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

The round trip to change the configuration take a couple of seconds and what you’re saying may or may not happen. Depends upon when the detection happens. Say it’s set to sensitive, the FedEx truck drives off it sets off a motion within 2 seconds, you change the setting to 30 seconds but remember there is a retrigger interval of 10 seconds minimum so it’ll be 13 seconds before it triggers again.

One way I’ve done this to set it to 60 seconds but then enable the option to terminate the clip early if the motion stops (from the Blink native app). You won’t get a 1 second notification but it won’t take 60 seconds either depending upon how there is to record.

1 Like

All valid points @Jeff_Pollock. That is why I always have a redundancy built into my house. I purchased this mosion sensor from Xiaomi. It is the size of a USB thumbdrive and as wide as a Quarter; which makes it very descreat.
http://www.gearbest.com/smart-light-bulb/pp_257678.html

I have 2, so one triggers my driveway and one for my deck.

Appreciate this input.

I was hoping to be able to just/only use the motion detector from Blink, but as others have mentioned the ‘serialized’ way this works is far from ideal. Especially as the re-trigger takes at least 10 seconds. If I were to use Blink only, I’d probably have to only use it with snapshot mode / no video at all. (eg; trigger motion and take picture at same time)

Sounds like I’ll need to use dedicated standalone motion detectors for triggering lights, and just let blink do its own thing for video recording.

Thank you. I understand. However, in this example the ‘bad guy’ could come snoop around my porch and I’ll have him on video, but he have to leave (eg; no more motion) before my lights kicked on a few seconds later. Not ideal.

1 Like

Is this motion sensor compatible with smartthings?

https://github.com/a4refillpad/Xiaomi
https://community.smartthings.com/t/release-xiaomi-sensors-and-button-beta/77576?u=lmosenko&source_topic_id=89464

1 Like

Okay great thank you

1 Like

rontalley, thanks for the instructions on using Core. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around a couple pieces of it after getting some very basic pistons working, hoping you can point me in the right direction…

I’d like to use your technique of setting the camera record time to 1s to get a quick motion alert then turn on some lights and allowing the next recording to be 60s (or some other longer time). I’m able to set it up to monitor my mode (Night), if the switch is on/off, when off to tell the camera settings to be 1s record time, but I’m stuck on how to capture the motion, turn on the light, set the camera back to 60s record time, then when it is all over revert back to 1s?

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!

I apologize if I missed this, but wanted to confirm - how is the Blink XT working with this integration? I’m thinking about ordering some.

Are you using webCoRE or CoRE? I would suggest webCoRE as it allows for maximum video length.

Since you already have the 1sec when off and night mode worked out and hopefully the camera is in monitor mode(record)… then you just need the attached piston. Import and tweak to your situation.

To give a quick explanation of what’s going on here:
At the top, I set the restriction to only work in night mode. This is the restriction for the entire Piston! Since this is the mode that you have the video length set to 1sec. If the camera is in monitor mode then once the quick 1sec video records, it will send a motion notification to SmartThings.

From here, the piston says if motion is active then turn on light and also set blink to 60 seconds with a 10 second re-trigger time.

It also say that when motion is inactive, then turn off the light and set the video length to 1sec with a 60 second re-trigger time.

Notice the lighting bolt on the left…that’s means that this will activate some kinda of action in the then section…notice that the action for the light is in a separate action from the blink but both under the same “Then”.

Also notice that there are two “If” arguments. They sorta work as a latching piston. If motion is active then this…If motion is inactive then that…

Motion is either going to be inactive or active.

Set Re-Trigger time or whatever else with a 4 second wait in between actions so the commands don’t get missed. For motion purposes I use 60 seconds. For security purposes I use 10 seconds. YMMV.

That’s pretty much it!

1 Like

I understand the issue here. Really do wish that you could get a motion event before that video is uploaded and sent back as an event. 10 seconds is a long time in the eyes of “security”. The Blinks work perfect, at least for me, for indoor use.

