Hello,
This is pretty new to me, working well, great work guys.
I’m using multiple ESP-12s running ESP8266/Arduino and Blynk standalone. I’ve coded the same auth code in the devices, connecting to single project on IOS. Two questions and one bug?, let me know if I should start separate topics.
I can see that virtual pins are shared How are digital pins handled? My guess without trying is the signal will show up at all devices? I can test this, but my real question is: What’s the prescribed/preferred approach? Should look into Bridge (not gotten there yet)?
Also, I noticed the IOS project would notice when the device was offline, cool. If I run multiple devices to the same project though I no longer see that if one device is off. Do they all need to be off to get the message? How is this supposed to work?
Finally, I’ve noticed a hang while performing a virtualWrite. No watchdog, just hang. I inserted some prints to narrow down to a non-returning virtualWrite. I can open another issue here if needed (if not related). I’m digging into this one now. Hang w/o WDT reset, I hope to get to the bottom of this.
Thanks,
ko
Hello, heh. Good questions =).
My guess without trying is the signal will show up at all devices?
Correct.
What’s the prescribed/preferred approach?
Up to you. You could setup different pins on different devices so they will no intersect and thus every widget will control only 1 device. Or you could setup 1 pin across all boards to perform same action in parallel on all devices, so 1 widget will control many devices. Bridge is needed only in case you need some kind of complex logic in order to send commands from one device to another.
I no longer see that if one device is off.
Well, that’s strange. If any device with token of active dashboard goes offline - notification MUST be send. If not - this is a bug. But please double check it’s not a problem on your side. Also have in mind - such notification may come with delay up to 15 secs.
Finally, I’ve noticed a hang while performing a virtualWrite.
Well, here is a lot of possible reasons for that. So yeap, another topic with all details would be very appreciated.
Thanks for questions =)!
Thanks for the quick reply!
re: multiple devices, cool, makes sense.
re: Bridge, yeah that’s what it looked like, but I just skimmed. Since I started with ESP8266/native without Arduino trappings, I’m still used to MQTT between devices… Still not convinced I like Arduino enough to switch, but there are more people in the pool.
I’ll look closer at the “device off” issue.
I’ll open another topic on the hang, trying to reproduce now with debug on.
Thanks,
ko
2 Likes
D, I suspect this is a bug, with the Arduino devices it works, but with ESP devices I don’t see the offline message at all - even when pressing play on the dashboard with the ESP off.
Hi Kolalde,
Thanks, this confirms my suspicion that using Blynk for the front end and then MQTT for the inter-device communication my be a good option.
One question, are you using cloud server or local? If local, do you run the blynk server and MQTT broker on the same hardware? I’m not sure if the Pi will cope with blynk and broker running at the same time.
I definitely saw the offline message with one device, just not so sure with multiples. I’ll have to look again.
I’ve not played with the bridge stuff yet so I don’t know how it compares to MQTT. These are little devices (though the latest esp modules have a flash bump), so maybe less code is better. But we’ll see.
I’m currently running of the Blynk cloud server, though I’d imagine that’ll change soon. I was so easy to just use it and get started, impossible to resist. I’m running mosquitto on a PI (B+), running some MQTT monitor/react/forward scripts, working well. It’s also running some ancient X10-perl code (MrHouse), but yeah, I’ll probably move it all to a larger machine.
So, we’ve lost power at the house, I doubt Blynk is at fault 
, so I can definitely confirm the IOS app does report ESP8266 Offline (for me anyway).
Once I get some house juice I’ll look at getting the message when some, but not all devices are offline.
