Bluetooth USB flash drive that allows transfer of video / photos?

[Donnie]

So, we have a couple of blink cameras set up on the chicken coop and I do not bother with the subscription BUT the sync module has a usb a port for a usb drive which can be used for any motion detection.

However, you need to unplug it and then connect to the computer like any other flash drive to download any videos, so my brain suddenly wondered if there is such a thing as a flash drive with bluetooth connectivity so I could bluetooth from the laptop or phone and download that way?

Or even better, a usb lead that I could attach to my mac mini and they could download straight to that?

Am I being too hopeful with these thoughts?

 

[f/1.2]

Sounds like you would be best to upgrade the camera to one that offers this feature as standard, there are some that can do it without the need for a subscription like Tapo Eufy etc.

You can buy wireless memory sticks but would be surprised if they will work with your camera as usually need driver software to be installed. Sandisk used to do them but not sure if they still offer them.

 

[Jakey_Boy]

Hi

I have Blink cameras all around the house.
I haven’t subscribed either - just saving to a usb stick as you.
In the Blink app, when you view a clip there’s an icon at the top left of the clip pane that looks like a paper aeroplane. This is for sharing the clip. Any I wish to save I usually upload to one of my cloud storage accounts. You can also email to yourself.
If you install the Blink app on your Mac you can just ‘Save to Files’

What I’m describing is what I do using the Blink iOS app.

Cheers

Jake

 

[Donnie]

Sounds like you would be best to upgrade the camera to one that offers this feature as standard, there are some that can do it without the need for a subscription like Tapo Eufy etc.

You can buy wireless memory sticks but would be surprised if they will work with your camera as usually need driver software to be installed. Sandisk used to do them but not sure if they still offer them.

it's not the camera they need to work with, the cameras already save the clips to the usb via the sync module, so all i need is a way to check the clips saved to the usb without having to unplug the usb drive every time.

 

[alexning]

Unfortunately, a simple USB lead won't work because both the sync module and the Mac Mini act as 'hosts'. You might want to look into a wireless stick with its own Wi-Fi hotspot; it stays plugged into the sync module, but you can log into it from your phone or laptop to download clips

 

[xwindows]

However, you need to unplug it and then connect to the computer like any other flash drive to download any videos, so my brain suddenly wondered if there is such a thing as a flash drive with bluetooth connectivity so I could bluetooth from the laptop or phone and download that way?

Remember those WiFi-enabled SD cards?

I haven't personally used one myself so I'm not too privy about specifics; but I have heard that it would either mirror everything the camera wrote into it onto a network server of your choice, or create a WiFi fake access point that you could connect to and download the photos/videos without yanking it out.

So, maybe when you put it in a (not-so-)cheap USB card reader, and plug that reader into your camera; it would allow you to do just that?

With the quirks in how they share the actual storage with the camera though, I think they might not allow you to delete files over WiFi; so you might want to be liberal about the size of the card, and you might still actually need to plug it to the computer to delete the files from time to time.