Blink vs Arlo Q vs Foscam

[RBoy (www.rboyapps.com - Making SmartThings Easy!)]

See this thread:

Best camera options for SmartThings integration

So, I’m starting this thread because in the past week or so I’ve received about 10 eMails and messages from folks asking my views of the “best” camera for integration with SmartThings. The most common question being would I Blink or Foscam if I were to start over again (given that we’ve written Device Handlers and SmartApps to integrate Blink, Foscam and others and Blink and Foscam being the popular ones). Here’s my response to @johnconstantelo, just to kick start the discussion: Oh absolutely, there’s no way I can do what I’ve done around my house/labs without Blink. The BIGGEST plus is that it’s wireless and at my consumption rate the battery will last years. I use it primarily as a motion sensor when away from the house and camera (obvious) but also to peek in from time to time to se…

I’ll try to answer a few points on your Blink but like @lmosenko it would be best to post Blink related question on that forum as the collective knowledge of the community is fantastic!

@Drew_Hill

I increased the clip duration to 15 seconds but the clips end too early (< 15 seconds) often

Blink has a feature called Stop recording if no motion is detected, this is per camera, enabling this can cause what you’re experiencing.

@Drew_Hill

the clips always start to late

That indicates a problem with your WiFi. They way Bliink works is once the camera detects motion, it “wakes up” the camera networking system which then causes it to hunt, associate and connect with the Wifi. Once the connection is established it starts uploading the recordings. This is done to save battery as WiFi is a battery killer (hence it gets its 2+ year life on a single pair of batteries). This problem indicates one of 2 things:

1. The WiFi signal at your camera is too weak (you can verify this from the Blink native app, it should be 3 bars)
2. The Wifi router settings aren’t compatible with your Blink, things like Beacon rates, intervals etc if they’re set properly can cause WiFi association issues which delays the connections setup and hence you end up losing signals. Basically try a different WiFi router or go back in and check/tweak your router advanced settings (this is also documented on the first post of the Blink thread, FAQ 8)

Blink Camera Issues - Slow Connection to Servers?

I fixed the issue. While waiting for Blink support to get back to me I took to my router settings to see if anything was causing issue. My beacon interval was set at 1000 so I set it at 100. Presto, the whole Blink system started working correctly. I confirmed this by setting the interval back to 1000 and indeed did experienced the slowness. I then changed it back to 100 and,as it did the first time, it fixed all the issues. Now, my live view connects in about 6 seconds and has a 2 second delay on the video, which is full video. The motion captures are exactly 10 seconds long and will trigger again 10 seconds later. Hope this helps.