How bright is the White LED at night if it’s used?
Thanks for the suggestions. Those won’t work in my case, however. When I get time I will attempt drilling a hole in the mounting so the USB can be fed through it.
Most are going to use the battery and won’t have this issue.
@beckwith Can you post the photos of your mod? And I will post my hinge mod of the Blink hinge. The power cable which I sugested can be used by people who are mounting other things. I.E., in one of the other ST threads. A guy was mounting Aeotec Motion sensor on the sealing during a house remodeling project along with SONOS and he installed power outlets high on the walls for charging these devices.
It is only temporary, but works for now:
I set the mounting bracket next to it so you can see the issue I have. The bracket blocks the USB.
Here is the blink on top of the cabinet:
Sounds like your are referencing the following:
I would like to replace the Aeotec motion sensor with Blink if/when they come up with a SmartThings interface. Blink mounts on the ceiling without blocking the USB cable in this case.
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I was thinking. Maybe you could use the dremel tool to grind down excess plastic from the back cover where the power cable would go; also you can cut a notch in the hanging bracket and fit the other portion of the power cable through it.
As for me, I have just gone to a local hardware store and purchased this hing which I will connect using pictures screws and nuts to the provided plastic hanging hing. And maybe paint to match the wall color.
FYI if you create a Simulated Motion Sensor and use Tasker, you can have ST react to Blink motion detection. I have my Blink connected to Smart Alarm.
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Is this API legitimate from the Blink which @beckwith and @schapper05 talking about or is this one of the no name knoff offs which are sold from Amazon?
The API info is from the Blink Kickstarter comments section (from a user not Blink). I am not using the API so I can’t tell you if it works.
On the github page it says “Unofficial documentation for the Client API of the Blink Wire-Free HD Home Monitoring & Alert System.”
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Here is what I did:
Took your suggestion to use dremel which is easier than using a drill.
Problem solved.
I think Blink should consider having a hole in the bracket because there is plenty of plastic left for strength.
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In that case I think we have a promising start to use Blink as a multi sensor(motion/temperature) and a camera. But for this API, we can integrate it with @Mike_Maxwell creation linked below:
Hi @Tyler I think Blink is starting to get more interesting.
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@schapper05 I just received mine yesterday and installed them last night. The white LED at night has three different levels, low, med, high. It is very bright on high, but I didn’t try the other levels yet.
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Depending on your lighting condition at night, you may not need the highest levels. I would recommend to increase the length of the clip to max and reduce the amount of time between events to 15+ seconds.
Enjoy your camera system. And feel free to ask or give advice.
Version 1.1.8 Android app released.
Home screen now shows updated status automatically
Landscape clip player
Live view now working on more devices!
Bug fixes and interface improvements
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Man, I really like the look of this system, but am struggling with Diving in without the functionality that I really want in this system… NAS and Being able to tell the system when to start/stop recording…
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I can’t argue with you on that @schapper05, but they seem more responsive to their system improvement and support…
I’d say go for it. I am enjoying this system and they will be/have to release the scheduled Arm/Disarm feature soon.
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I don’t know if the Arm/Disarm is the same as what I want. I would like to be able to tell the system to record continuously until I tell it to stop recording. You had told me that they are looking to increase the recording time, but i’m not sure how much, I did email support asking what they are looking to add. But without that info I really can’t make my decision. a 10s clip isn’t much…
That said I am still glad you pointed me in the direction of looking at these. I will probably end up buying 1 or 2 just for fun (a little addicted to electronic toys)
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You have to remember the big attraction of these cameras is that they run entirely on battery power – yes, there is a usb jack for power if you want to use it, but it removes the flexibility to move the cameras wherever.
If the camera was recording continuous video, the AA x2 batteries would die a fairly quick death.
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To you that is the attraction, but not to me, I think that the big attraction is the nice look/size, hope of integrating them to ST, NAS.
I think it’s almost a bold assumption that the “big attraction” is battery power. Yes that Is a nice feature to have, but I would say that just as much of an Attraction would be the promise of an open API, or NAS when most devices are locking these down and only going cloud storage, or only SD card storage.
Really it’s all personal preference in the world of technology. I think @JDRoberts said “My use case is not your use case” in response to someone at some point, and it’s so true especially in the HA sector of electronics.
Maybe i’m not the norm, but i’m sure i’m not the only one who would hard wire power to these.
If their worry is customers complaining about this they could always do what Aeotec did with their newest multi-sensor. If it’s hardwired continuous recording is available, if not you have shorter clip lengths.
Or
Let the user decide how frequently they want to change batteries, All it would take is a simple estimated life to length of clip.
At $60/ea these would be a steal if they added a motion, temperature, sound, sensor and Video to my ST I would buy a bunch.
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