Important!
You are going to want to setup your INGICS BLE Gateway before using this beacon. This is not an iBeacon or an Eddystone Beacon.
Beacon Setup
Once you receive your beacon follow these steps to configure:
- Install 2 CR2032 3V Coin Cell Batteries. Be sure to align the positive (+) marker on the batteries with the positive + indicator on the battery holder
2. Download the iBS01 Beacon Tag Util from the Google Play Store (Android Only).
3. Activate the beacon by sliding the white button on the top of the beacon.
4. Open the iBS01 Tag Util and press the “Start Scan” button. Make note of the last string of the iBS01 beacon that shows up in the list. This is the identifier of the beacon that you will see in the MQTT Message Reported by the IGICS Gateway.
5. The only thing that is configurable via the Android App for the Tag Beacon are the Tx Power (Strength of the BLE Radio Signal) and the ADV Interval (The interval in milliseconds that the BLE Radio Signal will broadcast at). You will tweak these settings, along with the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) setting on the gateway in order to ensure the gateway is picking up the BLE Radio Signals from the Tag Beacon. (More on tweaking RSSI and other advanced gateway settings will be in a separate blog).
6. As noted at the start of the blog, these tags do not broadcast using the Eddystone or iBeacon standards; they use a proprietary standard, which broadcasts a single string, or payload, that represents the Tag beacon (it’s identity) and it’s state (if the alarm button has been pressed on the beacon). You can find this payload format here. For instance, for the payload:
| 02010612FF | 590080BC | 4D01 | 00 | FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF |
The double 00 Before the F’s in the diagram above would indicate that the button has not been pressed. If the button was pressed the payload would look like this:
| 02010612FF | 590080BC | 4D01 | 01 | FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF |
The 1 before the F’s let’s you know that the alarm button was pressed.
In future blogs we will demonstrate how to bring these payload messages that are sent by the gateway into your existing environment so you can both monitor and take action on the data provided by these beacons.