Will the local server stop

Hello my friends Will the local server stop after a period of time I would like to use it and is there a plan to sell a local server with a lifetime license

If you install a Blynk legacy local server then it will keep running as long as you choose to keep it running.
You may eventually run into issues where the version of Java needed to run the local server is no longer compatible with OS updates, but o doubt that will happen any time soon.

The issue will be with the Blynk Legacy app. It will disappear from the app/play stores, but if you use Android you can keep a copy of the .apk file toget around that. The major issue is that as the Legacy app is not being updated, it will eventually becom incompatible with new Venice’s and new Android releases. That means you’ll need to carry an old phone around with you simply to be able to access Blynk Legacy.

I do t think that installing a Blynk local server just t9 avoid upgrading to Blynk IoT is a good idea.

The cost of setting-up, running and maintaining a Blynk local server is probably greater than you think, and if you use a Raspberry Pi then you will suffer an SD card failure at some point.
Building a machine that give 24/7 x 365 reliability is not a simple task.

There will be no updates to the local server code by Blynk, it is no longer supported, so ther will never be any legacy licencing.
If Blynk choose to licence a Blynk IoT local server then I think it will either have an extremely high one-off licensing cost, or will require an Internet connection back to Blynk so that the ongoing licensing subscription status can be checked, and the local server is likely to stop working if this verification cannot be completed.

My advice would be to use Blynk 2.0 with a cloud connection.

Pete.

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@PeteKnight Thank you for the answer. Is there an official way to buy a license for blynk 01 and install it on Windows or Linux? I don’t want to migrate to blynk 2.0 because in my country customers can’t pay a monthly fee. I can pay an amount to buy blynk server 1.0 if it is available

No, Blynk Legacy server is no longer supported, and it can’t be used for commercial purposes, that’s illegal.

Pete.

Of course I agree with Pete regarding the unlicensed use of private servers for commercial applications. Software licenses are there for a reason.

I have been using 3 separate Raspberry Pi local servers for years now. The code is stable and I cannot recall any of my servers ever crashing. They are solid and reliable and frankly don’t really need any official “support.” Sure I will eventually lose an SD card but for $8 for 3 years, the cost of SD replacements is not an issue. I frequently back up the systems to secondary SD cards anyway. Of course, I don’t hit these servers with multiple customers and many multiple apps.

I have not investigated the new code for one simple reason…it would require persistent internet connections. My systems can lose connectivity to the internet…but they never, ever lose a single data point or leave my systems without local control (relays running HVAC systems, power monitoring, etc.) I make extensive use of the bridge widget as these deployed systems make use of multiple 8266 nodes which cooperate within a single Blynk project app.

That aside, perhaps the Blynk developers would consider the option for a local Blynk hub which would accumulate local data and relay it to their cloud servers when available. The existing local server code would need some modifications for the added option of relaying local data to the cloud. That way distributed systems would operate uninterrupted by internet outages or the temporary lack of connectivity. After all, when I lose connectivity I cannot access the locally hosted apps anyway, but I will, eventually be able to access the data for that period when connectivity is restored.

Personally I would prefer to pay a significant license fee ( subscription if necessary) for the continued support of Blynk 1.0 clients on smart devices. This would also eliminate any practical commercial use of Blynk 1.0 local servers since it would be cost prohibitive.

No, but the inconvenience can be a factor. If your HA automation systems rely on the local server being online then you need a competent person to be able to physically access your device to swap-out the SD card to get your systems back up and running again.
SSD based systems tend to be much more reliable, and a dual SSD based Pi system is even better, but more expensive to build and more power-hungry.

That was originally going to be my approach to HA, but then I realised that MQTT + Node-Red was a better approach for my use-case, with Node-Red acting as the bridge to Blynk. Using MQTT also gives built-in compatibility with other devices running Tasmota or Zigbee2MQTT if needed.

I don’t think that approach fits into Blynk’s strategy of “onwards and upwards” and focussing on the new product rather than creating a corporate distraction by having to also maintain the old product and apps, but you never know!

Pete.

Good thoughts Pete. Seems to me that a modified local server as a data hub would be a Blynk solution equivalent to your MQTT + Node-Red approach. This is especially true since most of the effort on the Blynk 2.0 revolves around app and display features and not data acquisition code. This approach would give developers a seamless path to access all of the new Blynk features without starting over on all of the coding in their distributed devices. The local server already acquires and buffers data and a connection to the cloud would not require a lot of new code but rather a method of relaying accumulated data to the cloud in a time independent fashion.

In either case, the developers shouldn’t feel bad that their existing and loyal user group today might prefer what they already developed and released to where they are currently going. It is a testament to their past accomplishments with Blynk 1.0.

Not really, Node-Red is such a powerful integration and rules engine solution that a Blynk hub would never replace it.
If Blynk 2.0 had a facility to write historic data into the database then it would open-up a variety of various off-line solutions, from using Node-Red with a local database to writing data into the NVRAM or SD card of an MCU.
I understand that Blynk 2.0 stores raw data rather than one-minute and one-hour aggregated data, so potentially there is the ability to write historical time-stamped data into the Blynk server’s database.

Pete.

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Agree, hopefully the developers are listening…

To me, a poor little 8266 relying on a local wireless connection, through a router to an ISP to the Cloud is too tenuous for good data acquisition. An interrupted connection at any point and that data is never recovered and lost forever!

In my experience developing distributed systems, developers generally assume that everything outside of their code always works reliably. The internet infrastructure is pretty reliable but practically speaking that assumption is a serious mistake.

Just realize that the Blynk Local Server on Github is no longer exist, RIP Blynk LOCAL SERVER…

I forked the repository before it disappeared…

Pete.

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Thanks Pete for the effort, now I can download the server-0.41.16.jar file? Previously I’m stuck with .14 version :slight_smile:

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