TRBOnet is a 2-way radio dispatch system sold and supported by Motorola. It can use iBeacons to provide for locating where the Motorola radio GPS doesn’t work. This allows radios and hence people to be located indoors or undercover areas such as trees.
TRBOnet Plus
TRBOnet Plus will work with any iBeacons. The ones with higher battery capacity tend to be used so that batteries don’t have to be replaced for years.
The i3 is popular for use with TRBOnet as it takes AA batteries that can be easily sourced and the unit has screw tags for permanent mounting. Some sites also use USB beacons that can be powered from the mains via USB power supplies.
If you use the i3, or any beacon using AA batteries, we recommend you use lithium AA batteries rather than alkaline. This will not only provide a longer battery life but will also provide better resilience at lower temperatures.
We recently started selling beacons that can advertise LINE. This post explains LINE advertising with information on the packet format.
LINE Beacons are used with the LINE messenger service that allows users to send text, video, and voice messages on smartphones and the PC. It’s currently available in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia. LINE have iOS and Android developer APIs that allow you to hook into the LINE service and include LINE services in your app. The LINE beacon allows your LINE code, called a bot, to receive beacon webhook events whenever a LINE user enters the proximity of a beacon. The beacons allow you to customise your bot app to interact with users in specific contexts. There’s also a beacon banner feature, available for corporate users, that causes a banner to appear in the LINE messenger app when it comes close to a LINE beacon.
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.
Bluetooth beacons use Bluetooth LE, a low power version of Bluetooth to repeatedly send out a short amount of data typically up to 50m but in some cases hundreds of metres. The data usually includes an identifier in various standard formats such as iBeacon or Eddystone. It can also include sensor data.
The beacon advertising can be picked up by other Bluetooth LE devices such as smartphones, WiFi gateways to send to a server and single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi.
The key features are:
Low power and hence can work for up to years on battery power
Interoperability with a large number of other Bluetooth LE devices
The iB003N-PA has a range up to 300m because it uses the RFAXIS X2401C 2.4GHz amplifier to increase the range.
iB003N-PA
When you use the manufacturer app to change the power output by a beacon, you are changing the power output by the Nordic nRF51 System on a Chip (SoC) that is usually fed to the antenna. In the case of the iB003N-PA, the RFAXIS X2401C instead receives the signal, amplifies it and sends it to the antenna. The resultant change in output is:
SoC Setting
X2401C Output
0dbm
20dBm
4dbm
20dBm
-5dbm
15dBm
-10dbm
10dBm
20dBm is the maximum allowable output for class 1 Bluetooth. There’s no difference whether you set to 0dBm or 4dBm, the output will be 20dBm. Even at a low power setting, -10dbm, the amplified output is 10dBm which is relatively high compared to the nominal 0dBm for most beacons. That’s just over 3x the power (3dBm change is a doubling of power) of a normal beacon. You can see that this beacon is primarily designed for long distance and there’s no need to change the SoC power from the default 0dBm = 20dBm.
We sometimes get asked “What is iBeacon Technology?”. In terms of the beacon itself, iBeacon doesn’t imply much. The underlying Bluetooth does most of the hard work. iBeacon is only one of many possible formats of standard Bluetooth advertising.
The iBeacon advertising consists of three identifiers UUID, major and minor. We have an article explaining how these are usually set up.
The more useful functionality is in iOS itself. Apps can declare an interest in particular beacons and be triggered even when the app is not running. The triggering is usually used to cause a notification on the phone that the user can tap on to do more. If the app is already open, it can look for beacons and display appropriate app content.
Android may also trigger and scan for iBeacons but this is in the context of scanning for Bluetooth advertising as opposed to specific iBeacons.
Yes, provided the phones use Windows Phone 10 or later. Prior versions don’t have the necessary APIs to scan for beacons.
There’s also a 3rd party library that abstracts away some of the complications of interpreting the different kinds of advertising (iBeacon, Eddystone). There’s alsoa sample app.
The main difference between beacons and RFID is the range. RFID only works up to 1m while beacons typically reach 50m to 100m, even more for specialist beacons. It’s also possible to get an indication of distance to the beacon whereas with RFID it’s just ‘seen’ or ‘not seen’.
RFID tags are less expensive than beacons. However, as the range of beacons is much larger, fewer readers are required thus compensating for the extra cost. It’s also possible to totally cover a much larger area.
The iB003N has an accelerometer that can be used to cause this beacon to only broadcast when it has been moved. This can be used to save battery power or as an alert that something, that shouldn’t move, has been moved. For example, we have a customer putting them on warehouse racking legs to detect when the forklift truck has crashed into them.
The iB003N manufacturer documentation on motion triggered broadcast is split over many sections of the user guide making understanding setup harder than it needs to be. In fact, it’s very simple. Connect to the beacon using the eBeacon app and set Service 0xFF70, Characteristic 0x2A80 (the beacon state) to 0x04. The beacon will now only transmit when moved.
We have had enquiries whether beacons can be used on aircraft. While there’s no specific guidance on beacons from aviation authorities, beacons transmit the same radio signals to other Bluetooth devices such as the FitBit, Android Wear, Apple Watch and Bluetooth headphones. These devices are classed as Personal Electronic Devices (PED).
There’s a manufacturer-supplied video in our Ankhmaway technical information that shows how to open the iB004N. We haven’t been happy with this video for some time. Firstly, if you open the beacon as shown you are likely to crack the case. Secondly, it shows someone wielding what looks like a metal screwdriver that, given where it’s used, could easily short or damage the circuit board. Thirdly, if you snap it shut as shown, you will snap off the retaining lugs.
We have found that the best way to open the iB004N is with a plastic sharp edge such as a guitar pick. Push it down as shown, where there isn’t a retaining lug:
Lever and the case top pops off. Use a plastic tool to lever up the printed circuit board and replace the battery.
To put the lid back on, first place the lid side with the two lugs into the corresponding two holes in the side. Push the lid down and use the plastic sharp edge, in the same position as you used to take the lid off, to widen the case slightly as you push the lid right down. This way, the lug won’t snap off.
