# Smarttiles + Blink **URL:** \ **Category:** Projects & Stories\ **Created:** [March 2, 2016, 2:13am UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930 "2016-03-02T02:13:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rigging65](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/rigging65/32/24106_2.png) [@Rigging65](https://community.smartthings.com/u/Rigging65)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 2:13am UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/1 "2016-03-02T02:13:34Z")
So, I’ve added the capabilities for Blink via the community app. And I can import a tile into Smarttiles. But all I get is a small tile with a camera icon in it (which lets me take a picture using the associated camera), but I cannot get Smarttiles to slow a captured image. I know it won’t show video, but I was thinking I should be able to get a still image. Anyone have any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![diehllane](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/diehllane/32/22571_2.png) [@diehllane](https://community.smartthings.com/u/diehllane)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 3:02am UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/2 "2016-03-02T03:02:47Z")
The Camera item in SmartTiles is actually one that allows you to take a picture from that device on demand. So you could just click the button and it would take a picture. It isn’t for showing the captured pictures though (to my knowledge, at least) ---
**Author:** ![Rigging65](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/rigging65/32/24106_2.png) [@Rigging65](https://community.smartthings.com/u/Rigging65)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 3:52am UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/3 "2016-03-02T03:52:31Z")
Bummer. I was hoping to have it take frames from time to time and update. ---
**Author:** ![mdawson](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/mdawson/32/29681_2.png) [@mdawson](https://community.smartthings.com/u/mdawson)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 4:21pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/4 "2016-03-02T16:21:21Z")
Does blink give you a per-camera URL that you can use to view a MJPEG stream? Because SmartTiles handles those very well. It’s not the same as the Thing tile though. ---
**Author:** ![625alex](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/625alex/32/70989_2.png) [@625alex](https://community.smartthings.com/u/625alex)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 4:34pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/5 "2016-03-02T16:34:46Z")
SmartTiles supports “Image Capture” capability that allows to take snapshots of the video stream. This is displayed as a tile with a camera icon. Also, you can embed the actual video stream via a URL, if your camera supports it. ---
**Author:** ![beckwith](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/beckwith/32/15130_2.png) [@beckwith](https://community.smartthings.com/u/beckwith)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/6 "2016-03-02T17:20:46Z")
> [@mdawson](#): > > Does blink give you a per-camera URL Blink does not have per camera URL and I don’t think it is on their list of planned features. ---
**Author:** ![Rigging65](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/rigging65/32/24106_2.png) [@Rigging65](https://community.smartthings.com/u/Rigging65)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/7 "2016-03-02T17:34:57Z")
Well that sucks. Any way to get a pic from the camera to post on Smarttiles? ---
**Author:** ![beckwith](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/beckwith/32/15130_2.png) [@beckwith](https://community.smartthings.com/u/beckwith)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/8 "2016-03-02T18:00:36Z")
> [@Rigging65](#): > > Any way to get a pic from the camera to post on Smarttiles? At this point I would think the best hope would be through their API. Right now it is not officially published and is used through backwards engineering. @RBoy would know better than anyone at this point. ---
**Author:** ![mdawson](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/mdawson/32/29681_2.png) [@mdawson](https://community.smartthings.com/u/mdawson)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 6:11pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/9 "2016-03-02T18:11:39Z")
So there’s no way to view blink output in a browser without a plug in? ---
**Author:** ![beckwith](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/beckwith/32/15130_2.png) [@beckwith](https://community.smartthings.com/u/beckwith)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/10 "2016-03-02T19:12:39Z")
As it stands now, that is correct. And I tend to think Blink will resist this because they are very concerned with privacy and stealthy misuse of their system. They have gone out of their way to make it clear to the user when the video is on, for example. It is not something to be used catching a cleaning person stealing. It is in your face so to speak with a blue LED illuminating when on. Some don’t like it because of this. So a public URL is something I think they will shy away from for some time. ---
**Author:** ![beckwith](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/beckwith/32/15130_2.png) [@beckwith](https://community.smartthings.com/u/beckwith)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 5:02am UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/11 "2016-03-05T05:02:08Z")
Noticed on Blink website that a public URL may be on the roadmap: > Features we will be adding include: > . > . > . > Browser access to your Blink system - access Blink from your Mac or PC browser. [http://support.blinkforhome.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2321448-features-coming-to-blink](http://support.blinkforhome.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2321448-features-coming-to-blink) ---
**Author:** ![jgirvine](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/jgirvine/32/13735_2.png) [@jgirvine](https://community.smartthings.com/u/jgirvine)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 1:50pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/12 "2016-04-21T13:50:12Z")
So i click on the camera icon and I get the spinning arrow, but no picture…where do I view the picture it took? ---
