You might wonder whether USB beacons can be used to enable desktops/laptops or any USB device to receive beacon transmissions.
USB beacons don’t work this way and only use the USB connection for power. A few such as the Minew U1 have UART USB serial support that can be used to control the beacon but it still doesn’t detect beacons. It beacon only sends and doesn’t receive.
U1 UART Beacon
What you need is a ‘Sniffer’ such as the ABSniffer 528. It scans for Bluetooth devices and sends the data via USB to the device powering it.
ABSniffer 528
Alternatively, look for a standard Bluetooth dongle that that supports Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) and an associated programming API for ESP32, Raspberry Pi, Windows or Linux.
The situation with Bluetooth 6.0 is essentially the same as it was with Bluetooth 5. The adoption of Bluetooth Channel Sounding, much like earlier advancements such as Mesh, Direction Finding and Angle of Arrival (AoA), is expected to face significant delays before becoming generally available in deployable products.
Historically, the uptake of newer Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) enhancements has been slow, largely because they require not only new hardware but also updated software that makes use of the latest Software Development Kits (SDKs). This combination adds complexity to both development and deployment. In addition, compatibility constraints mean that new Bluetooth LE features typically cannot be retrofitted to existing smartphone devices, which further limits their early adoption.
At this time, the only device we are aware of that offers Bluetooth 6.0 Channel Sounding capability is the Moko L03. While we do not stock this beacon as a standard item, it can be sourced and supplied as part of our consultancy and development work.
For those who need effective distance measurement, another option is to consider beacons such as the iBS03R, which includes a dedicated Time of Flight (TOF) distance sensing hardware module.
Beacons with an on/off button are popular in product and app development because they make it easier to test scenarios where a device goes into and out of range, without needing to physically move the beacon. This saves time during development and allows for more controlled testing conditions. The on/off function also provides a practical way to conserve battery life, since the beacon can be switched off when it is not needed, ensuring that power is only used during active testing.
K21 With On-Off Button
However, it is important not to rely solely on the on/off button when testing how beacons move in and out of range. You should also run tests at the edge of the detection area to understand how your app behaves as the beacon repeatedly appears and disappears. This is particularly relevant on Android, where, unlike iOS in the background, the operating system does not enforce a minimum period that a beacon must remain out of range before being considered visible again. On iOS, it is equally important to test at the edge of detection when the app is running in the background or not running at all, to ensure you capture the differences in behaviour across platforms.
Another way of hiding beacons is to use a Faraday bag:
We get asked a lot which beacons are the most compatible. All beacons, whether iBeacon or Eddystone, are compatible with iOS and Android. There are a few ‘tracker’ type Bluetooth devices around that don’t transmit the right Bluetooth header and can’t be seen on iOS but we don’t sell those.
Almost all beacons are slight derivations of a few standard circuit designs and firmware provided by Texas Instruments, Dialog and Nordic who produce the System On a Chip (SoC) inside beacons. Hence, they all transmit to Bluetooth standards.
Use of standard SoC Chip and firmware libraries ensures Bluetooth compatibility
The main factor that can vary between beacons is the antenna and PCB layout, which can result in different radiation patterns. This does not affect the ability to detect a beacon, but it does influence the signal strength and stability, which in turn can affect range.
Beacons generally do not differ in terms of compatibility. The main differences are physical characteristics such as battery size and waterproofing, which are listed as categories on the left-hand side of our store.
A common misconception is that problems arise from beacon compatibility, when in fact they are more often related to phone compatibility. Over time, we have found that around five per cent of customers experience issues connecting the manufacturer’s configuration app to beacons, more so on Android devices. To clarify, this only applies when apps need to connect to a beacon in order to change its settings, not when simply scanning for beacons. For most end users, once a beacon is set up, this does not present a problem.
In short, Bluetooth standards ensure that all beacons can be detected by all phones, so compatibility is not an issue. The problems we have encountered have been linked to smartphones rather than the beacons themselves and we have never had a beacon returned to us on the grounds of incompatibility.
Beacons don’t generally need to store data because they are just sending out their unique id. However, sensor beacons do sense values over time that you might want to collect later via, for example, an app coming close to the beacon. Specialist devices such as social distancing beacons need to store close contacts for later collection.
It is a misconception that beacons send data directly to smartphones when they come into proximity. In reality, beacons only transmit a small identifier, not the actual content or data itself. This identifier is then matched to information stored elsewhere, either on the user’s device or on a remote server. The relevant app, or app calling a server, uses this match to retrieve and display the appropriate data to the user.
Beacons use a System on a Chip (SoC), such as the Nordic nRF51, that includes memory. Most of the memory is used for the internal functioning of the beacon. Newer versions of SoC, for example the Nordic nRF52, have more memory that allows data to be stored.
M52-SA Plus Temperature Logger Beacon
There are some sensor logger beacons that store sensor values but this tends to be restricted to temperature logging.
Too many potential customers contact us asking what’s the least expensive beacon that provides the best range, the best battery life and the smallest size. Unfortunately, all these things are related. You need a larger battery to provide enough power for a longer range. A large battery implies a larger beacon size. A larger battery and case implies a more expensive beacon. The choice of ‘best’ beacon usually involves some sort of compromise.
It’s also often the case that customers focus on price, range, battery life and size without considering other factors such as:
Visual appearance – Good-looking beacons can sometimes be counter-productive as they can be attractive to thieves. Black ones or ones that blend into the environment work best.
