So I've been playing with a few beacons.....
FitbitCharge 2: I previously could not seem to get this to work. Now it works, but only when I force stop on the fitbit app on my phone. And then it works for about 30 mins and the app auto-relaunches on my phone and it reports down again. So while it would be nice to have it work, it just doesn't seem to work if I am also to use it for activity tracking (which I do). The way I was able to detect it was via an Android App called BLE Scanner. I launched that and then force the stop of the fitbit app (from my phone's Settings-> Apps & Notifications->See All Apps->Fitbit->Force Stop). It then shows in the BLE Scanner app as Charge 2 (which is the model of my Fitbit). I then cross referenced the MAC address from the BLE Scanner to the Indigo piBeacon plug in. I had to delete all beacon history so it would show up (as default is for app to ignore any devices previously picked up but not defined). Once found in Indigo device list, I could then tell it would not work for me due to the fact that it goes down/expired after it reconnects with my phone. Even though it doesn't appear the Fitbit app is running, it is (and will auto-restart). So the only solution I can determine is to uninstall the app, which then makes the Fitbit rather useless,
Nonda ZUSSo I ordered what was labelled on Amazon.com's product page as an Nonda iHere, but I got the Nonda ZUS. It looks the same (traingular) so I thought I'd see if I can find it in Indigo. I was able to do the same thing (using BLE Scanner to extrapolate the device from the name that appears in BLE Scanner). I first charged it up (as it has an internal battery with USB charging). As soon as it was plugged in for Charging, it popped into my BLE Scanner. Again, I knew it was the ZUS because it showed as a name beginning with ZUS. Again, then used the MAC in the app to find the device in my Indigo device list. It works fine as long as I don't have the ZUS Car Finder app running on the phone.....as soon as I start the app, the beacon goes down....and when I kill the app, it comes back up. The nice thing here is that the app doesn't auto-relaunch (like the fitbit app) so this makes it quite usable. You don't need to install the app if you don't want to....it's not needed to activate the device in the Indigo plugin. It had a good strong signal.
Here's the amazon product page from where I ordered:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075K7T8HZItagSame deal as Nonda ZUS and Fitbit.....it shows up in Bluetooth app on phone with label ITAG, then found it in Indigo Plugin device using MAC. Worked just fine (though had lower signal than ZUS). To be honest, I am unsure where I got these from, but they show on Wal-Mart website for $7. Nice form factor but I prefer the rechargeable battery on the ZUS.
Nonda AikoI know Karl said this one works, but for me (without an iPhone), I can't get it to work. It does show up when I press the button, but then goes down later and doesn't come back unless/until I press the button again. I presume this needs to first be 'registered' with the app in order to continuously send a beacon signal (as long as the app is down as Karl points out). Once I get my hands on a friend's iPhone, I can confirm if this is the case.
Sidenote: BLE Scanner is a good little app. I like that I can add aliases to better name the devices so i know what they are. I can also favorite certain ones, and finally, i can log history of devices and export to spreadsheet.
https://www.bluepixeltech.com/portfolio/ble-scanner/Hope this helps folks.