So decided to have a real attempt at getting Blynk 2.0 working, having used original Blynk for a long time.
These are my thoughts of the top of my head, it’s possible I have made mistakes/not understood the docs properly:
Templates - not sure why needed/how useful that will be to a home user, remains to be seen.
I like how you can copy template/device ID direct from the webpage
WiFi provisioning/activating device - I seemed to get stuck here. I jointed the WiFi network, went to 192.168.4.1 and entered details, however it would not let me progress without the auth token.
Tried joining via the Blynk app, got a message “make sure your device is blinking” - my Wemos D1 mini was not…
However it found and connected fine this time.
That’s because the Edgent ESP8266 example thinks the NodeMCU has a tri-colour LED connected to GPIOs 12, 13 & 15 rather than a single active LOW LED on GPIO2
Pins are now datastreams and you have to define them in the web portal. They are all virtual at the moment.
One thing to look out for is that the default maximum value for a non-string data stream is 1, and any data higher than that will be ignored. So if you’re trying to send 255 to an LED widget then nothing will happen unless you set it’s data stream max value to 255
I do like the fact that datastreams are given names/aliases and provided you assign meaningful names to them it’s easier to ensure that you select the correct one to attach to your widget.
How are you finding the whole experience? I’m still trying to get my head around the whole concept, and how it can be applied to my user case.
I’m following the datastream guide here, but on the mobile app button there is no option for the V1 datastream. And the mobile and web dashboards don’t seem to sync for me.
I’m not currently using Blynk 2.0, as they is no working Node-Red integration. Some work has been done on setting-up a webservices interface, but it’s not working with the old wS contrib for NR.
There is also promised MQTT integration in the pipeline, but I’ve not seen a functional spec or any timeline for this, so I’m uncertain when it will be available and whether it will be of any use when it is delivered.
As a result I’m looking for an alternative, and currently have it narrowed down to 2 possibilities.
Did you create your template in the web portal first? If not then I don’t think it will work.
Imagine having 5 temperature sensors and 10 Sonoff switches in your house.
With templates and Dynamic provisioning, you can create a single dashboard and firmware for all devices of the same type. If you need to change something in your projects, you can update all of your devices instantly.
The same is true if you start manufacturing your devices and selling them.
This is a backup path for adding a device (in case provisioning from the app didn’t work). You should not use it in general.
Probably we need to make a more generic statement here, as some devices may have a different/altered state indication method.
Developer mode is default now, but it will soon become an opt-in. All new users that register with Blynk will be regular users (Templates creation is hidden for them). For example, you configured some devices at your home, and now want to share access to them with your family. They also need to create a Blynk account, but they are not Developers.
Same is true if you manufacture and sell some Blynk-enabled devices. Your customers are not necessarily developers.
On the Blynk.Console, open Tempate Settings -> Datastreams. You will see the default pin mapping. You can freely edit it.
It does not matter there the template is created first. Just ensure that widgets are referring to correct Datastreams, and they should be synchronized automatically.