**Author:** ![krlaframboise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/d2c977/32.png) [@krlaframboise](https://community.smartthings.com/u/krlaframboise)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 2:05pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/13 "2016-04-21T14:05:09Z")
> [@625alex](#): > > SmartTiles supports “Image Capture” capability that allows to take snapshots of the video stream. This is displayed as a tile with a camera icon. Does SmartTiles allow you to specify the TOKEN\_AUTH header? My DH allows you to refresh the home image and view thumbnails of the events, but the only way to see the new image is to close and re-open the device because there’s no way to force a refresh of the image. ---
**Author:** ![625alex](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/625alex/32/70989_2.png) [@625alex](https://community.smartthings.com/u/625alex)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 2:13pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/14 "2016-04-21T14:13:16Z")
> [@jgirvine](#): > > So i click on the camera icon and I get the spinning arrow, but no picture…where do I view the picture it took? The image is save to the carousel which is which you can view in the ST mobile app. ---
**Author:** ![625alex](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/625alex/32/70989_2.png) [@625alex](https://community.smartthings.com/u/625alex)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 2:14pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/15 "2016-04-21T14:14:50Z")
> [@krlaframboise](#): > > Does SmartTiles allow you to specify the TOKEN\_AUTH header? > > My DH allows you to refresh the home image and view thumbnails of the events, but the only way to see the new image is to close and re-open the device because there’s no way to force a refresh of the image. I don’t know the specifics of Blink camera, but please look into Stop Motion Video tile. It’s designed to refresh the image periodically. ---
**Author:** ![krlaframboise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/d2c977/32.png) [@krlaframboise](https://community.smartthings.com/u/krlaframboise)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 4:12pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/16 "2016-04-21T16:12:00Z")
> [@625alex](#): > > I don’t know the specifics of Blink camera, but please look into Stop Motion Video tile. It’s designed to refresh the image periodically. Is that an item in SmartTiles or an undocumented device tile? Based on specs others posted and a lot of trial and error I was able to figure out the [Blink functionality](https://community.smartthings.com/t/release-blink-camera-device-handler-smartapp/44100), but I’m trying to find a way around the limitations of the storeImage function and Carousel Tile. ---
**Author:** ![625alex](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/625alex/32/70989_2.png) [@625alex](https://community.smartthings.com/u/625alex)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 7:26pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/17 "2016-04-21T19:26:08Z")
> [@krlaframboise](#): > > Is that an item in SmartTiles or an undocumented device tile? Stop Motion Video tile is a SmartTiles feature. I have no idea what you are trying to accomplish, but @RBoy is the leading man on Blink. ---
**Author:** ![krlaframboise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/d2c977/32.png) [@krlaframboise](https://community.smartthings.com/u/krlaframboise)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2016, 12:16am UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/18 "2016-04-22T00:16:27Z")
> [@625alex](#): > > I have no idea what you are trying to accomplish I appreciate you trying to help by recommending rboy, but my code for the Blink integration works fine and the problem I’m trying to solve is completely unrelated to Blink. SmartThings offers 2 functions for storing images, but no one seems to know where the images get stored, how to see what’s been stored, or if the images get deleted automatically when the device is removed. That concerns me so my DH uses 1 file name per camera so that each new image overwrites the last. The problem I’m having is that overwriting the image that the Carousel Tile is using doesn’t force it to refresh so it continues displaying the old image until you’ve re-opened the DH. It sometimes requires opening and closing SmartThings in order for the carousel tile to display the new image. The image is being taken and saved fine so I’m assuming it’s some type of SmartThings caching problem. > [@625alex](#): > > Stop Motion Video tile is a SmartTiles feature. Thanks, I’ll look into SmartTiles. ---
**Author:** ![krlaframboise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/d2c977/32.png) [@krlaframboise](https://community.smartthings.com/u/krlaframboise)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2016, 5:23pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/19 "2016-04-22T17:23:58Z")
> [@625alex](#): > > Stop Motion Video tile is a SmartTiles feature. Is it possible to display an image starting with [https://graph.api.smartthings.com/api/s3](https://graph.api.smartthings.com/api/s3) using this tile? I’m currently getting the error: Full authentication is required to access this resource. @tgauchat ---
**Author:** ![tgauchat](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/tgauchat/32/49516_2.png) [@tgauchat](https://community.smartthings.com/u/tgauchat)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930/20 "2016-04-22T17:40:20Z")
> [@krlaframboise](#): > > Is it possible to display an image starting with [https://graph.api.smartthings.com/api/s3](https://graph.api.smartthings.com/api/s3) using this tile? I don’t think so. SmartThings uses an internal non-public API to reference the S3 stored images for display in the Mobile App (@slagle @jody.albritton can confirm?). That’s why @RBoy came up with a clever solution to add an a new **Attribute** that encodes the image as a `string` that can be used by other SmartApps (like SmartTiles). The problem is that _only_ his DTHs use this Attribute, it is not a standard **Capability**. [Next page](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smarttiles-blink/40930.md?page=2)