For the front door, I think I am just going to do a Ring Pro and for the back door, I am going to do a Blink with dumb motion flood combo with a relay to ST connected to a GE Smart Switch so can control the lights power to only work during alarm periods. Don’t want the light coming on if we are just outside hanging out. Bugs Man!

I could do a CCTV system for outdoor and just call it a day! Are there any that works with ST outside of running a server?

However, considering the cost…Maybe those 10 seconds aren’t that important!..:confounded:

They integrate just like the original Blinks. No issues with mine since adding them to the system in the begining of May. Mine are used for exterior cameras only and not used for motion detection for ST SHM or automations.

2 Likes

I’ve been mostly disappointed in the XT in this regard. There were hints from previous communications with Blink that the XT would be better at environmental issues such as wind blowing trees and bushes around, sun/shadows, etc. I’ve noticed none of that. So as far as I’m concerned, the only reasons to buy the XT over the standard ones are:

  • You need it to be weather-proof
  • You want proper night vision
  • You want to be able to disable the blue recording LED
  • You want a black camera instead of a white one

EDIT: I did open a support case with Blink to ask about the false positives as I have to turn my sensitivity down to 3 to not be annoyed all day with them (which isn’t ideal as you’ve gotta be rather close to trigger it, defeating the purpose of where I have mine placed). They did respond that they’ve received complaints from others about false positives and will be working on a firmware update to address some of them. No idea when that’ll be complete or how to know they’ve pushed it to my camera though.

2 Likes

Hi rontalley,
Well I sort of had that working with Core but I’m converting to webcore, I think I understand this a bit better. I was able to import your piston with the code (Thanks) and set it with my devices (super cool!) but want to make sure I have everything I need. Do I need to create another piston that when in night mode arms the camera and sets it to 1 second record length?

Although I LOVE webCoRE, I have plenty of things working just like I like in CoRE or other apps or routines.

If you already have a solution to set to arm for night and 1 sec then…

Remember, keep it simple.

1 Like

To add to your observations, I too struggle with XT false alarms. I’m not sure if it is worse than the regular Blink since I haven’t replaced the exact location yet. On the flip side, I get fewer false alarms because of spider webs since I can place it more in the open versus under eaves that attract spiders.

Also, the first fraction of second of the video starts with a green tint. The original Blink had this issue that a firmware update later fixed. Night vision similarly starts in color for a fraction of second.

The other issue as I’ve mentioned before, is the batteries seem to have less charge. Every one of my Blinks are still using the original batteries so suspect XT battery issues are just reporting anomalies.

1 Like

OK, thanks! I have it basically working now although even the 1 second record time, setting change, turn lights on, etc results in at least a 5-7 second delay before the main video is captured. I noticed the “wait” between each setting change to the blink camera, is that necessary? Can I cut it down from 4 seconds?

Thanks!

Just recently switched from Arlo to Blink cameras and am loving the system (much more than the Arlo). This integration looks amazing and I’m thinking I’ll probably set it up this weekend.

In an “Arlo or Blink” thread I posted this and another user, lmosenko, suggested I post this here as a suggestion. One of the things that I liked about the Arlo’s was that when you received an email notification it would contain a screenshot of the clip within the email. You could tap the screenshot to pull up the clip in a web browser to view it.

Not sure how feasible that is but it would be cool. Thanks RBoy for this integration regardless! And thanks for the detailed instructions as well! I don’t do too much with the SmartThins IDE so I appreciate the instructions!

1 Like

Unfortunately ST doesn’t allow for email notifications and while we are working on some ways it may not be a scalable solution.

@Jim what would be the best way to request ST to provide support for an eMail API similar to the SMS API? I’m sure it’s simpler to implement than Push or even SMS. The email can come from ST so it’s using their SMTP server, probably just providing a SMTP class

1 Like

Hello guys, I just got my blink xt system and installed @RBoy SmartApp and DH for blink it was working well but now I tried to change the name of the device in ST app it’s not working, trying to add the camera to one of my room group isn’t working either, I keep getting “unexpected error” and the battery level isn’t showing up anymore. Is anybody having any of these issues?