Last night I completely moved all of my automations from SmartLighting to CoRe. It let me eliminate clutter by creating more complex rules and it actually work out to 6 rules instead of 12 instances in SmartLighting.
You will do better if you use Core too. It is much easier to use than rule machine; not certain if it is more powerful.
I prefer local processing where I can. I KISS where I can. Keep it simple ā¦ A few extra rules are fine and my system has always been very reliable. (Except the systemwide meltdowns). Iāll save Core for my edge cases.
I used the routines to āturn onā the individual cameras as needed. I think it will work for now as my blink app is 5.2.2 and it must be a newer one that chooses individual cameras per SHM mode. Mine still says all cameras per mode. I usually upgrade my apps quickly but Iāve been on the road for more than 4 weeks and just too tired!
Installed this with a new blink sync module and camera, however the smart app says my blink login information is wrong, I have confirmed that the credentials are correct in the blink app, how can i fix/troubleshoot this?
Open the IDE and Live Logging and verify that your username and password is being stored correctly. ST platform has been having some issues the past few days with some variable data being lost. Itāll also tell you what the server is returning. Likely itās an incorrect username/password typo.
EDIT: Do NOT post your logs here since they contains sensitive information. You can PM them to me if you want me to see them.
###Blink Camera Manager - Version 5.5.0
###Blink Device Handler - Version 5.1.0
This is a recommended update. Blink will be updating their setup in a couple of weeks to scale and enhance their features. Please update to this version to ensure a smooth transition. Once the Blink update is complete the old SmartApp/DH will likely stop receiving notifications.
@RBoy
Love your apps but can I make a suggestion. For those of us that dont get to come here that often are often left out when you have an update. Nest Manager can send push notifications. Would it be possible to do something like that with your apps to let people know you have updated the code since you cant use GitHub?
You can subscribe to our facebook page (and now you can set the notification to show up on the top of your feeds). We post all updates to the facebook page (donāt worry we donāt spam the facebook with random promotions or articles). That way you wonāt miss a single update.
EDIT: Will look into seeing if we can push update notification through the apps, thought I think people may not like it.
what is your feed?
Is it possible to make the offline module message an SMS instead of pushing to my family?
Or allow it to be switched off at least?
Also it only seems to tell me when offline, not when it comes back online.
Will look into it. Going offline is something that is detected when ST tries to poll it. Similarly coming online will be detected the same way. So either way itās not a pushed event from Blink. So it maybe online but you wonāt know it until ST polls it. I can setup a recurring check but that would put undue load on the blink servers. Question: how useful it to know if the SM is offline or online? Also have you figured out why your SM goes offline. It should ideally never go offline
Honestly I donāt know how long itās offline forā¦ could be 1 second, could be minutes. Not hours probably or Iād notice. Nor do I know why, itās about once a month and it doesnāt affect anything (except all app users get notified).
The issue is more: Iām notified itās off, but never back on, and the fact that everyone with the SmartApp is notified itās off, but not on.
So handle it whatever makes the most sense to you, Iād be happy with the simple ability to turn notifications off for the app. I agree that polls could be problematic, but for the record, I wouldnāt have a problem if I donāt know itās offline or back online for a few minutes either way. Itās very rarely offline at all
Correct, for the same reason as youāll for the next comment, as itās polled it only notifies the user itās offline when the ST server tries to contact the SM through Blink. Hence the notification that it canāt reach the SM. Now if/when it comes online the next time it polls it marks it as online but reporting it online would lead the user to assume that it went offline for x minutes/hours which may not be correct itās only detecting when ST is requesting information from Blink.
That is correct, if the SmartApp doesnāt report online or offline you wouldnāt know temporary disruptions. So it makes sense to put a check box allowing the user to choose if they want to be notified of it going offline.
But honestly, I would look into why itās going offline. Thatās not normal.
Thinking about getting a few of these, but really want/need to use these outsideā¦ Iām in Vegas so summers are pretty warm 
and winters can get to freezing at times.
I have looked at the temp specs and 95 degrees is still winter to me here:). The cameras will prolly be under eaves so they wonāt be exposed directly to sun or elements. But 95 degrees is late May early June weather. Not even into the triple digits yetā¦
Should i look elsewhere for camera solution? Anyone else in similar climate as vegas using the blinks outside?
Thanks for any insight:)
Iāve been using this setup and at my house since earlier this year, a few mounted outside under the eaves like you mentioned. Itās been in the high 90ās last few weeks with days of lotsa rain in between and been through high 30ās earlier this year. So far so good, to me most important to keep it out of āwaterā and ādirectā sunshine. But again these are indoor cameras mounted outside. I believe they will have outdoor version coming out sometime soon.
@RBoy @suprdave04 Living in Floridaā¦ Iāve had mixed results with the cameraās outside. Iāve seen the temp reach 104 around my driveway. I continue to have some issue at my front doorā¦ canāt quite figure out whey 2 cameras have failed working there.
@suprdave04 I would recommend Arloās over the blink. While they are more money, they are designed to work outside and also have night vision. 7 days of online recording as well.
Hi @DrHill,
As per Blink reply to me:
Blink cloud storage is FREE!
Thanks for the info.!
Thanks for the info as well!
To add to what others have said, Iāve got one camera in my detached, uninsulated garage that is currently 107 degrees inside according to the camera. That one has been there ever since January, so it went through the winter too (Iām in Indianapolis). I just recently put one under the front porch which is showing 100 degrees somehow (the current outside temp is 88). It is out of direct sunlight. My other two cams are inside.
That said, my only issue right now is with false positives and Sync Module strength. Iāve got a dusk/dawn sensor on the front porch light and thanks to that, I get some false positives through the evening with bugs crawling/flying around. During the days I get false positives with cars driving by since it can see a tiny bit of the street (trying to adjust around that).
I have a friend that has a Ring doorbell cam with minimal to no bug headaches and another buddy of mine has the Arlo cams and loves them (Iāve not discussed bugs with him yet). And SmartThings is about to get official integration with Arlo, so something to consider there. Blink is also behind on some of their promises as the USB port still doesnāt allow for local video storage and they were late on the scheduled arming feature, though with the RBoy app I donāt really care about that. That said, Iām keeping the faith in Blink for now and really hoping they will increase the 10 second clip max. I really donāt care if I have to buy batteries two or three times as often as Iāve seen basically no drop in battery life since January!
Long story short, if outside areas are all you care about, Iād go Arlo or wait for Blink outdoor or take a chance on Blink and move them inside when the official outdoor cams arrive. Depends on how good those eaves are you speak ofā¦