Can't arm/disarm more than one camera at a time

[iamds]

Describe the bug
When I try to arm/disarm more than one camera, only the first camera is armed/disarmed. Is this due to calling the api too quickly?

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

blink = Blink()
auth = Auth(json_load("/home/username/creds.json"))
blink.auth = auth
blink.start()

blink.cameras["camera1"].arm = True
blink.cameras["camera2"].arm = True

This will only arm camera1

Expected behavior
I would expect camera1 and camera2 to be armed

blinkpy version (not needed if filling out Home Assistant version):
blinkpy 0.16.3

[Kevin Fronczak]

Yes this is intended behavior. The arm API call is internally throttled to prevent accounts from getting suspended. You should add a delay of a minimum of 5s (10s recommended)

[iamds]

blink = Blink()
auth = Auth(json_load("/home/username/creds.json"))
blink.auth = auth
blink.start()

blink.cameras["camera1"].arm = True
time.sleep(30)
blink.cameras["camera2"].arm = True

also only arms 1 camera

[Kevin Fronczak]

How are you checking that the arm call succeeded/failed?

[iamds]

I'm viewing it in the app

[iamds]

without the sleep, it will only arm the first camera.
with the sleep it will arm the first camera if both are disarmed, on a second run it will arm the second camera because the first camera is already armed

[Kevin Fronczak]

It takes some time for changes to be updated in the app. I've had to close out and open before to see updates. The arm API endpoints are camera-specific so one camera needing another to be armed before it is armed doesn't make sense here

[iamds]

Do you have an example that you know works?

[iamds]

My full app is:

from blinkpy.blinkpy import Blink
from blinkpy.auth import Auth
from blinkpy.helpers.util import json_load
import time

blink = Blink()
auth = Auth(json_load("/home/pi/blinkcredentions.json"))
blink.auth = auth
blink.start()

print("")
for name, camera in blink.cameras.items():
    print(name + str(camera.arm))
print("")

time.sleep(30)
blink.cameras["back"].arm = False
blink.refresh()
print("")
for name, camera in blink.cameras.items():
    print(name + str(camera.arm))
print("")

time.sleep(30)
blink.cameras["hallway"].arm = False
blink.refresh()
print("")
for name, camera in blink.cameras.items():
    print(name + str(camera.arm))
print("")

and this outputs:

hallwayTrue
frontTrue
backTrue
porchTrue


hallwayTrue
frontTrue
backFalse
porchTrue


hallwayTrue
frontTrue
backFalse
porchTrue

[Kevin Fronczak]

Add a small delay (say 10s) right before the call to refresh and see if the output changes at all.

[iamds]

It's inconsistent. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't

[Kevin Fronczak]

That would be a blink server throttling problem then. It's a constant struggle. In general, the longer you wait between calls the more reliable the output. I'm going to close this again since it appears to just be a problem with too many API calls in rapid succession causing calls to be ignored on the blink server. Let me know if you run into any other data points suggesting a bug with the library 👍

[iamds]

Thanks Kevin!