Blink camera integration

Peanudt

I have the Blink security cameras: https://blinkforhome.com
Unfortunately they can only be (dis)armed by means of a schedule or manual action by phone. Not very convenient.

Somebody successfully integrated the camera for Smartthings, so I wondered if somebody is able and willing to make a Homey app.
Smartthings project: https://github.com/MattTW/BlinkMonitorProtocol

• Basic setup, camera status, arming and disarming would be great.

• Using the integrated motion sensor, temperature sensor, live video, access and storing snapshots would be even better.

• Also including sound, LED control, multi-system support is magic. 

Peanudt

No Blinkforhome fans?

The cameras now support IFTTT to arm and disarm the system. Maybe that helps?

lubbertkramer

If it support IFTTT you can use that with the IFTTT Homey app to control it in flows  

Peanudt

True, the basics are covered via IFTTT. Arming and disarming works.

I'm hoping that the integrated sensors can also be used by Homey. Saves additional motion and temperature sensors in the same room and opens much more functionalities.

JasperB

When the blink xt (outdoor) becomes available in europe I will take a look at it. However, I don't know how long that will take. According to blink they have not set a release date for the xt in europe.

Peanudt

They mentioned XT will be available 1 month after US introduction.
Let's find out if they can keep that promise. 

JasperB

@Peanudt,

Still no release. I played around with the indoor one for 2 days (borrowed from a friend), and got the arm/disarm working. However the motion part (and getting other sensor information) is done by polling (just checking on x time if there are any new events or new sensor info). The SmartThings integration works about the same way. 

It depends upon your camera’s configured recording length. The Camera will send the push notification AFTER it has finished recording the video AND uploaded it to the Blink server (this is by Blink design). It typically takes 2-5 seconds to receive the notification after the video has been uploaded (and depends upon the WiFi quality, router speed and platform speed)

For the sensor information I guess it's okay if the polling is done once in 10~15 minutes, however for the motion part you want it to be within seconds. That would mean that Homey would be requesting information from Blink every x seconds. I think this will have a negative impact on Homey's performance. Maybe some dev's have any idea's how to tackle this?

Edit: Also Blink's own Alexa integration only covers arming/disarming camera's and asking what the status of a camera is (armed or disarmed).