App – Some manufacturer configuration apps are easier to use than others. We prefer KKM, Meeblue and Minew apps.
Waterproofing – Some unexpected scenarios, such as use inside cars, need waterproofing due to high humidity.
Motion triggering – Some beacons provide motion triggering to significantly increase battery life.
On-off button – It’s sometimes desirable to be able to turn the beacon on and off without having to remove the battery, especially during storage.
Attachment options – Some beacons include strong double sided stickers, tabs for screws or holes for fastening.
Beacons are small computers that run software, more specifically firmware. Beacon manufacturers write the firmware that uses Bluetooth software libraries to send out iBeacon, Eddystone and/or sensor data advertising and allow setup via their iOS and Android apps.
When a beacon supports over-the-air (OTA) update, it allows that firmware to be updated without physically connecting to the beacon with wires. A smartphone app, such as the manufacturers’ app or the generic Nordic nRF Toolbox is used to connect to the beacon via Bluetooth and update the firmware.
In practice, manufacturers hardly ever update their firmware so whether a beacon supports OTA update or not isn’t usually an issue.
A further use of OTA is the facilitation of custom firmware when the standard firmware needs to be updated to provide for specially required functionality. This is non-trivial and ideally needs to be performed by the original manufacturer because they have the original source code. We have arranged this for a few customers but it tends to only be financially viable for large orders.
BeaconZone Programming jig
It’s also possible to completely replace the software in some beacons, something we provide via custom solutions and previously used in our social distancing and Bluetooth mesh solutions. In these cases, OTA tends to be too slow for large numbers of beacons so wired programming jigs are sometimes used instead.
We have just one beacon that can advertise LINE. This post explains LINE advertising with information on the packet format.
LINE Beacons are used alongside the LINE messenger service, which enables users to exchange text, video, and voice messages on both smartphones and personal computers. This service is currently available in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia. LINE offers developer APIs for both iOS and Android platforms, allowing developers to integrate LINE functionality into their own applications.
The LINE Beacon system works by sending webhook events to a LINE bot whenever a user with the LINE app comes into close range of a registered beacon. This enables developers to create context-aware interactions, tailoring the bot’s behaviour based on the user’s proximity to specific physical locations. In addition, there is a feature known as the beacon banner, which is accessible to corporate users. This allows a promotional banner to appear in the LINE messenger app when the user approaches a LINE Beacon, providing another layer of engagement for location-based services and marketing campaigns.
LINE Bluetooth Advertising
Unlike iBeacon, LINE Beacon packets have a secure message field to prevent packet tampering and replay attacks. The secure data is 7 bytes long containing a message authentication code, timestamp and battery level. Secure messages are sent to the LINE platform for verification.
Generating LINE Advertising
LINE recommend LINE beacon packets be sent at a very high rate of every 152ms. In addition, LINE recommend advertising iBeacon (UUID D0D2CE24-9EFC-11E5-82C4-1C6A7A17EF38, Major 0x4C49, Mino 0x4E45) to notify iOS devices that the LINE Beacon device is nearby. This is because an iOS app can only see iBeacons when in background and LINE beacons can’t wake an app.
We observe that the high advertising rate and concurrent iBeacon advertising aren’t battery friendly and the beacon battery isn’t going to last long.
We sometimes get asked if it’s possible to use a smartphone as a gateway to scan for Bluetooth devices. The thinking is usually that workers or users already have devices so why not make use of them?
While it is possible, there are many reasons why you might not want to do this:
On iOS, Apple hide Bluetooth MAC addresses and for some APIs hide the iBeacon ids making unique identification more difficult.
You will find it very difficult to get a continuously scanning app through Apple app store review. You will need strong justifications.
Scanning continuously uses lots of battery power, even when advertising with periodic ‘off’ and ‘on’ periods.
Capabilities of devices vary meaning you will almost certainly get some end user devices where your implementation won’t work. For example, some manufacturers stop long running processes.
On Android there’s a limit of six scans every 30 seconds. Also, it’s necessary to scan in a foreground activity to prevent the operating system from throttling detections. There are hacks to instead run scanning in threads but these aren’t officially supported and so might not be viable in future OS releases. It’s best not to create production apps based on hacks as they can suddenly stop working.
Some users will play with their phones and end up purposely or inadvertently disabling your application.
The best scenarios are those where you can dictate the phone type, it can be mains (PSU) powered and the phone isn’t owned by a user (i.e. it’s just used as a gateway). It’s almost always better to use a dedicated gateway.
We often get questions asking what kinds of things can block Bluetooth signals and enquiries about the relative blocking of different materials.
Metal obstructions or metal-based surfaces such as metal-reinforced concrete cause the most blocking followed by other dense building materials such as plaster and concrete. Next comes water that you might not think would be a problem but, as people are made up of 60% water, bodies blocking Bluetooth signals can be a significant factor. Least blocking are glass (but not bulletproof), wood and plastics.
Blocking can be caused by wireless noise as well and physical obstructions. This includes electrical noise from other electrical equipment as well as interference from devices using the same 2.4GHz frequency. WiFi on 2.4GHz causes negligible interference.
In extreme cases, a very large number of Bluetooth devices can cause interference with each other because only one can advertise at a time without there being collisions and hence lost data. The maximum number of Bluetooth devices depends on how long and how often the Bluetooth devices transmit. It also depends on whether devices are just advertising or additionally using GATT connections. Bluetooth also has adaptive frequency hopping that helps reduce packet interference.
