Meet Blynk - an easier way to connect your Arduino and smartphone and make a user interface for your project

Hi guys,

We've been working on a project that will make it easier for everyone to connect an iPhone or Android smartphone to your Arduino project and build a graphic interface for it.

It’s called Blynk and yesterday we launched a Kickstarter campaign to tell the world about it. Our team would really love to hear feedback and ideas from this amazing community.

If you like it - you can support us and help make it happen. Here is Blynk page on Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/167134865/blynk-build-an-app-for-your-arduino-project-in-5-m

You can also follow our updates here:

http://www.facebook.com/blynkapp

http://twitter.com/blynk_app

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clem57 over 10 years ago

Any security in design?
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Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to clem57

Hi Clem,

That's a good question, thanks!

Currently we see no need in extra security layer. But we plan to have it as an additional widget. Also, we see that adding security affects performance a lot.
Secondly, you can run server on your side, which means you control everything.
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Jan Cumps over 10 years ago in reply to Former Member

Hi,

You do mention in your kickstarter:

It handles all the authentication and communication

What do you mean with authentication if it doesn't support security?
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Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to Jan Cumps

Yes Jan, authentication is used to define which client (Arduino) is talking to which app.

How it works:
Arduino uses unique authentication token to connect to server
Smartphone app uses same token to connect to server
Server authenticates both devices and puts them into one "chat room" where they talk to each other.

By adding security - I mean encrypting messages between app and Arduino.

Hope it answers your question.

Regarding latency, to be honest, we are surprised on how well Blynk currently performs. I can notice almost no lag in response, especially when running server locally. But even with the remote server it works well.
Of course some packets are lost from time to time, but we are working on enhancing our library.
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Jan Cumps over 10 years ago in reply to Former Member

Thank you for your response on the security.
For the latency I have a follow up question: for drones I'd expect a guaranteed turnaround time. There's the risk that the device will be out of reach after a fairly short time.
I'd like to know the typical and maximum lag.

Regards, Jan
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Jan Cumps over 10 years ago in reply to Former Member

Thank you for your response on the security.
For the latency I have a follow up question: for drones I'd expect a guaranteed turnaround time. There's the risk that the device will be out of reach after a fairly short time.
I'd like to know the typical and maximum lag.

Regards, Jan
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Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to Jan Cumps

Jan,

First of all, I would not consider wifi being the best solution for drones. It may work for playing with it at home, but fore more serious project I would go for radio, of course.
However, I'm also impressed with this video, which shows us pretty good distance with esp8266 wifi module. But it needs thorough testing, definitely
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BYdZ_24yg0

Right now I can't provide you with the exact numbers, let me come back later to you with it. It's miliseconds currently.
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