Blynk - The most popular mobile app for IoT - now integrated with JemRF
We recently finished an integration of our RF sensors with Blynk who identify themselves as the most popular mobile app for IoT. As you can see from the picture the "widgets" are very good looking. They are also very easy to configure and connect with the JemRF sensors. We've added support for:
- Temperature sensor (All modules)
- DS18B20 Temperature Sensor (Flex Module)
- DHT22 Temperature and Humidity Sensor (Flex module)
- Wireless switch sensor (all modules)
- Battery levels (All modules)
- Relay A and B for remote control from the Blynk app (Flex module)
- Analog A and B sensors (Flex module)
Their App is available for both Android and IOS. The first few widgets are free but once you reach the free limit you then you pay for what they call "energy" that gives you access to more widgets. It's fairly inexpensive, though. For under $10 you can configure a very sophisticated phone app to monitor, control and alert. There are no monthly fees.
Apart from the very nice visual interface for displaying sensor values you can also control stuff through buttons. We have connected their Button Widget to the Flex module relay so you can switch things on/off using the Blynk App.
As mentioned they also have alerts and notifications. You can add an email widget to send email alerts or a notification widget to trigger notification on your cell phone. Both of these require you to develop the code to trigger the email and alert.
One drawback of Blynk compared to other IoT servers (Home Assistant or IFTT for example) is they don't have a rules engine that can trigger events like email, notification and automatons. I have read about some the ability to integrate IFTTT with Blynk so that may act a workaround.
However for a monthly fee you can ask them to create an clone of your Bylnk App and make it into a genuine App that can be downloaded from the app store under you own logo.
One truly distinctive aspect of Blynk is their server....its OpenSourced. They call it "democratizing IoT". You can download their server and store all your data on your own local server or cloud compute instance.
Overall we found the Bylnk app extremely user friendly, and good looking. We especially liked the SuperChart (seen above).
As the app says : "Enjoy your Blynking!"..and if you want to install your own Blynk server...enjoy the new democratic world of IoT!