If you’re using C++ then have you tried # define BLYNK_DEBUG
This will allow you to see the messages that are sent/received. See this link…
What do the BLYNK_DEBUG Codes(output) mean?
Pete.
I just tried a program, it has no virtual pin read and write, and a few second, it still consums messages. only wifi connection to the blynk through blynk.begin().
Yes, and if you do what I suggested with the debug stuff then you’ll see what those messages are about.
Pete.
Do you know how much data I can upload with the maker plan? I have an ESP32 but it stopped uploading data and is still connected. Do you have the maker plan?
Hello @Rodrigo1.
No for new users.
Number of device messages 30000 for free Plan
I answered these questions
I think a better solution would have been to create a Maker+ plan, for $25/month.
How many maker plans were there? Was cancelling it a success? I’m assuming the key metric as Pro plan conversions, so you should have a good grasp on how successful this was. How many have there been?
All my projects here are just for fun, personal use. I get tremendous benefit from Blynk. Prior to Blynk I could spend a week building a control panel only to spend another week updating it with changes as the project developed. Or spend a day tracking down problems due to my horrible soldering skills. My $7/month maker plan is a no brainer expense. But it’s not worth $100/month to me. Especially since there’s no functionality I benefit from the Pro plan aside from additional data streams.
Would I spend $25/month to keep what I have now? Absolutely. Wouldn’t even have to think about it. With some creative workarounds, the free plan might work - but ‘might’ costs a lot of time. Worse is the instability (to my plan and my projects) as this thread shows with Blynk as a company (not the software) means I need to scope out the effort to create my own middleware, which would certainly not be able to include a native drag and drop app builder.
What’re the Pro plan overhead costs compared to maker? I imagine user support costs a lot more than the burden of several hundred thousand messages a month.
Given the pro plan has sort of a multi-user aspect to it - can we get some ex-makers to group together?
[lost quote regarding shoe prices from @PeteKnight PeteKnight]
This is actually a perfect analogy, and shows a complete lack of basic business understanding common with so many small software companies… If I priced the shoes at $70, why would I care what they resold for? How much marketing etc. did the company selling them for $500 invest?
How on earth does the $500 resale impact my net revenue? This is a typical EMOTIONAL response which is a common part of failure. Learn how to accurately price your products before bringing them to market.
I think you totally misunderstood my analogy and the point I was making.
Blynk’s biggest issue is misuse of a subscription intended for personal/private use and being used for business use instead. The only way around that seems to be to take away the Maker plan and cripple the Free plan, forcing an “all or nothing” choice.
Unfortunately most are forced to choose the “nothing” route and use alternative solutions.
Whether the platform that remains is a viable business model for Blynk remains to be seen.
Personally, I suspect that users paying $99 per month will expect more from Blynk than they are currently able to deliver. I’m not talking about functionality here, but support, communication, advance notice of changes etc.
Pete.
My concern is, can only the businesses (PRO/ENTERPRISE) can keep blynk fed with all the money that bkynk needs to function/operate.
For blynk to be at this stage(polished) there were many inputs from free and maker users suggesting or pointing out bugs n stuff that inturn helped businesses to not having to go through all the bugs.
Now that there is less testing, trying, fideling with blynk, it might be hard to come across bugs or suggest any improvements. Blynk must try all the possible combinations to break the app/server to find a bug.
My fear is, blynk might run out of revenue and close the company or whatever like they did with Blynk legacy.
hope this doesn’t happen.
Maybe I did, but yet again all these posts in this thread are emotional vs. factual.
How much was Blynk losing annually with Maker plans? What was the criteria for cancelling the plan - you’re saying things about people taking advantage etc - entirely emotional. Where are the numbers to support your (Blynk’s) claim about abuse?
Worse is that no one seems to be concerned about the complete lack of facts here.
-Mike
(@PeteKnight - as someone who has read these forums for years, you deserve SO much credit for the success of Blynk among hobbyists. There must be hundreds or more users who have never posted, rather never needed to post their questions and problems because they found the answers from you. With all sincerity, thank you.)
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At the end of the day - Blynk is a private company using whatever insights they’ve got to determine the best ways to run their offerings in the marketplace. We don’t know what financial pressures they face with their investors and how those investors could be driving their direction?
We have to assume decisions they make are done with the companies best interests in mind… We the users aren’t owed anything other than getting access to the service we’ve subscribed to until it’s no longer available.
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I love Blynk but the pricing plan for high end makers / startup developers is very frustrating. I have been using Blynk for some time now on the maker plan and came back to the site recently to see if they had provided more flexibility in their pricing only to discover the maker plan was gone!
I am going to look again now at migrating to thinkgspeak as they offer just the flexibilty that I imagine many developers want: A free plan to start, and then you can buy units at $90 / year to match your needs and you can buy more units as you need them. Perfect!