piBeacon: presence monitoring plugin discussions

So I think that would give me exactly what I need. I could look at the current status to see if it's up or down and this new LastStateChangedDate to get the timestamp. I'm all in (that's what he said).

Will release tomorrow. Still testing something.


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Thanks. It appears there might be an issue with the download links to the plug in and SSD image. They both seem to download the PlugIn.

Hi, A very new user, only had Indigo for 5 days but already got so much setup, more than I ever had on Vera and working so much better.

I have setup my iPhone as a BLE connect device, and after a minute it paired and appeared in Indigo, all great. Except it doesnt go down. I turned off bluetooth on the phone and even turned the phone off for 30 minutes but no change. Is this something I am doing wrong?

Great plugin!

Simon

Are you sure you correctly identified the Beacon which appeared as the iPhone? I have Beacons appear all day long. This made it hard to identify the Becons I was using at first. I think the iPhone should tell you the UUID so it should be relatively easy to ensure the Beacon appearing in Indigo is your iPhone.

I will fix the ssd download when later tonight.
As for the iPhone it depends how you set it up. Is it an I beacon or bleconnect?
Bleconnect device have to be setup in indigo. You enter the mac number in device edit
For iPhone to emit ibeacon signals you actually have to load an app on the iPhone that does that. If you have not done that then it's likely not your iPhone you are seeing.

Ibeacons just appear on their own. It's done this way as you likely do not know the mac number of the beacon.

That's why there is also the accept new beacons on/off in config.

I had about 10,000 driving/ walking by in one year
each car has at least one beacon ...


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I will fix the ssd download when later tonight.

Thanks. I plan on adding another piBeacon to my house, so I will also be testing and potentially making updates to the steps I first documented and you and others improved.

Ibeacons just appear on their own. It's done this way as you likely do not know the mac number of the beacon.

That's why there is also the accept new beacons on/off in config.

I had about 10,000 driving/ walking by in one year
each car has at least one beacon ...

Does it help lighten my system's load if I turn the 'accept new beacons' setting off in config? I get anout 20-30 new a day, all of which get deleted in about an hour thanks to that option in the config.....but wondering if it makes more sense to just ignore them from the get-go.

yes after you have added all you want, stop accepting new beacons. It does not add value and there is less traffic from RPI to the plugin to keep creating new devices.
if "accept new IBeacons" is off the RPIs will only listen for the iBeacons that are existing devices in indigo. All othesr will be ignored.

I have created an extra folder ( e.g. iBeacon- good or ok or ... ) where I move the once I have identified, name them and leave the others in the default folder until I either ID them or delete them

Karl

Still reading through all the good info in this section. Thanks for all your work on this Karl, and contributors.

I'm about to dabble in this whole Raspberry Pi & PiBeacon thing. Initial use will be in the garage where I'm thinking that I'll simply place a tile (haven't decided which one) in each car and a Pi 3B in a convenient, nearby spot. This will tell me if the cars are home/away and I can use Indigo to do some actin (yet to be determined) based on that. Some questions:

1. Can I set up the Pi headless? Ie, can I just SSH into the Pi to access/update it? Does the SD image that I'll be downloading have SSH enabled?
2. Once installed, how "busy" is the Pi? Will I be able to have the Pi do other things? Perhaps run BOINC in the background?
3. If I were to also attach the Pi Camera module, would I then be able to see the garage for visual confirmation? Would that put too much of a strain on the Pi?
4. Would running a periodic update/upgrade on the Pi be a good practice or might it break something?
5. I'm in FL and the temperatures inside my garage can get pretty warm during the summers. Any experience in operating a Pi at ~95 F for long periods of time?

Thanks in advance.

I can't help with all of those, but some of them I can;

I currently have 4 rPi3s scattered around the house, and all of them are run headless by SSHing whenever we need to do anything to them. 1 is wired CAT5, the others are happily running WIFI. Two of them are beacon servers only, but the other two monitor the GPIOs for door, window, and Dakota driveway alert contact closures, which seems to run less than 10% cpu usage; I don't have any idea how much a camera would load the CPU, The PiBeacon plugin automatically seems to refresh and restart the Pis every night... and kvetches when one of them hangs up and/or loses connection, which is why they are all plugged in through appliance modules which allows me to cycle power remotely when that happens, particularly for the one in the attic... which despite the spray in foam insulation does get up close to 110 F in the summer without seeming to affect the Pi. In the old house with no attic insulation and 150+ temps in the summer, it probably would have died but I don't know the cutoff.

Good info John. Thanks!

I particularly like the suggestion of using the power modules to remotely cycle power. I've got some spare units around that I'll probably use for that once I'm ready to deploy.

Some more comments

Yes the load is ~ 10%. That does not challenge the rpi. One restriction though. Don't do anything else with Bluetooth on the rpi.

Also if you put heavy load on the rpi the response time for ibeacon might slow down.

If you add simple sensors like temp pressure.. or gpio in or out put they add very little load.
The distance sensors add about 10%

The normal display adds also little

The neo pixel also. Only if you use slow transition between light states it might drag it down.



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I'll simply place a tile (haven't decided which one) in each car

for the cars I suggest to get one of the larger battery power onse , see "tested" beacons e.g.
Replaceable AA Battery x 4 Waterproof IP65 Dustproof Sanwo iBeacon Altbeacon Covering a Range up to 240m (White
https://www.amazon.com/Replaceable-Waterproof-Dustproof-Altbeacon-Covering/dp/B01I57KL7G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497542611&sr=8-1&keywords=Replaceable+AA+Battery+x+4+Waterproof+IP65+Dustproof+Sanwo+iBeacon+Altbeacon+Covering+a+Range+up+to+240m+%28White
$26 at amazon.

at eBay the big social retail one is at $21
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=iBeacon&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1311.R1.TR2.TRC0.A0.H0.XiBeacon+BLE.TRS0&_nkw=ibeacon+bluetooth&_sacat=0

both work fine.. and the battery should last several year. limitation is likely just temperature exposure in the car. Putting them on the dashboard in florida sun is probably not a good idea.


and for the car, look at the "CAR device" : One battery powered beacon, one in the USB port (engine on/off) and one each on the keys
==> car
home/away
leaving/ arriving / home
engine on/off

Karl

As for the iPhone it depends how you set it up. Is it an I beacon or bleconnect?
Bleconnect device have to be setup in indigo. You enter the mac number in device edit

Yes, its set up as BLE, as is a iPad I setup today, and neither is going down when I turn off bluetooth.

Could you send me the output of
Pibeacon/ menu/ print device properties of the BLE device


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