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

Did SmartThings tell you this or Blink? :wink:

@Tyler if possible, could you provide any input from the SmartThings side of things please?

Hi @benj,

I am on both forums Blink and SmartThings and see this issue talked about daily. So for the most part I am reposting the responces from Blink staff and my own observations on this issue.

I have seen from personal experiance that a camera on my deck which is under my overhang had bad sync module reseption and I moved sync module a few feet to keep it at the center of my house and bang both of my cameras placed outside received 4 bars of signal quality. And as fo my router, I upgraded the old FIOS router to their newest gateway and my wifi issues went out the window.

FYI from Blink Community Forum.

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Update to my Solar Powered Blink Project.
Just purchased 2 of these Solar Panels to run my 2 Blink cameras already installed outside my house. Wish me luck that the panels are of desent quality. Will post an update when they are installed.

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How can Iid like to set up a notification from webcore that will send a push notification if my camera’s battery is below a certain threshold. Any idea how to accesss the device’s battery attribute?

Try this SmartApp:

I’m not sure what issue you’re talking about? I was referencing what you said here:

I’m pretty certain you got that from Blink, which is probably rubbish (I’m not blaming you here at all).

Last I heard, back in Feb Blink wanted ST to “just publish” something for them and they were directed to the partner portal where they could submit DTH/SAs for approval using the same process every other company uses, but nothing was heard. Keep in mind that it’s probably only submissions from the community that are put on hold and submissions for integrations from companies like Blink would be treated differently and considered however, given the attitude and lack of interest I’ve received and witnessed from Blink on this topic, I’m inclined to believe that Blink is telling you porkies.

My impression from hanging around the blink forum for a couple months now is that they might be moderately interested in ST integration, but it’s clearly not at the top of their priority list.

Their XT camera is intended for outdoor use but the PIR motion sensor is a disaster and they’ve been promising a firmware-based fix for a few months. And they have their own security solution that includes new hardware and a monthly monitoring plan ($$), no promised release date but they’ve said it should be out by end of the year. Presumably they’re devoting whatever resources they think they need to for that.

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What issue have people been experiencing with the XT? For the most part (after some fine tuning of the sensitivity settings) they work just as I’d expect with only the occasional false alert.

Many people seem to be having issues with hypersensitivity. Honestly I’m not convinced it’s something they can “fix” with a firmware update, I think it’s just a limitation of PIR as a trigger for recording when located outdoors.

I found it pretty difficult to find the right sensitivity setting to prevent every passing car from setting it off while still triggering when a person walked up to my door. I mostly solved it by covering part of the PIR sensor with electrical tape.

There’s been some discussion on their forum about adding masking/zoning so that only the area the user wants will trigger motion. I think some of the responses there have unreasonable expectations about that considering it’s a battery powered camera. But supposedly that could be some part of the security solution they’re going to introduce with tiered pricing.

Admittedly I did have to turn down the sensitivity quite a bit (between one and three), they should be able to tweek the sensitivity in firmware though.

I posted this earlier on the WebCoRE forum and haven’t had any luck yet.
So I am trying to link a Blink camera to a virtual switch so that when the camera is armed or disarmed it will turn the virtual switch on or off. I am able to get the virtual switch to arm and disarm the Blink (monitorOn/monitorOff) just not the other way around. Any ideas?
The reason behind this is so that I can control it with Alexa while the wife can still use the Blink app on her phone and the virtual switch doesn’t fall out of sync.
Im not looking to just enable / disable motion. I am looking to arm / disarm.
…and yes I know about the Alexa skill for blink but it is far to awkward and troublesome.

Here is the list of the attributes I can choose from. I have tried monitorStatus, Switch, and enableStatus but none of these seem to work or even generate any logs on ST when triggered by the Blink app.
attributes

Link to WebCoRE post: https://community.webcore.co/t/blink-arm-disarm-with-a-virtual-switch/711

Solution:

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Installed the smartapp and DTH and they are working well.
I have setup an automation in smartlighting where driveway lights come on when motion is detected on the blink camera.
However, there is a significant delay in when the lights come on after motion in front of the camera.
Is this because my cameras are set to record a 10 second clip and the motion trigger is not sent to turn on the lights until after the recording ends?
Is there a way to work around this without compromising the length of the recording so the lights come on as soon as motion is detected?
If not, this is a severe limitation because this application was the only reason for which I installed the smartapp and DTH!
Any help will be much appreciated.

Yes, motion detection notifications are sent after the recording is complete. Check out the first post FAQ’s for tips and tricks.

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I’m planning on buying additional XTs, anybody has a coupon code to share :slight_smile: ?

Sure, try this one.

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Great thanks it worked :slight_smile:

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Hi,

I’d like to purchase some Blink XT cameras, preferably the 3 camera set.

Blinks website seems to have only the 1 camera and 2 camera sets in stock.

Would anybody here have any idea when they might be back in stock, or if they are available anywhere now?
I have tried to contact Blink to ask about availability, but have received no response.

Thanks.

They are out of stock at the moment on other packages as they recently had many sales. They will be back in stock at some point.