I’m not a representative for @RBoy or anything, but I purchased a lifetime license to his smartapps and device handlers. Primarily for the Blink integration but I have some foscam IP cameras too (and there are other use cases that are solved by his apps too).
I have no coding skills whatsoever, so I have determined that paying the fee to access @RBoy’s apps and handlers is well worth the modest cost.
There’s no particular reason why someone with a valuable skill should be expected to give their time and work product freely to others.
He’s pretty transparent about what functions his smartapps and device handlers provide. In the case of Blink, it’s not an “official” integration, but it seems as though Blink staff do communicate with him so that at least the integration doesn’t end up causing undue strain on their servers.
If others don’t think the service is valuable, or the cost is too high, then the solution is easy. Don’t buy it. Just my opinion, I think it’s totally worth it
I can code (not great though), and I can say that what RBoy does is worth my time in dollars for sure.
You have to decide that for yourself. Sure Blink could turn it off, but they could do the same with an official one too. Integrations are tenuous in general, the two companies have to keep a relationship going on disparate products for as long as a large group of people want them to work together. As soon as either thinks it can do without the other… blammo.
That’s why consumer driven standards are so great.
There were a couple Blink DTHs and Apps available back in the day. However, like you concerned above, Blink decided that they were no longer going to support ANY 3rd party integration…This left a bad taste in the mouths of many. They did, Blink that is, decide to allow RBoys app to continue to operate. Therefor, it is considered the officially approved DTH to integrate with ST. Outside of IFTTT, its the only supported…well allowed…direct ST to Blink link…
Well worth the subscription fee as it also comes with access to many more very usefull DTH and Apps that RBoy’s team has created.
I do understand your concern of “What-if they decided to can it?”…They tried once and we all spoke out. They listened.
Like many others, I became a lifetime license holder because of a completely different DTH. In my case, I had bought three Yale Assure locks (which I love to death) and so I absolutely had to have the “Universal Enhanced Z-Wave Lock with Alarm, Notification, RFID, Door Sensor and Advanced Features” — it was a no-brainer. For a while, I ignored all the other code on their site until one day I realized there were some really cool SmartApps on there that I was missing out on. In addition to the “Door Lock Code User Management with Unlock Notifications, Advanced Scheduling and Automatic Lock/Unlock” SmartApp, I love the “Open/Close Door/Window/Switch/Lock/Valve/Shade Notifications and Action when the Hub Changes Mode” and “Device Low Battery Notification and Monitoring” Smartapps—they’ve come in extremely handy. In fact, it wasn’t until least week—nearly a year later—that I bought a set of Blink cameras and essentially got RBoy’s Blink DTH and SmartApp for “free” as gravy on top since I’d already paid the fee for all the other stuff I’d been using for ages now.
Looking at it from a different angle, perhaps the best part of paying for DTHs/SmartApps is the responsiveness to feature requests — like now
@RBoy: Currently, notifications are tied exclusively to motion detection events. I was hoping it would be possible to add an additional qualifier: SHM Status. The use case is this: I’d like to keep motion detection on 24/7 to keep a visual record of all comings and goings regardless of SHM Status, but I only want to be notified of motion when SHM is Armed (Away) or Armed (Home). I don’t need to know about motion detection events when SHM is disarmed, since that would create a ton of noise. Currently the only workaround I know of to get rid of the noise is to set Blink Camera Manager to disable motion detection entirely while SHM is disarmed, but that means I’m no longer keeping video records of comings and goings during that state.
That’s actually a fair point and I forgot that’s how the thread was named. I think @rontalley’s explanation is about right, but maybe @RBoy could clarify further.
Regardless, as others have pointed out, there’s no guarantee that any integrations between two cloud-based IoT device makers won’t eventually be dropped, official or otherwise.
Plus based on the time I’ve spent in the Blink forum in the last few months, I don’t see a more official integration with ST being developed anytime in the near future (or possibly ever).
Thanks for the replies guys, I do agree that no one should put work in to the degree and have nothing come from it. I will be part of the lifetime sub soon.
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RBoy
(www.rboyapps.com - Making SmartThings Easy!)
2450
The Blink Manager smartapp is primarily designed to control the Blink ecosystem.
What you’re asking for would better be served through the SHM app itself. Just turn off notifications from within the Blink Camera Manager. Instead configure SHM to notify you when there is motion from the XXX Blink Cameras in the mode/state you want. (since each camera when armed acts like a motion sensor)
Alternatively you can also use a separate SmartApp like CoRE or :
Pany one help ?
Rboy?
Updated to the latest DH & Smartapp…and now live video is broke ? But everything else still works?
Any ideas???
Cheers
RBoy
(www.rboyapps.com - Making SmartThings Easy!)
2453
It do with your hub and mobile app. Rendering is controlled by the mobile app not the DH. See the first post for FAQ’s.
Try to reboot your hub, router and mobile phone.
Hi this is Maddie here, I lead RBoy Apps support. All the SmartApps from RBoy Apps have built in support for update notifications. The SmartApps check for an update about once a week so you should have received an notification if a week has passed since the code update. If you haven’t received the notification please drop us an email and I’ll be happy to look into it and figure out what’s going on.
@Phil_Panfili, one common issue is that routines and SHM sometimes tend to timeout especially when the platform is running loaded/slow (are you using Routines or SHM to arm your cameras?). Are you sure the system is being armed? If it isn’t you should use some sort a backup SmartApp like this one here which can detect if things aren’t turned on/off and then do it after it detects a mode change.
If the system is being armed and then it’s turning off that would require some digging to find out which app is sending the disarm command and if it’s disarming the sync module or individual cameras. If it’s individual cameras you can go into the IDE → My Devices → Click on your camera and see the list of Events to track down who send the camera disarm command. If it’s a sync module that would be more difficult to track down, maybe you can go through the list of events on your hub to see who send that one through it will likely be a custom command as by default individual cameras are armed and disarmed.
Other typical issues i’ve come across:
Do you have CoRE installed, check your pistons - are they sending a disarm command
Check your Native Blink app, it is configured to have a scheduled to arm/disarm your system creating a scheduling conflict
Any other scheduling apps you’re using like Smart Lighting
Although the most common issue is the first one if you’re Routines or SHM to arm and disarm your cameras/system. Tracking down random issues can be painful. Hope this helps.
I have the app installed and cameras working as I want with different modes and a piston for motion/resetting record times… In the activity logs I see that Amazon Alexa is sending refresh commands every 10 minutes. I’m not sure why…any ideas? I’m guessing this isn’t good for battery life…
I get inconsistent results with the SA using SHM to decide which cameras to turn on/off but I’m not convinced this is an ST, I think Blink doesn’t accept the requests quick enough and misses out turning on/off certain cameras occasionally.
I have 16 across two sync modules, 8 on each. In the official Blink app I have to slowly turn them on/off otherwise I get a “System is busy” message.
