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robgmartin · 9 years ago

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Integrating Blink Cameras with Apple HomeKit

For those of you that followed my most recent blog post on Arming/Disarming your blink cameras based on your location you might also want to be able to integrate those cameras into an existing home automation system. Personally I am a big fan of Apples HomeKit but there are not a ton of HomeKit ready devices out there. I have been using Homebridge (https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge) to integrate nest, SSH, Wink, and Hue with my HomeKit compatible home automation devices. Since I was already controlling Blink via SSH I decided it might be fun to integrate this with Apple HomeKit.

Requirements:

-Working HomeBridge setup on your local network -Blink Camera System -Your network ID and auth code from the IFTTT setup -iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch

Step 1: Install homebridge-SSH

Open terminal on your mac or SSH into the box running homebridge and type:

npm install -g homebridge-ssh

This will install the homebridge ssh plugin which we will use to send commands to the blink cameras.

Step 2: Create Arm, Disarm, and Status scripts

I chose to create shellscripts in order to keep my homebridge config.json a little cleaner. I am sure the lines in these scripts would be fine to include directly if you so choose.

In terminal type the following:

nano ~/blinkarm.sh

In the nano window paste the following code replacing *YOUR_TOKEN* and *YOUR_NETWORK* with your own auth token and network:

curl -v -H "Host: prod.immedia-semi.com" -H "TOKEN_AUTH: *YOUR_TOKEN*" --data-binary "" --compressed https://prod.immedia-semi.com/network/*YOUR_NETWORK*/arm

now type ctrl-x and press enter to save.

back at the terminal type:

nano ~/blinkdisarm.sh

In the nano window paste the following code replacing *YOUR_TOKEN* and *YOUR_NETWORK* with your own auth token and network:

curl -v -H "Host: prod.immedia-semi.com" -H "TOKEN_AUTH: *YOUR_TOKEN*" --data-binary "" --compressed https://prod.immedia-semi.com/network/*YOUR_NETWORK*/disarm

type ctrl-x and press enter to save.

For the last script things got a bit wordy - and i am sure there are better ways to parse the output - but this seems to work consistently for me. This will pull the armed/disarmed status of your sync module rather than your individual cameras. This only pulls from the first line in the status page so I am sure that when blink adds the ability to have multiple systems (as they have claimed to be working on) this will break.

nano ~/blinkstatus.sh

In the nano window paste the following code replacing *YOUR_TOKEN* with your own auth token:

curl -s -H "Host: prod.immedcat ia-semi.com" -H "TOKEN_AUTH: *YOUR_TOKEN*" --compressed https://prod.immedia-semi.com/homescreen | grep -oh armed\":"\w*" | cut -c8- | head -1

type ctrl-x and press enter to save.

Go ahead and check the function of the scripts. you can run each by typing sh followed by the name of the script in terminal. When running status you should get either “true” or “false” depending on the status of your system.

Step 3: Integrating Blink into Homebridge

For our final step we will include Blink arm/disarm/status in our homebridge config.json. Open your homebridge config.json and put the following in the accessories area:

{ "accessory": "SSH", "name": "Blink Camera", "on": "sh ~/blinkarm.sh", "off": "sh ~/blinkdisarm.sh", "state": "sh ~/blinkstatus.sh", "on_value" : "true", "exact_match": true, "ssh": { "user": "YOUR_USERNAME", "host": "localhost", "port": 22, "password": "YOUR_PASSWORD" }

Be sure to replace YOUR_USERNAME and YOUR_PASSWORD with your SSH login credentials. You can also modify the host and port if you are running the scripts somewhere other than the local machine.

Now just restart home bridge and you should see a new accessory named “blink camera” in your homekit app. Status should work properly based on the arm/disarm state of your blink cameras and you will be able to arm/disarm the cameras using siri. You will also be able to set schedules for arming/disarming or add the arming/disarming of your cameras to siri actions (i.e.: arm cameras when you tell siri “good night”)

EDIT: If you are finding that the scripts you created stop working after about a day you are not alone. It seems the tokens expire after 24 hours. I am working to develop a more interactive script to pull a new auth code each time (or at least every 24 hours). If anyone can help please let me know.

#siri #homekit #homebridge #blinkforhome #blink #home automation #home security

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robgmartin · 9 years ago

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Using IFTTT to arm/disarm Blink Cameras

If you have not heard of it yet you should definitely take a look at the blink camera system (blinkforhome.com). The system is very easy to setup and has excellent high quality video with motion detection. The cameras are 100% wireless and battery powered so you can place them just about anywhere. I have two of the cameras and my wife and I absolutely love them but there is one huge issue:

We almost ALWAYS forget to arm the darn things.

The blink camera system currently requires you to log into the blink app and switch the arm button in order to get alerts about motion while you are away and to see recordings of motion. You also have to manually disarm the cameras when you get home to prevent a barrage of notifications when the cameras see you walking around your house. This one missing feature significantly reduces the functionality of the blink camera system.

Blink has promised that they will have automatic (scheduled) arming and disarming by the end of the month and that they will have location arming/disarming by the end of the year. Scheduling doesn’t really help me much and you can be assured that the location arming (when it comes) will suffer from the same issues that most geofencing features suffer from in a multi-person household - that they only track one phone at a time. This means the cameras would arm when i leave even if my wife was still at home and not arm/disarm at all based on my wifes location.

