I’m looking to design an app that will be used to monitor remote equipment. The Blynk app will be used ‘on demand’ to view certain parameters (eg ‘temp’ or ‘level’) but I also need the app to have a preset alarm function that works 24/7 regardless of app status - so a loud alarm will sound on the phone if a level is breaches (eg ‘temp over 99 degrees’).
By loud alarm I mean something that is loud and constant until cancelled (perhaps within the app which opens on alarm?) - so at a basic level like an alarm clock. A quiet ‘ping’ like a normal (Facebook, email) notification wont do it. Clearly the user cannot be relied upon to havethe Blynk developed app open on their phone at all times, so its needs to be a notification of some sort rather than a straight function in the code of the main app.
Can this be achieved in some way, or have I hit a brick wall?
This is the only option you have.
There are only Email, SMS and Push Notifcations available.
The developers have mentioned in the past that it is impossible as the app doesn’t have the ability to open itself due to limitations in the iOS/Android ecosystem.
There are possibly mail clients who can handle incoming mail and do stuff, but you’ll always have something running in the background, which leads to energy and/or data consumption.
That’s a real shame - there are lots of apps that do allow this ‘background running’ approach - 101 variations of the standard alarm clock, and one that alerts loudly on a specific SMS being sent, so the ‘ecosystem limitation’ but isn’t quite correct. I would have thought for a system that is essentially built around monitoring it would have been a priority!
This looks like it’s getting there - but there’s still no ‘acknowledge’ mechanism. If it goes of while I’m in the shower, I still miss it. I really need a ‘repeat’ until acknowledged - a bit like my $5 alarm clock!
You are right of course - but for a commercial product (which is where I am trying to head) its a bit clunky! I will persevere with very loud ringtones
But you just compared to a “commercial” alarm clock that has similar “clunky” buttons. Besides, opt for the Commercial App side of Blynk and I am sure they can make a notification that quacks like a duck if you needed it.
just to expand on the idea of loud alarm/alert - personally it would be cool to have a widget that can accept an mp3 file. I was thinking I would record messages such as; “alarm triggered”, “garden sprinkler activated”, “device xxx offline”, “tank full”, “max temperature exceed”, “christmas lights on/off” etc., so that when these events occurred my phone would say it out loud, like an intelligent butler informing me of events. Ideally this would work even when my Blynk app would be in the background but would be silent if I had the phone on mute.
As for the ‘repeating’ the standard alarm clock does that (mine is just called ‘alarm clock’ - its either native or a Huawei app).
The key point really is regardless of phone state the alarm sounds and ideally puts you into your Blynk app to take whatever actions are required (either just silence alarm or maybe make some other action).
As user ‘Mars’ notes this could have lots of applications for any monitoring type situation - after all if there weren’t exceptions you were looking for it wouldn’t be worth monitoring!
@Steve-K Discussion aside… Have you actually tried push notifications with a custom ringtone for yourself?
I have one - My Star Trek “Red Alert”, that is very loud and plays for about 15+ seconds. When triggered from my MCU, even with my phone “sleeping” and Blynk only in background, the alarm notification goes off and it displays the notification onscreen. And when I click on the notification, it stops the alert and opens the associated Project. And as I already mentioned, it is very easy to make that a repeatable alert.
Short answer no - I’m still scoping out whether Blynk offers all the bits I need before I invest lots of time. I’m aware that the app side isn’t fully open so I can’t just add what I need (or get someone else to!). Your description of how your Star trek works is exactly what I need!
There is a workaround, rather clumsy and with a maximum 1 minute delay, but it works like a charm, at least with my hardware (Chinese WEMOS D1 mini knockoff and Samsung Galaxy S7 with K-9 Mail), and only if you have at least GPRS coverage:
Use the e-mail widget to send an e-mail to your address
Use K-9 Mail to receive the message on your phone. The minimum poll setting for K9-Mail is 1 minute, but I fear your battery drain may be unacceptable with this setting. 5 minutes makes more sense. And this only works for K-9 mail.
Install the Fire Alert 2 app by Sven Hörnchen. This app can be programmed to trigger a loud alarm when an e-mail, which contains a programmable keyword, is received. The alarm overrides all silent settings on the phone, and can be set to ring indefinitely. (The alarm can also be programmed to be triggered by an sms containing the keyword, but that is besides the point.)
Yes, it has its drawbacks, but its free, unlike any sms service.
