this is the way it words, I wonder what it would mean for a sensor to be Included in Comfort Control but not have an mode assigned to it. Either there is still some sort of weight given or its just a design error and they didn’t mean to allow that as an option.

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As long as you have Home Mode selected for those sensors. It provides a higher weight to the ones with Motion as to ensure those rooms are at the Temp you selected.

I just got some confirmation on my write up regarding motion. I

Also if a sensor detects motion while in auto comfort, it has to not sense motion for 30 minutes before it will remove itself

Also this:

When Auto Comfort is turned off, all participating sensors will contribute to an average number. This number will be used as the current room temperature and the thermostat will heat/cool gradually until the current temperature meets this number

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By “remove itself” should we see this sensor get moved to the excluded list in the app or just have to trust the internal algorithm? I have had a sensor locked in a closet for the last 5 hours and it is still in the Included list. T-stat is in home mode and the sensor is assigned to home as well.

No, just removes itself from the Algorithm They will stay in the included list until you remove them

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Thanks

Mine goes into the NOT Included mode after the time delay. If they stay in the Include mode, that means you selected them to stay there.

When you first added your sensors to the system, did you specifically add or exclude them from comfort mode? Thinking I might try to delete and re-add mine as I have now move them back and forth but the app gives no indication if you “permanently” added something to included or if it is being handled dynamically.

I started by just adding them. I’ve also added them, “Included” to keep them Included. After I was finished, I placed them into “Not Included”. After a time, which I haven’t timed, they will go to “Included” with motion as long as you have "Auto Comfort"selected

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After seeing confirmation from budbuss that his sensors do move in and out if the included list, I decided to try deleting and re-pairing some sensors for a fresh start.

I deleted two sensors completely from the system and left one. When adding the two back, I did nothing to specify if they were included or excluded in comfort mode. I only assigned them to home/sleep.

The two that I re-added are now moving in and out of the included list with consistency. When Motion is detected, they are added to the included list within a few minutes. After 30 minutes of no motion, they move to the excluded list.

I suspect that manually moving a sensor up to included makes this permanent but there is no indication in the app to know this for sure.

I did not have the success that budbuss did moving sensors to excluded and then having them move back up on their own but that may work for others.

If all else fails, deleting, then re-adding without touching the included list seems to be a fix for anyone else with sensors not moving.

If anyone from Wyze comes across this or a similar post, it would be great to have documentation rather than users having to figure out core functionality on a forum through trial and error.

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I have additional Information to share on this now. You can find my post here:

In summary the following seems to be true and validated:

  • Using Auto Comfort Control - Sensors Marked for Home and/or Sleep will automatically move into the Included Section when motion is sensed for use by the Algorithm. When Motion is inactive for 30 minutes, or so, the Sensor is moved back to the Not Included Section. So you will see Included sensors changing based on motion sensing.

  • Auto Comfort Control is OFF- You will need to manually move the Sensors into the Included Section if you want them to be used in the Algorithm for Temp and Humidity. The system will not automatically add or remove and the Motion Detection on the Sensors do not play in the process. Those Sensors Not Included will remain excluded from the Calculation. This is a Manual Inclusion Process.

  • In all Cases, the Main T-Stat will be included, hopefully Wyze will add the Functionality to remove the Main T-Stat from Temp and Humidity Calculations.

Took some time and testing to figure this out, please let me know if you have questions on this.

Feedback is always welcomed.

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