MQTT - what happened

On the Kickstarter FAQ in 2015 you wrote - “MQTT support is currently in development. It’ll be ready soon.” - what happened?? This would have saved a lot of development work getting this running in Node-Red…

We skipped it as not high priority task, cause most of Blynkers don’t need it.

Not a good idea to say you’ll do something on Kickstarter then skip it. Kickstarter page also has little progress bar - still no sign of that… main page http://www.blynk.cc/ still has mini bar indicator - (light level) and icons on buttons we still don’t have… raised expectations…

That’s true. But, we developing Blynk based on community feedback and yes, kickstarter backers feedback too. We also implemented a bunch of features that weren’t on kickstarter but was highly requested by community. I think this is normal strategy.

You really need to add MQTT support!!

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You can use node-red for MQTT and Blynk. Search the forum for that, please

Node-Red and MQTT - see http://tech.scargill.net/blynk-update/ - but also see my latest blog in light of charging changes - value your feedback.

@scargill can you explain the BIG problem with a button containing the text ON and OFF rather than UP, DOWN or SIDEWAYS? I would see it more as a minor inconvenience.

Easy - you’re assuming you’re always going to turn something on or off. How about up/down, forward, backward, later/earlier, +,-, etc etc etc

In controlling heating you might turn the heat up or down, warmer or cooler, later or earlier… I could probably produce a page of them. In any case - the point is - by simply making the text freeform, people can put in there what they want. So yes, a BIG problem for me along with one page per project. For example as well as other things I have several RGB lights - and the RGB control is massive (as well as now relatively expensive) - no way can I fit those on one screen never mind the other things. If this were a freeby aimed at people tinkering with a flashing light I think things would be fine - but now that IOT is taking off - multiple pages with lots of controls I would have thought is heading towards being the norm.

You are assuming I don’t have a clue what you talking about and I have many systems that are more than a simple ON / OFF. My point is that I for one don’t consider this to be a BIG problem until such time as alternative text becomes available. My property gets warmer or cooler on request without the buttons saying warmer or cooler.

Blynk have said multiple tabs are on there way.

Your blog is inaccurate to say you can’t read button state at power up, it has been available for quite some time.

Your blog is accurate though when you stated Blynk is one of the best looking systems.

Just out of interest… are you associated with the company?

Ok, I’ll rephrase that - I can’t see how to read the button state at powerup from Node-Red.I thought that is what I had said. Do you?

I am associated with Blynk in the same way as you are.

Or perhaps slightly more so…

@davidmiles

@Costas is not associated with Blynk.

Yes, we provide business services, check: http://blynk.io. And we are discussing with him his business. Which means that he is a client. The same way you are the client of Blynk.

I’m definitely not a client of Blynk.

If you use our services then you are… Otherwise glad to see you in our community anyway :wink:

@scargill just replying to your blog post. 900 energy points might sound a lot for a history graph but putting that into context anyone who pays the modest sum for 28000 points is only paying 46 pence for the widget.

Personally I’m not a big fan of graphs as I prefer functionality over form but for those that like that sort of thing it’s hardly what you would call expensive. I’m sure you can access your data and produce the graphs for yourself if you really wanted to, but is it worth your time?

@davidmiles when I made the post about other suppliers being interested in what Blynk has to offer I wasn’t aware that Sparkfun had partnered with Blynk. I’m not the least bit surprised as it seems an excellent fit which will surely have a benefit for ALL Blynkers. Blynk is not for everyone and some people will choose an alternative approach, that is their choice.

Of course it’s not expertise Costas - we’ve already implemented database IO for Imperihome history graphs - that isn’t the point - clearly what is not a good idea is running multiple apps with some data here, some there - so ideally one would like to commit to one app or the other. And one graph is not an issue, personally I’d want to historically graph everything within Blynk - then it is no longer 46 pence. Still - if this is a one-off it is acceptable - but description “energy” suggests that over time available energy will “run out” - in which case it is not a one-off cost. Can someone clarify? If I have an app with umpteen pages and many buttons - am I paying a one-off cost for this - or will I have to repeatedly pay over time assuming I make no changes?

This is one-off cost.