Hey everyone, I wanted to share my recent success in setting up an automation with my Blink camera. I’ve been trying to get my Blink camera to automatically save an image and send it via Telegram whenever my doorbell is pressed. It was a bit of a puzzle at first, but I managed to figure it out!
Initially, I followed some online guides and set up an automation in my automation.yaml file. The idea was pretty straightforward: when the doorbell sensor detects motion, trigger the Blink camera to take a snapshot and send it to my Telegram channel. However, it wasn’t working as expected. The camera would trigger, but the image wouldn’t send, or it would send without the correct caption.
After some trial and error, I realized the issue was with the timing and the way the image was being saved and retrieved. I added a delay in the automation to ensure the camera had enough time to capture the image properly. I also adjusted the file path and made sure the permissions were set correctly so that Home Assistant could access and send the image.
Here’s a simplified version of the automation I ended up with:
yaml
- alias: ‘Door Bell Alert’
trigger:
platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.doorbell
from: ‘off’
to: ‘on’
action:
sequence:
- service: notify.telegram
data_template:
message: ‘Door Bell Alert’
- service: blink.trigger_camera
data:
entity_id: camera.blink_front
- delay: 00:00:05
- service: camera.snapshot
data:
entity_id: camera.blink_front
filename: /tmp/doorbell.jpg
- service: notify.telegram
data_template:
message: ‘Door Bell Alert’
photo:
- file: /tmp/doorbell.jpg
caption: ‘Door Bell Alert’
This setup works perfectly now! Whenever someone presses the doorbell, I get an immediate alert followed by the image a few seconds later. It’s incredibly handy, especially when I’m not home and want to keep an eye on things.
I’d like to thank the community for all the helpful tips and troubleshooting advice. If anyone else is trying to set something similar up, I’d be happy to help! Just drop a comment below, and I’ll do my best to assist.
Cheers,
[Your Name]