Blink smart home integration, free and open source
Blink cameras and doorbells: arming, last images, motion and doorbell in your scenes.
Published by guim31
- Devices
- Version 1.0.1
- Requires Gladys >=5.2.0
- ★ 0
This integration brings your Blink cameras and doorbells (Blink Outdoor 4, Blink Mini, Blink Video Doorbell, with or without a Sync Module) into Gladys, through the Blink cloud: arming of each system, the last image of each camera, motion and doorbell events in your scenes, and a dashboard widget.
Not affiliated with Blink or Amazon. Blink is a trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
Developed without the hardware: feedback welcome. It follows the protocol of the blinkpy library (used by Home Assistant) and real answers of the Blink cloud published by other projects, but it was never run against a real Blink account. Tell us what works and what does not on GitHub.
Prerequisites
- Gladys 5.2.0 or later.
- A Blink account (the e-mail address and password of the Blink app) with at least one system.
- Internet access for Gladys: everything goes through the Blink cloud, there is no local access.
- Access to the mailbox or the phone of the account: Blink sends a verification code at the first sign-in.
Configuration
Signing in and the verification code
- Fill in E-mail address and Password, then save.
- Blink sends a verification code by e-mail or SMS: open the Enter the code action, type the code and run it. The message under the button tells how many systems and cameras were found.
- Add the devices from the Discovery tab.
The code is asked once: the integration keeps its session under /data and refreshes it by itself. If the
session is refused one day (password changed, client removed in the Blink app), it signs in again by itself, at
most once an hour; when Blink asks for a new code, the Configuration screen says so. The Sign in action signs
in again on demand.
Refresh interval
How often the Blink cloud is read: 30 seconds, 1 minute (default), 2 minutes or 5 minutes. A reading is two requests to the Blink cloud whatever the number of cameras, and it never wakes the cameras: their battery is not affected. The interval is also the delay of the motion and doorbell events. Blink bans clients that poll too often: 30 seconds is the floor recommended by blinkpy, and after a "too many requests" answer the interval is doubled for a while. The Language of the names chooses the names of the features of new devices.
Devices
System
One device per Blink system (Sync Module, or a Mini or a doorbell on its own):
- Armed: on when the system is armed. Read-only on the device: arm and disarm from the widget or a scene (see below). This is on purpose: an on/off switch would be exposed to Google Home and Alexa through Gladys Plus, and "turn everything off" would disarm your cameras.
- Sync Module online: whether the Sync Module answers Blink (only for a system with a Sync Module).
Camera, Mini and doorbell
One device per camera:
- Image: the last thumbnail of the camera, sent to Gladys each time Blink has a new one. When Gladys asks for an image (dashboard, chat), it gets this last thumbnail: the integration never takes a picture by itself, because each capture wakes the camera and costs battery. A new image is taken only when you ask (widget or scene).
- Motion detected: on for two minutes after a motion clip, off otherwise.
- Motion detection on: whether the camera records motion when its system is armed.
- Temperature (battery cameras): the sensor of the camera, in °C, often outdoors: kept out of the room average.
- Low battery (battery cameras and doorbell): Blink only says "OK" or "low", not a percentage.
- Wi-Fi signal (battery cameras and doorbell): 0 to 5 bars.
- Doorbell (Video Doorbell): on for one reading when the button is pressed; the dashboard shows the time of the last ring.
Widget
The Blink widget shows the last image of each camera (with a badge for a motion, an offline camera or a disabled detection), the state of the system, and three buttons:
- Arm and Disarm (disarming asks for a confirmation); the current state carries a check mark;
- New image… opens a small form to choose the camera, which takes a new picture.
With several systems, choose the system in the widget settings (a system, or one of its cameras); without a choice, the widget shows every system without the arming buttons.
Scene triggers
- Blink: motion detected: a camera recorded a motion clip. Filter: a camera (empty: any). Variables: the camera name and the system name.
- Blink: doorbell pressed: someone pressed the button of a Video Doorbell. Filter: a doorbell (empty: any).
Both arrive with the delay of the refresh interval plus the time Blink takes to upload the clip (often 10 to 30 seconds). Blink only records when the system is armed and the detection of the camera is on.
Scene actions
- Blink: arm or disarm: arms or disarms a system (choose the system or one of its cameras). Output: armed.
- Blink: camera motion detection: turns the detection of one camera on or off. Output: detection on.
- Blink: take a new image: wakes the camera for a new image (it costs battery), then publishes it on the camera device. At most one per camera per minute. Output: image taken.
Scene examples
- Follow the Gladys alarm: trigger "alarm armed" → Blink: arm or disarm (arm); trigger "alarm disarmed" → disarm.
- Who is at the door?: Blink: doorbell pressed → Blink: take a new image of the doorbell → the Gladys action "send a camera image" to your phone.
- Garden light at night: Blink: motion detected (garden camera) → condition "it is night" → turn the garden light on.
Troubleshooting
- "Blink sent you a verification code": type it with Enter the code. A code typed more than 15 minutes later is refused: run Sign in to receive a new one.
- "e-mail or password refused by Blink": check them in the Blink app, then save the configuration again.
- "the Blink sign-in page changed": Blink changed its sign-in; an update of the integration is needed (open an issue).
- No motion event: the system must be armed and the detection of the camera on; the event comes at the next reading.
- Detailed logs: set
LOG_LEVEL=debugon the integration. The logs never show the password, the tokens or the codes.
Limits
- Cloud only: without Internet, nothing works; Blink has no local API.
- No live video and no clip download: only thumbnails.
- No push from Blink to third parties: motion and the doorbell are seen at the next reading.
- A doorbell press is recognized by the clip Blink records; when the doorbell records nothing on a press (setting of the Blink app), it is not seen.
- Blink does not publish its API: a change on their side can break the integration until it is updated.
Privacy and data
The integration keeps under /data (readable by its owner only) the identifier of this client for Blink and the
session tokens, never the password nor the e-mail address. The images stay between Blink, the integration and your
Gladys.
Configuration settings
These are the settings Blink asks for in its configuration screen in Gladys.
| Setting | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your Blink account | section | No | The e-mail address and password of the Blink app. When you save, Blink sends a verification code by e-mail or SMS: type it with the "Enter the code" action below. Not affiliated with Blink or Amazon. |
| E-mail address | string | Yes | |
| Password | secret | Yes | Stored by Gladys, used only to sign in to Blink. |
| Refresh interval | select | No | How often the Blink cloud is read: it is also the delay of motion and doorbell events. Reading does not wake the cameras. |
| Language of the names | select | No | Language of the feature names of new devices and of the messages of the scene actions. |
How to install Blink in Gladys
- In Gladys, open Integrations: Blink appears in the catalog, next to the native integrations, with a community badge.
- Click Install. Gladys pulls the Docker image (
ghcr.io/guim31/gladys-blink:1.0.1), starts it in a sandbox isolated from the core, and generates the integration's interface (devices, discovery and configuration). - Open the Configuration screen of the integration, fill in the settings, and save.
- You can also install it directly from its repository URL: https://github.com/guim31/gladys-blink.
Blink requires Gladys >=5.2.0. The catalog inside Gladys refreshes every hour, so a new version becomes available at most one hour after its release.
Not running Gladys yet? It is free and open source: follow the installation guide to get started.
About external integrations
Blink is an external integration: a community integration packaged as a Docker container and published on GitHub, that Gladys installs in one click and runs in a sandbox isolated from its core. It is published and maintained by guim31, not by the Gladys core team.
- Browse all integrations, native and community
- Build and publish your own external integration
- Source code on GitHub — source of this documentation