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

Do you mean a solar panel with a USB port that you plug in directly to the camera?

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Surely at night the camera won’t be powered?

Am thinking having a Lithium battery + Solar panel (it wont’ charge the battery). Just for those camera that are high mounted outside and can’t be hard wired.

EDIT: From Blink’s FAQ’s

The Camera USB port can be used with a Micro USB power adapter (not included with your camera) to power your cameras rather than using batteries if you would prefer. The camera includes two AA lithium batteries for installation and use. Please note that connecting a USB power adapter to the camera will not recharge the batteries installed in the camera. The batteries shipped with Blink are not rechargeable and the camera will not recharge rechargeable batteries if they are installed.

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@RBoy Is it possible to do a capture() with the $currentEventDevice in WebCore? capture(
) does not seem to appear in the pulldown for it.

[Edit: maybe capture() doesn’t actually do a capture anyway, maybe I want to change the value of setRetriggerTime variable
 but that’s not available for $currentEventDevice either.]

Hi All,

I recently updated my “Blink Camera Manager” to version 05.08.01

Update and all went smooth, no errors.

However in my list of Things I see my three cameras in the list and they all have the text/name “Tiles Missing”. When I click on them, the name of the camera appears and that’s it. No options, to live view or images. It just says “Something’s Wrong. We can’t load your screen right now”.

Before the update it worked perfectly, no issues.

I’m probably missing something here.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

Rboy,

I just installed a new camera in the garage today, and put in a fresh set of energize ultimate lithium batteries that I got via Amazon.
The smartapp reported 100% which is good.
However, i quickly noticed only after a few minutes the percentage dropped by ~7-8%
currently showing 92%.
Admittedly, I took a few consecutive photo snaps (4-5) to verify and fine tune the installation position.

I found this rather odd but did notice the wifi signal was rather poor as shown via the native blink app (attached photo).

Due to the poor wifi signal, could this perhaps explain the quick drain in battery?

Actually
just rechecked the status again and notice the battery has gone back up to 97%

Post 1 - FAQ No 27

.27. My battery reading keeps fluctuating
That’s normal. Battery voltage varies depending upon the use of the camera. After a lot of recent use/activity the voltage drops. If it’s allowed to recover, after a while the voltage increases. That’s how batteries work. The app is just reporting it.

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Sounds like an transient app/platform issue. Kill the ST mobile app and restart it or delete the cameras and reinstall them.

Never heard capture() Are you confusing it with take()? The capability name is Image Capture, the command is take(). Use it judiciously with CoRE, we’ve seen lots of instances where folks end up creating a rule with an infinitely loop accidentally without realizing it. Check out the following SmartApps if they suit your needs. I prefer to use CoRE when existing SmartApps don’t fit the bill. CoRE is a VERY powerful rules engine but without any safe guards/rails AFAIK.

OR

On the RBoy Apps wesbite: “Trigger based Camera Pictures”

@RBoy, My goal was to take a 1 second movie to reduce motion sensor delay, then take a longer 15 second movie after it gets done uploading and alerting me.

I have the capability of using “Take a Picture” when I use the generic $currentEventDevice, but I don’t have the capability of calling setRetriggerTime unless I select a specific camera, not just the one that “fired”.

Hi RBoy,

Thanks for the response.

When you say delete the cameras and reinstall them, do you mean from the SmartThings IDE?

I tried that and I get the following error "Cannot get property ‘authToken’ on null object "

Couple of things I tried with no success:

  • Deleted/Reinstalled the ST App;
  • Deleted/Reinstalled the Official Blink Camera App (Just worth a short);
  • Removed/Updated the Blink Camera Manager from the ST App (Smart Apps);

I think the only thing I haven’t done yet is completely delete the Blink Camera Manager from the ST Smart Apps, delete the Blink Camera Manager from the ST IDE My Device Handlers and My SmartApps. Do a complete installation from scratch.

Love the Shotgun aproach. Don’t need to have the crook walk away.

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Sorry. Had a choice of two project this weekend and didn’t get to look for the Solar panals. Will find them tonight and keep everyone updated. The other project was much more tempting. I installed a rain baral with a deverter from my gutter.

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You probably forgot to enable OAuth for Blink Camera Manager. To be safe is start over from scratch and see the instructions in the first post.

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@lmosenko

Link to the Rain Barrel DH please? :joy:

Can’t help you there @chippie. But I will post my further ST integration between a dry contact sensor and the barel to tell me when it is getting full of water. If you want I’ll post a pictorial of the upgade.:slight_smile:

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Good morning from NYC,

@RBoy. I have an update on the Solar power and Blink cameras. Well, in my case my Deck Camera.
I can’t confirm yet if the NiMH Recharging with paththrough current from Solar panal, until tonight as they were 33% charge in the morning. Documented by a screenshoot.


And as soon as I connected the Solar panal to the Blink Deck camera to face the direct sun, the power level jumpt to 100%

And it is stable at this moment 9:11am EDT.

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That is good news, even if it does not recharge the batteries, there are cheap solar powered batter packs that could be used to power through the evening and cloudy times. I imagine if someone could find a way to get a couple and 3d print some mounts, we would be in good shape.

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I completely agree. My current test setup is completely impractical. But is a Great proof of concept! I will repost my posting on the Blink Community forum and see if I could get Blink to come up with a Branded Sloar soulution for their product. What do you think @RBoy? Will they go for it?