Category: Sensor Beacons

Can Beacons Store Data?

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.

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.

Temperature Logger Sensor
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.

In-Vehicle Bluetooth Sensing

Teltonika have an innovative range of advanced vehicle trackers that include Bluetooth. The tracker can scan for other nearby Bluetooth devices and send sensor data to a server.

FMB120 Telematics Tracker

There’s a getting started guide that explains how this is setup and provides screens showing how it works.

This allows not just for sensing telematics about the vehicles themselves but also about other assets or people. For example, if people carry beacons it’s possible to know who is driving or is in a vehicle. If you tag equipment usually stored in a vehicle you can determine where it is or if it is about to be removed from a vehicle. For temperature sensitive goods, such as medicines, you can continuously audit temperature compliance. It’s also possible to provide for location specific triggering, for example, producing work orders when a vehicle reaches an exact point whether or not there’s GPS coverage.

Read more about sensor beacons

New Thin Beacons in Stock

We have two new thin beacons in stock. The Meeblue U1 and UL1 are only 4.8mm x 45mm x 25.5mm and weigh only 7g.

These beacons are similar to the iB001M in that they are particularly suitable for wearing by humans or animals. These new models have twice the battery power of the iB001M and use the more battery efficient Nordic Semiconductor nRF52 series system on a chip (SoC).

An accelerometer can be used to provide for motion triggered advertising. The accelerometer is only used for motion triggered broadcast and has adjustable movement threshold. They can also be set up to only advertise when the button is pressed. Advertising can be iBeacon, Eddystone UID, Eddystone URI or user defined. In addition, the UL1, has a light sensor that can be set up to cause the beacon to advertise when it’s either dark or light.

Farm Management with Bluetooth Sensors

There’s new research by the Universities of Salento Italy and Panamericana Mexico on the Development of Sensors-Based Agri-Food Traceability System Remotely Managed by a Software Platform for Optimized Farm Management.

It demonstrates the use of IoT to revolutionise farming. A system was implemented to provide for:

  • Optimum water and fertiliser use
  • Better quality and yield of crops
  • Increased safety
  • Reduction in production costs
  • Reduction in negative impacts on the health and environment
  • Smart traceability

Sensors allow calibration of irrigation and fertilisation based on crop type, growth phase, soil and environmental conditions. The traceability allows monitoring of the movements of food products from the field, through storage to end consumers.

Bluetooth LE sensor tags are used for monitoring conditions during storage and transportation so as to assess freshness, integrity, as well as to provide for traceability.

The system enables enables management strategies that anticipate or delay crop collection, fine tuning the irrigation/fertilisation timing based on customers’ requests. This allows farmers to achieve economic benefits and reduce agri-food waste.

Read about Beacon Proximity and Sensing for the Internet of Things (IoT)

Bluetooth Gateways for AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub and Google IoT Core

It never been easier to collect Bluetooth sensor information and store it in the cloud. The INGICS gateways come with step-by-step instructions how to set up AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub and Google IoT Core.

  • Bluetooth-WiFi Gateway
  • Bluetooth-Ethernet Gateway

Read more about Beacon Proximity and Sensing for the Internet of Things (IoT).

View Bluetooth Sensor Beacons

New W2-P5202D3 Wristband Beacon

We have the new W2-P5202D3 Wristband Beacon in stock.

It advertises iBeacon, Eddystone and acceleration. Rechargeable via USB. Supports always, button triggered (for SOS) and motion triggered advertising.

The app allows you to configure up to 6 advertising slots that can include iBeacon, Eddystone (UID, URL and TLM), acceleration and information (device name, MAC address, battery level).

New Bluetooth Sensors

We have two new sensor beacons in stock. The iBS03TP is a waterproof temperature beacon with a 2m probe measuring -50C to 150C with an accuracy +- 0.5C.

The iBS02M2 measures on/off. This can be a switch or a voltage (0.5v to 50v is ‘on’).

The small PCB with a USB connector plugs into the main unit USB. The terminal block is used connect to anything that provides a switched or voltage output. This makes this beacon suitable for detecting a wide range of on/off scenarios.

Read about Beacon Proximity and Sensing for the Internet of Things (IoT)

Understanding Sensor Beacon Accelerometer Data

In this post we will take a look at data from the INGICS iGS01RG beacon.

The x axis is time. You can see the x, y and z values, every 100ms, over time. The y axis is normalised between -1 and -1 for use in our SensorCognition Edge device. The chart is for when the beacon has been moving, followed by a stationary period. Notice how the orange line continues to show acceleration even though the beacon isn’t moving. This is caused by gravity.

In this chart the beacon has been flipped over and the orange line now shows a constant negative acceleration.

A good thing about the presence of a constant offset in one of the x y z inputs is that it can be used to help determine the orientation of the beacon. The less desirable aspect is that the offset significantly complicates using the x y z to determine types of movement such as human gestures.

Such complex data problems are more easily solved using AI machine learning than trying to write a traditional algorithm to make sense of the data.

Here’s an example of output from a SensorCognition Edge device trained with up and down movement and left and right movement. In this case, the output 227 is showing the beacon is moving left and right.

Read about SensorCognition