Blink snap_picture speed?

Configuration
1

I’m currently looking for an outdoor camera solution and the Blink camera is looking like a strong contender.

I already have a doorbell connected to Home Assistant (Xiaomi Button) which (amongst other things) sends me a push notification via the Home Assistant iOS app. What I would like to do is include a picture (taken from the Blink camera) in that push notification.

I have achieved similar things before with a Raspberry Pi Camera and also with a custom camera setup. In both cases time was of the essence but even the DIY setup took at max around 10 seconds from doorbell press to image notification (livable but would be nice if it was quicker).

Before I look at spending some cash I thought it worth checking the potential timing for the Blink cam. So my question is, if I run the snap_picture service, does anyone know how quickly the camera image is updated? Is it pretty instant?

2

No, it is not instant and the component is partly broken. I was looking to achieve the same thing…
Picture is taken very fast but the update takes up to 60 seconds.

3

Ah, that’s what I feared :pensive:

Thanks @DonTomato, you’ve saved me some money there :+1:.

Have you found an alternative since?

4

Nope, cant help you here. I tried Arlo and Blink in the last few months and both are/were partly broken and slow.

5

A bit confused with what you wanted to do. If you have a Blink camera, someone is at the door, would you get a notification from blink with the video? Why need to snap a picture?

6

I like to keep everything inside Home Assistant if I can (rather than having different apps for everything). Not only is it tidier but it also gives me better control.

Also, a Home Assistant iOS notification with an image shows the image on the notification screen and on my Apple Watch without having to load any apps or even unlock the phone :slight_smile: .

I have a Blink XT arriving today and will be having a play to see what I can achieve.

7

do you solve this?i just got a couple a blink cameras

8

@fernandex00 - I did get this setup using a custom script, I think you’ve seen my other more recent post on this: Blink Camera as Video Doorbell.

Equally I know @fronzbot has made some improvements to the Blink component and so my setup might also be possible (and easier) using that. I havn’t looked into it myself as what I setup works nicely and “don’t fix what ain’t broke…”.

9

Thank you, my question is, does this work on hassio?

10

@fernandex00 - Ah, I can’t help there I’m afraid, never used HassIO so I’m not 100% on the limitations.

For reference my automation runs a shell command that in turn calls the python script. I don’t know how possible these things are on HassIO and it’s worth noting the python script itself has some dependencies which need to be met.

Note: I don’t use the python script component as it has a lot of (wise and security conscious) limitations.

Don’t let this put you off thought, might be easy?