[DEPRECATED] Blink Camera Device Handler with Motion Sensor, Live Video Streaming, Integration with SmartThings/SHM, Temperature, Signals and Push Notifications

I’ve noticed this problem for a few versions now and just assumed it was a SmartThings mobile app problem, but it this seems to be the only SmartApp that it happens to. Any time I open the Blink Manager app, make changes or not (usually not), and then tap “Done”, it saves successfully (after 5-8 seconds) but then I get the “Error loading SmartApps” screen and have to close out of it and come back to see my SmartApps. I’ve attempted to recreate this with other SmartApps and just can’t.

Other than being an annoyance, it doesn’t cause me any real grief, but I’m wondering if there’s something unique to this app that’s causing it. I’m running the latest Android app version. Haven’t tried it on iOS.

It’s a ST app issue most likely. Open IDE Live logging while you’re doing it. If you see any errors from the SmartApp let me know. If not it’s a platform or app issue. Likely the platform is running slow which may be causing the initialize or some function to timeout causing the error. When the platform resumes normal performance it’ll fix itself.

Last night my Blink manager didn’t disable my camera’s in the morning. (First time I tried it). It did arm them at night.

Any suggestions? I triple checked that they are to be disarmed when SHM is disarmed.

Looks like the platform may have timed out, not much you can do unfortunately. Try using a different time, I usually avoid top of the hour or mid hour to change state (like a few minutes after or before) when the load is a less.

I’ll put a backup CoRE rule in place for this. Thanks.

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I’m having the same problem. Here’s my Live Log after clicking Done at the app.

  1. Your logs look fine here, no errors here.
  2. Posting your logs as is is not a good idea since it contains your access token, logins and other information which can seriously compromise your security

If you’re getting a red bar error after hitting done it’s because of the platform timing out. It may be overloaded, just try again after a while.

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Since PIR doesn’t work through windows, is there a way to have ST motion sensor placed outside to trigger Blink camera to record? I have Blink cameras pointed at my porch and backyard from inside, but motion won’t trigger through the glass. I could put ST compatible motion sensors outside if ST could trigger Blink to record.

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Hi @IAmJvy,

Blink cameras use IR sensor to detect motion. Glass will block IR signal and thus your Blink cameras will not see motion.

There’s no current (official) way to trigger a recording. However one workaround that seems to work for many folks is to for the camera to take a picture while the camera is armed, this forces the camera to start a recording clip.
So if you wanted to experiment try this, keep the camera armed, use your motion sensor from outside the window as an event to take a picture with the camera. This should trigger a recording.

I didn’t really see any errors when viewing live logs.

Now that I have merged my 2 Blink modules (Home, Lake) into one account so that I can view all my cameras in the Blink App without logging into different accounts; is there a way to separate them in the Smartthings app? Currently all of the cameras show up on my home hub even though I have changed the settings in the IDE to the proper lake hub. Since the location can’t be changed to the lake hub I assume this will not work. After reading this: [quote=“RBoy, post:1, topic:40535”]
How do I install/configure multiple sync modules?Install the Blink Camera Manager SmartApp once for each sync module. Then install with the respective email id’s for the sync module (unique to each sync module). Do NOT use the same credentials with more than one SmartApp (each SmartApp should have a unique Blink credential).
[/quote]
Is there currently any solution for those of us who have merged our accounts? Would using the same credentials more than once just duplicate the cameras in each of the Smartthings locations (see all of the cameras from each app location) and render them useless to triggers? All I really want to do is have the ability to turn on/off the cameras depending on Smartthings presence. I can easily ignore the duplicate cameras from either side of the Smartthings app if the presence trigger would still work for the appropriate location.

Actually if you’re on the latest release it automatically detects if multiple accounts have been merged into a single one and sets up the camera (plug and play).
Since Blink requires you to remove cameras from one account before adding / merging them to another account. It won’t create any conflict as long as your follow these simple steps.

  1. If you have two accounts, say A and B, and you have created one login for each and have installed the Smartapp in ST once for each account. Your goal is to merge the accounts and have account A as the final account.
  2. Using the Blink Native app move the Sync Module from account B to account A (merge accounts). Now remove your cameras from B and add them to A. Now account B has no cameras and account A has all your cameras (i.e. A has two sync modules)
  3. Open the SmartApp with your account B login. Either uninstall or hit done. Since there are no cameras in B the SmartApp will remove all the cameras from ST.
  4. Now open the SmartApp with your account login A and it’ll identify those new merged sync module and cameras. Hit done and it will set up those merged cameras in the ST.

Order is important here first open B so it can remove the cameras then open A to add the new ones. Other way around will give an error since you cannot have two cameras with the same ID.

So you can still have two SmartApps with their own logins but just ensure when you’re merging accounts and migrating cameras you open the SmartApps in the right order to ST to update the camera and account setup.

Still never create two SmartApps with the same login since it will try to create the same camera multiple times and cause a mess. With the plug and play merge feature you don’t need multiple logins. Everything will show up under one login. Just update it in the order.

EDIT: Looks like you’re already done steps 1 and 2 so just do steps 3 and 4 you’re done!

Question that I am sure is answered but not finding:

When SHM goes to stay mode, I want to enable 2 of 4 cameras.

When SHM goes to away mode, I want to enable all 4 cameras.

I don’t see how to do this in the app, as its all or nothing. Can I do it another way without installing CoRE?

Do you have the Blink Camera Manager SmartApp installed?

Sure do. But it’s all or nothing.

Thought you could choose which cameras to arm in each mode (just verified on mine). Are you using the newest code?

Also there is a switch you might have to change in settings, something about disarm whole system versus cameras.

Hi @ehoffman73 ,

Please look at the top of this thread. There is an in depth QA about Blink and if you still need help…All you need to do is leave your Blink system armed via the Blink native app and than you can manage each camera individually as a Switch device via ST lighting in SmartThings app, Core rule engine, etc.,

The group can provide more use cases for you if you need.

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Ok, SmartLighting & routines… thats what I wasn’t thinking of. I didn’t want to use Core yet…thanks for jogging the idea factory. Will have my routine that sets SHM to do the cameras.

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I’m still quite sure you can do this in the Blink SmartApp natively, but CoRE would work too.

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