Category: BeaconZone

Fixing Beacons to Objects

Most beacons come with 3M double sided stickers that allow them to be fixed to walls. However, over time, these can become detached. If you want beacons to stay attached for a long time, want to make theft more difficult or need a better fixing for rough environments then you will need to look into screw fixing.

The Smartbeacon AA Pro has a holder and includes flat head screws:

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The long range Minew i3 has two screw holes, screw fixings and a sticker:

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The W905 has screw holes (but no screws):

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The long range TON9118 has two screw holes and screws:

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Some of our customers use the holes to instead fix with plastic ties. This also works with smaller beacons that have lanyard holes at the edge of of the case:

One final option is to put beacons without screw holes inside another object or behind something. However, make sure that the intervening material isn’t metallic otherwise it will shield the signal.

Waveshare NRF51822 Eval Kit in Stock

The beacons we sell allow settings such as UUID, major, minor signal strength and advertising period to be set via the respective manufacturer iOS and Android apps. However, what if you want to program the SoC itself to implement custom advertising schemes, extra settings and communicate with other hardware?

We now stock the Waveshare BLE400 kit that allows you to program the nRF51822. It includes the BLE module, a Bluetooth Core 51822 beacon and a USB cable. We also have additional Core 51822 modules that can be plugged into the BLE400 motherboard or used stand-alone.

 

Faraday RF-Shield Bags in Stock

We now have Faraday Radio Frequency RF shield nylon bags in stock. Specially made for us using stronger anti-RF fabric, we have tested this bag shields even our ultra long range Bluetooth beacons. Faraday bags can be very useful during development when you want to bring beacons in and out of range or need to hide development beacons. They are also useful during setup when you want to shield uncomissioned beacons temporarily.

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These bags were originally designed for military, intelligence and police agencies to prevent seized devices from being remotely altered. They shield WiFi, Bluetooth and phone signals up to 70dBm. They can also be used with phones and tablets for personal anti-radiation health reasons, preventing tracking or avoiding communication when you don’t want to be interrupted.

White iB003N-PA 300m Range in Stock

We now have the white version of the iB003N-PA in stock. The iB003-PA is our longest range beacon and can reach up to 300m in open space. Other features of this beacon include motion triggered broadcast, accelerometer sensor (in advertising data), the ability to send iBeacon & Eddystone simultaneously and waterproofing.

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We check beacons as they come into stock because we invariably get a few that are dead on arrival. We had a faulty iB003N-PA this time so this gave us the opportunity to open one up. Here’s the pcb:

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The largest chip is the N51822 SoC found in many beacons. At the very top is the PCB antenna. The thing on wires in the middle is the buzzer. The chip at the top is the RFAXIS X2401C 2.4GHz RF front end that gives this beacon its long range.

The Manufacturer Site Says xyz. Why Doesn’t the Version BeaconZone Sells Support This?

Some manufacturers over-sell the capabilities of their beacons and pre-sales literature sometimes mentions features that are only available via manufacturing customisation. They are sort of saying it’s possible, but you will find you have to pay a lot extra for a custom version. We only list the features actually provided by the beacons we sell.

More Sky Beacons Available

We have had some stocks come in from Sky and we now have three extra beacons available.

The first is a variant of the Forecum 200 that’s mounted in a wristband.

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We also have a new rechargeable, wearable beacon, the HV104 that recharges via USB:

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Finally, we have an unusual beacon, the HF300 in that it can be powered by USB or AA batteries. We believe the intention is that it is usually powered by the USB and the AA batteries act as a backup in case of loss of USB power:

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