My ideal situation would be if blink got direct integration with IFTTT or at the very least exposed an API that allowed HTTP POST commands to be sent to arm/disarm the cameras. This would allow me to use one of my favorite home automation triggers - Life360 - to arm the cameras when the last member of my family leaves home and disarm them when the first person arrives. I knew there had to be SOME way to hack this together but i was at a loss for how to do so until today when i stumbled on this github site:

https://github.com/MattTW/BlinkMonitorProtocol

MattTW seems to have found a way to arm and disarm the blink cameras remotely using HTTP POST requests! At first I was ecstatic because i thought for sure i would be able to plug this into maker and directly arm/disarm the cameras based on events in IFTTT. Unfortunately I found that the commands require custom HTTP headers which Maker/IFTTT does not support. It seemed i was out of luck. I was pretty close though and I could successfully arm/disarm the cameras using the curl command in my Macs terminal. I started looking for a way to do this automatically based on some trigger in IFTTT. For that I found this article:

http://osxdaily.com/2012/03/14/remotely-sleep-mac/

In the article the author describes running an SSH command via applescript that puts a mac to sleep when it receives an email matching a search string. Since I already had arm/disarm working via terminal I could easily send a pre-formatted email from IFTTT to trigger an applescript that would either arm or disarm my camera. I finally had the missing piece i needed.

How to set up auto arm/disarm for your Blink Cameras

Requirements -Account with IFTTT.com -Account with Life360 linked to IFTTT -Email account linked to IFTTT -Mac computer that is always running

Step 1 - Get your blink auth code:

Open Terminal on your mac (command-space and type “terminal” press enter). In the terminal box paste the following (replace “your blink password” and “your blink login/email” with your password and email:

curl -H "Host: prod.immedia-semi.com" -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data-binary '{ "password" : "your blink password", "client_specifier" : "iPhone 9.2 | 2.2 | 222", "email" : "your blink login/email" }' --compressed https://prod.immedia-semi.com/login

copy the resulting authtoken to the clipboard.

Step 2 - Get your blink network ID

In the terminal window type the following command (replace “authtoken from login” with the authtoken from the command above):

curl -H "Host: prod.immedia-semi.com" -H "TOKEN_AUTH: authtoken from login" --compressed https://prod.immedia-semi.com/networks

copy the resulting network id after "networks":[{"id":” to the clipboard

Step 3 - Test arming/disarming

make sure your blink camera system is disarmed and issue the following command (replace “authtoken from login” and “*network_id_from_networks_call*” with your authtoken and network id from the commands above):

curl -H "Host: prod.immedia-semi.com" -H "TOKEN_AUTH: authtoken from login --data-binary "" --compressed https://prod.immedia-semi.com/network/*network_id_from_networks_call*/arm

You should see the “armed” switch on your blink app switch from disarmed to armed. Issue the following command (changing the same fields) to disarm:

curl -H "Host: prod.immedia-semi.com" -H "TOKEN_AUTH: authtoken from login --data-binary "" --compressed https://prod.immedia-semi.com/network/*network_id_from_networks_call*/disarm

Step 4 - Create applescripts for arming/disarming

on you mac open script editor (command-space, type “script editor” and press enter). On the open dialog click “new document” paste the following in the applescript window replacing *authtoken* and *network_id* with your auth token and network id from the above commands:

do shell script "curl -v -H \"Host: prod.immedia-semi.com\" -H \"TOKEN_AUTH: *authtoken*\" --data-binary \"\" --compressed https://prod.immedia-semi.com/network/*network_id*/arm"

save this file to your documents as “armblink”

click file>new to create a new applescript and paste the following replacing the same fields:

do shell script "curl -v -H \"Host: prod.immedia-semi.com\" -H \"TOKEN_AUTH: *authtoken*\" --data-binary \"\" --compressed https://prod.immedia-semi.com/network/*network_id*/disarm"

save this file to your documents as “disarmblink”

Step 5 - create rules in mail

Open mail.app and go to mail>preferences and click the rules icon. Click “add rule” and name it #armblink. Fill out the fields as below and select the armblink applescript:

click ok and then click “add rule” again. Name this rule #disarmblink and fill it out as below and select the disarmblink applescript:

Step 6 - Configure IFTTT to send an email

The last step in the process is to tell IFTTT to send an email with #armblink in the subject when the last person leaves and an email with #disarmblink in the subject when the first person arrives at your home. To do so simply add the following recipes to your IFTTT account and select your home location from the dropdown:

https://ifttt.com/recipes/420065-when-someone-arrives-at-home-disarm-blink-camera-blink-blinkforhome

https://ifttt.com/recipes/420064-when-last-person-leaves-home-arm-blink-camera-blinkforhome-blink

Thats it! all done. your blink cameras should now automatically arm and disarm as your family leaves or returns home. Hopefully blink will see the need to add direct IFTTT functionality (or at least support JSON HTTP post command) but until then this will work as long as your mac is connected to the internet and the mail app is open.

EDIT: An update from @blinkforhome from twitter. This is not authorized by Blink so it could potentially be disabled in the future:

blinkforhome @rgm1 @Life360 @IFTTT HI Robert - Thanks for sharing! To be clear publicly, this is not authorized by Blink. Thanks! 5/18/16, 8:34 AM https://twitter.com/blinkforhome/status/732942443855925248

#blink #blinkforhome #home security #home automation #ifttt #life360

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