HELLO BLYNK TEAM !!
I have a question in my mind.
Lets say i have setup quite a few devices in and around my house to turn certain things on and off and get some other sensor data like humidity and temperature using Blynk on my LOCAL SERVER . (Only for personal use).
What is the trial period for this kind of use ? Because everything will be running over Blynk and one fine morning everything stops working due to the trial period or something like that ! What then ?
I went through the Blynk docs as well as Blynk Plans and there it says Blynk is free only for DEVELOPERS ! and with limited features . But am not a developer, rather am an hobbyist . So i like doing stuff using Blynk !
Is it LEGAL to use Blynk for free(because am not a developer nor a business man) , and if not free what are the chargers that we are subjected to or how to extend the trial period (cost) ?
Apart from Blynk Plans is there any possible way to be legally safe by paying for the Auth token that we use ?
Because once users setup few devices by watching Youtube tutorial and Blynk forum and everything stops working , we have to remove all the devices and throw it in the trash. And all the investment made will be dead.
And the buyout plan is pretty too high just to turn on or off couple of devices(sorry if am wrong).
For this price we can setup with ready made devices (just for Ref.) If its for professionals then is fine i guess.
So is there any possible way to prevent (if happening) the above mentioned scenario ?
Hi. There’s no trial period. blynk works for 3+ years already without any interruptions. Even if we decide to limit access to our public server, you have always an option to install your local server and switch to this.
Hobby usage is absolutely LEGAL as soon as you are not selling your devices or provide services on top of Blynk to third-parties.
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Hi !
There is no second thought on Blynk server !! Cuz as you said there is no interruption and i read that 99% or 99.9% uptime of Blynk server. You guys are doing a great job.
And what if we want to use the public server in future and there is a restriction for free users ! Is Blynk team having any new plans for us , i mean the free users / hobbyists.
So that who are interested to use the public server will have the option to pay and use the service ?
And speaking about the server now i got another doubt !! What about the app ! ? Can we use the existing Blynk app ?
And in future there will be a Blynk app provided frequently with new updates and features will the same app works with the same existing local server version? Or we should keep an eye constantly for updates and keep updating the local server as well ?
By not doing the above mentioned scene will the app , server or the device stops working , as the server goes out of date ?
You will definately need to be upgrading the local server with the app updates. It is recommended to upgrade on each app update. I’ve found this the hard way more than twice and have now been following this forum on a daily basis to get information on the new releases.
You could of course disable automatic updates on the app and I would assume it would continue to work with a local server. I would not recommend this though as there might be security updates you would be missing (in addition to new features of course).
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Yeah of course by disabling the updates we miss security and new feature updates.
But lets say we setup the device at non reachable places . We cannot forget about it . We need to be constantly keep an eye on new releases. And keep our local server up to date. This is kind of messy i suppose. But thats the way it works . But we cannot have that piece of mind , like setup the device and local server and forget about it.
You have 3 options right now:
- Use Blynk Cloud. In that case we take care of all problems/issues/udpates;
- Use the Local server and turn off app updates. Once you made a setup and everything is working you don’t need to care about updates. It will work forever (if you do backups and monitor your hardware of course); Downsides are obvious - you have store somewhere old version of the app, so you can install it into the new devices. Also if few years later you’ll decide to update it may be not possible.
- Use the Local server and app updates are on. Here you need to constantly update your Local server with every app update. Otherwise “correct” work is not guaranteed.
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The Blynk cloud server works very well. I’ve been using it for over a year and there was only one occasion when I noticed that the server was down for a few minutes, which was for an update.
Chances are that if you use your own server then you’ll spend quite a bit more time and effort maintaining it.
Pete.
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Hi !
I have no doubt what so ever on blynk cloud . What am worried about is our internet provider . If internet is down what can Blynk do ? I have experienced many times where there is no internet available. So am planning to use local server .
I think we listed all of the available options here. You decide.
One more thing of course, you could subscribe for a Business plan, if you need some guarantees.