Blink arm / disarm with a Virtual Switch

#1

Does anyone know how to properly link a Blink camera to a virtual switch so that when the camera is armed / disarmed it will turn the virtual switch on / 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 just use the Blink app on her phone and the virtual switch not fall out of sync.

Im not looking to just enable / disable motion. I am looking to arm / disarm

Here is my sad attempt at it.

Blink Virtual Switch
Blink Virtual Switch.png1178×978 146 KB

#2

probably be easier for someone who has a blink camera. so, if you have one please feel free to jump right in. :slight_smile:

which DH are you using with the blink camera? are all the motion sensors, blink camera’s motion sensor?

#3

Thanks for helping. I am using RBoys DH
[RELEASE] Official Blink Camera Device Handler with Motion Sensor, Live Video Streaming, Integration with SmartThings/SHM, Temperature, Signals and Push Notifications

Yes all the motion sensors are blink camera’s. I was thinking that I probably need to have it say something other then On or Off for the monitorstatus. I have a feeling it might need to be something other then a value?

edit condition
edit condition.png761×444 31.7 KB

list
list.png309×578 27.2 KB

#4

thank you. is that all you are trying to do? the logic in the piston snapshot, seems to suggest you may be trying to do more than that?

#5

if that is all you are trying to do, the following should be ALL you need in your piston:

execute

image
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image
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end execute

on the second if above click on it and change the ANY to ALL and you are done. that should be the whole piston.

EDIT: i was going to check out the DH to see if monitorstatus can have other values, but looks like they are subscription based service for the DH … so going to skip that. :slight_smile:

#6

Thanks again for your help. Unfortunately that didn’t work. I even tried remaking it with only those two Ifs and nothing. This is what I tried.

Blink virtual switch
Blink virtual switch.png1178×634 93 KB

Maybe I should go that route. I was wondering if there is a way for a virtual switch to maybe poll the camera’s monitor status and base its position off of that. What do you think.

#7

challenges of a closed ecossytem :slight_smile:

before your first if insert the statement in the image below. so, you dont have to type the expression … copy the snippet from below and paste it as is in to the expression field for the log info task. then turn on and off the monitoring for a couple of blink cameras and post the log output along with the sequence in which you turned the monitoring on or off and for which device.

image
image.png2608×312 36.9 KB

'A:' + $currentEventAttribute + '^ D:' + $currentEventDevice + '^ DI:' + $currentEventDeviceIndex + '^ DP:' + $currentEventDevicePhysical + '^ U:' + $currentEventUnit + '^ V:' + $currentEventValue + '^ S:' + $currentState + '^'

#8

Hope this is everything you requested.
So here are the logs. I only toggled one camera about 4 times and I had to do that in ST, it wouldn’t generate a log if I were arming and disarming in the Blink app.
The one camera started from the off position then on then off then on then off again.

logging
logging.png1421×698 197 KB

webcore log
webcore log.png658×926 105 KB

and just incase here is my current piston.
log info piston
log info piston.png1178×668 107 KB

It just seems that with Blink and ST its a one way street. ST can tell Blink what to do to its native app but the Blink app cant seem to tell ST what to do with a switch.

#9

webcore can tell both what to do :slight_smile:

thanks for the detailed information. seems like the events are being reported correctly. so, when ALL of the blink’s monitoring is turned off the switch 6 does not change to off?

no offense meant, but do you know how to look at trace in webcore?

#10

it would be helpful to look at trace and see what is actually happening at runtime. if you know how to turn on trace please follow the steps below and post the image:

  1. clear logs
  2. turn OFF trace
  3. for the 3 blink’s, set 2 of them to monitoring OFF and 1 to monitoring ON from the blink app
  4. turn ON the virtual switch
  5. turn ON trace
  6. for the blink that is on, turn monitoring OFF from the blink app
  7. wait for piston to run which you will see because it will log the current info line we put in
  8. then take a snapshot of the piston with the green button
  9. post snapshot image here
#11

well when it comes to arming and disarming the Blink camera’s it seems to be an all or nothing kinda thing in the Blink app. it has the ability to enable/ disable motion and sound (to each camera independently) but to arm/disarm, I cant do individually it seems.
As for Trace, all I need to do is just click on the Trace button next to the copy/paste button at the bottom of each piston window correct? It has a dark pull out section with all the ms info.
So with this how do you want me to proceed?

#12

ok. revised steps:

  1. clear logs
  2. turn OFF trace
  3. set blinks to monitoring ON from blink app
  4. turn ON the virtual switch
  5. turn ON trace
  6. set blinks to monitoring ON from blink app
  7. wait for piston to run which you will see because it will log the current info line we put in
  8. then take a snapshot of the piston with the green button
  9. post snapshot image here

yes

#13

step 3 and 6 are the same? how will this trigger if there is no off?

edit:
I tried it a few different ways but ST just doesnt seem to see the Blink app actions. The only place I could find any evidance was in the Smart app.

ST_Blink_Smart app
ST_Blink_Smart app.png1440×2560 219 KB

ST Blink smart app armed
ST Blink smart app armed.png1440×2560 206 KB

all the other logs are still empty and the Trace only becomes active when piston is right.

#14

sorry, typo. the second one should be OFF.

so changes in the blink app are not being reported to ST through the DH you are using? could you check with the folks you got the DH from, if its supposed to report the changes to ST?

#15

Yes I tried it that way. Nothing is logging. I am being to think maybe monitorstatus isn’t the right thing to use maybe. But looking at the list and reading the developers Blink post I thought it was.
Sorry for taking up your time with this. Just seems the Blink app won’t generate any log data on ST

#16

Yes that’s probably what I should have done first. Thank you so much for all your help. Its greatly appreciated.

#17

instead of monitorstatus can we try the switch? what are the rest of the attributes … seems like there may be more getting cutoff at the top.

#18

I tried using switch earlier before I started the post and I just gave it another try right now and still no logs, no trace and no activity.
here is a full png of the attributes.

attributes
attributes.png305×639 22.9 KB

I pulled this from RBoys ST Release DTH post incase that gives you any help even though its only applicable to the Smart app.

Blink DTH info
Blink DTH info.png742×750 132 KB

#19

image
image.jpg1020×54 25.4 KB

image

this seems like it should be integrated with ST. what is the status the sync module is showing? and there are multiple references to the DH working with core, so it should work.

#20

I believe it is referring to the system arm /disarm toggle in the Smart app. I posted screen shots of it a few posts back and circled it in red. This was the only evidance of connectivity between smart app and Blink app as far as arm and disarm goes.
It just seems weird that the Smart app shows a change but no log is generated.

I am going to contact someone on the DH side of it some time tomorrow.