How to add multiple blink base stations to homebridge

[vdrover]

Hi there. I have 2 blink base stations in my home. Base A has 2 cameras, A1 and A2. Base B has 1 camera B1. Camera B1 was too far from Base A to work properly, thus the need for Base B).

Both bases and all 3 cameras are added to my blink account via the blink app and work as expected in the blink app.

I have configured homebridge with my blink account. However, home bridge shows only 3 switches:

1. The Arm/disarm switch for Base A.
2. The motion sensor switch for Camera A1.
3. The motion sensor switch for Camera A2.

Nothing is showing up for Base B nor Camera B1.

Here is the snippet from config.json:

"platform": "BlinkSecurityPlatform",
"name": "Home Cameras",
"username" : "REDACTED",
"password" : "REDACTED",
"discovery": "true"

I thought I might be able to add multiple devices by using unique data in the name field to match the system names for each base in my app, but that failed.

I considered adding Base B as a separate Blink system using a unique email/password, but then I won't have all my blink cameras in my Blink app without logging out/loggin in constantly (and clearly this would affect notifications).

Any thoughts on adding multiple blink systems in homebridge?

[vdrover]

Here is the relevant output from homebridge. The 3 accessories (Base A, Cameras A1 & A2) are shown.

[1/8/2019, 8:31:28 AM] [Home Cameras] Initialized System Switch
[1/8/2019, 8:31:28 AM] [Home Cameras] Loaded cached accessory REDACTED
[1/8/2019, 8:31:28 AM] [Home Cameras] Loaded cached accessory REDACTED
[1/8/2019, 8:31:28 AM] [Home Cameras] Loaded cached accessory REDACTED
[1/8/2019, 8:31:30 AM] [Home Cameras] Initialized Camera Switch: 6ZZZ4 Garage
[1/8/2019, 8:31:30 AM] [Home Cameras] Initialized Camera Switch: 6ZZZ2 Front Door
```

[furiousdbd]

The way I understand the README, it doesn't sound like this is supported:
"Multiple systems and cameras with duplicate names cannot be supported until node-blink-security is updated to support it."

That being said, I only need to integrate one of my two systems with HomeKit. Is there a way to select which base station? In my case, it appears that the last base station added is the system whose cameras get added, regardless of how I name them. (I thought is might be alphabetical, but that didn't help.)

[Venger2005]

That's my experience too - it's the last sync module that you add to the Blink system that becomes the one which is exposed to Homekit. Similarly, this works OK for my use case too.

[jasmas]

It appears the upstream project has been updated to fetch cameras by ID. It always had support for multiple systems, but I didn't have any testers with multiple base stations. If a few of you would be willing to help test, I could look into getting this updated.

[vdrover]

Happy to test!

[e8link]

Anyone figured out a way to add multiple base stations? I just moved one of my cameras to another base because it had poor connectivity, and now I can’t locate any of the cameras. Both base stations are present but not sure if the first was cached and that’s why it appears...

[vdrover]

We're waiting on @jasmas to release an update. Until then, no luck. I managed to relocate my base station so my cameras all connected.

[slipstream1]

Any update on this please. In the same situation. Happy to test things

[superman3]

it seems the underlying python module that node-blink-security is built from is being actively updated and solves the multiple sync modules issue - https://github.com/fronzbot/blinkpy/blob/master/CHANGES.rst
@jasmas - would @madshall (https://github.com/madshall/node-blink-security) need to update his code first or can you handle direct ?

[slipstream1]

hi @jasmas - node-blink-security has been updated to version 3 with multiple sync updates. Can your package be updated to support it ? im trying to do it myself but failing miserably !

[jasmas]

I'd like to refactor, but as I only have one sync module, I'm wrapping my head around how the responses differ with two.
How does it appear in the app when you have two different sync modules? Are you able to choose which cameras get added to each. I don't think there is the concept of naming the modules, so I may just have to enumerate them? If someone could post a few screenshots of what the native Blink app looks like with multiple sync modules, I think that would be helpful.

[bartdorsey]

You might take a look at the original platform blink cameras module you forked from. I did a major refactor a while ago and now support multiple modules. They come back as separate “networks”.

…

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 30, 2020, at 10:05 PM, Jason Masker ***@***.***> wrote:  I'd like to refactor, but as I only have one sync module, I'm wrapping my head around how the responses differ with two. How does it appear in the app when you have two different sync modules? Are you able to choose which cameras get added to each. I don't think there is the concept of naming the modules, so I may just have to enumerate them? If someone could post a few screenshots of what the native Blink app looks like with multiple sync modules, I think that would be helpful. — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.