14 – Wyze home automation hardware review

Last episode recap

  • In the last episode, we discuss artifact repositories and how they are useful tools that can be used in your devops/CICD to enhance your ability to provide value to your business customers…..faster.

Summary of this episode

  • In this episode, I will review the Wyze home automation components that I have purchased and installed. I will cover the pros, cons, and any gotchas that I have experienced with each item. I will also talk about the ordering process, order tracking, shipping, delivery, and customer service.

Episode Content
What’s in it for you?

  • After listening to this episode, you should have a better understanding of many of the Wyze products and the pros and cons of each as experienced by me.

Wyze products

  • Stationary Camera
    • pros
      • small
      • cheap
      • night vision
      • lightweight
      • wide angle
      • 180 degree flip if mounted upside down
      • micro sd card slot – I have a 120 gb card in all of mine
    • cons
      • inside only – there are outside mounts from 3rd party vendors but they might not be waterproof
      • can’t use night vision through a window
      • must have external power
  • Motion Sensors
    • pros
      • very small – a little bigger than a quarter
      • battery operated
    • cons
      • range of motion detection varies from location to location
      • range of detection depends on temperature and weather
  • Contact Sensors
    • pros
      • very small
      • battery operated
      • self stick tape provided
    • cons
      • angle of installation is very important – not unique to wyze
      • alert can be delayed a couple of minutes for some reason
  • Light Bulbs
    • pros
      • adjustable luminosity
      • dimmable
    • cons
      • only one style so far
  • Plugs
    • pros
      • can be controlled remotely
      • has a manual switch on the side of the plug
    • cons
      • bigger than some of the other plugs on the market
  • Automation bridge – allows the use of motion sensors, contact sensors, plugs and light bulbs.
    • pros
      • inserts into an existing camera
      • a single bridge can handle many devices.
      • Can have more than one bridge on your network.
    • cons
      • requires an existing camera to use
      • placement of the camera can cause dead spots in coverage as they communicate directly and apparently not over the WIFI connection.

Ordering

  • Ordering was easy from the wyze website and I paid with my PayPal account. You can also pay with the normal credit/debit card combos.
  • I have also ordered a couple of stand alone cameras from the Amazon website and it was easy start to finish as usual.

Shipping

  • Shipping was prompt once it was initiated.

Tracking

  • I had a problem with this as I could not get the order to show up in my order details on my Wyze account since I was not logged into the Wyze website when I placed my order.
  • I did get the initial “order received” email with the order number and information but even from the Wyze website I could not use it to find or track my order. Their support site talks about a page to track your order based on email address and order number but that actually only linked back to the account login page.

Delivery

  • Delivery was fast once it was processed through their systems. Once again, I can not give accurate time-frames since I could not track my order.
  • The package was surprisingly small. I had 2 cameras, 2 plugs, 1 automation pack (bridge, 1 motion sensor, 2 contact sensors), 4pk of contact sensors, 4pk of light bulbs. The box it all came in was smaller than 1 cubic foot.

Customer Service

  • Customer service was excellent but all they could tell me that the order was still in process. I chatted with a couple of agents and was told that I would get follow up emails from their systems once my order processed. Once again, I got no emails. Not the customer service agents fault…..but a little frustrating at the end of the day.

Recap of this episode

  • In this episode, we discussed the Wyze product suite of home automation that I have purchased as well as some of the pros and cons of each item.

Next Episode: The need for early testing in software delivery