piBeacon: 7- tested Beacons

[kw123]

The software has changed. After it connects to the aikos they behave differently and will not stay up any more.
And the old software does. It work anymore on the iPhones.

So I guess they are deprecated. If you have one that works keep it and do not connect it to the software.

My new favorite are
- Rinex vozni SpotyPal njoii ( they are essentially the same)
- Innway. They are rechargeable. And you can put them
Into your wallet

Please check the menu / help for more info on beacons. I try to keep that one up to date.

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[rhanson]

OK, thanks. I'll order some.

It's such a moving target!

[kw123]

that's the fun part of it

[rhanson]

Well, looks like the Rinex aren't great either. I ordered 3, and only 1 emits the proper generic signal. The other two are sending iBeacon signals and show up as BLE iTrack objects instead of beacons in my beacon scanner app. So it looks like they have also updated the software.

Unless you know a way to roll back the firmware or master-reset it, looks like I'll just have to give up on these beacons.

Time to look at some home-grown RTLS using UWB or something other than BLE.

[Korey]

Will AirTags work as a beacon?

I have 4 showing up soon.

[kw123]

No

They change mac numbers and also data packages- encrypted. It is done on purpose so that no third party can track them. apple.

I got 2 and they behave non trivial

But I have not given up.


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[johnpolasek]

Possible bug in v2022.174.89... I bought a 4 pack of Nutale Nutfinder 3x a year ago and used 2 of them with no problems. One of them just died (run through the washing machine actually) and I attempted to replace it with one of the remaining ones... even set to accept all signal strenghts and all manufacturers, pibeacon will not find either of the 2 remaining Nut 3s in the box. I thought the battery might have gone bad and replaced it with a fresh one in one of them and when that failed started the nut app on my phone and varified that that one would pair before shutting down the phone ap. Any suggestions or recommendations as to a good cr2023 powered pocket beacon from Amazon?

[kw123]

I stopped using the nutxxx
They have changed how they behaved.

My top pick now are itrack type or Shelly blu button

Itrack comes under various brand names.
+ has a button for action, can be beeped
- only one action type. Battery has to be read out through connecting to the device

Shelly blue: + 3 different types of actions: single, double press. Long press. Battery info is part of broadcast messages.
- beep requires use of Shelly blu app

I am out of town right now cant look look up the I track brand names. Will do later today.

You can see the brand names in the menu accept new beacons.


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[kw123]

here the itrack beacon manufactures names "itrack":"musegear, spotypal, rinex nojii"


I will check the "nutxxx" when I am back home next week

but I recommend the shelly BLU if you don't need to beep them from indigo

Karl

[johnpolasek]

Maybe related, but I just noted that in the log, when I enabled the search for all beacons, I got

• piBeacon Error ''Plugin' object has no attribute 'debugRPI''
  makeParametersFile @line 19395: 'if pi == self.debugRPI: out["debugRPI"] = 1'
  piBeacon Error ''Plugin' object has no attribute 'debugRPI''
  makeParametersFile @line 19395: 'if pi == self.debugRPI: out["debugRPI"] = 1'
  piBeacon Error ''Plugin' object has no attribute 'debugRPI''
  makeParametersFile @line 19395: 'if pi == self.debugRPI: out["debugRPI"] = 1'
  piBeacon Error ''Plugin' object has no attribute 'debugRPI''
  makeParametersFile @line 19395: 'if pi == self.debugRPI: out["debugRPI"] = 1'
  piBeacon Error ''Plugin' object has no attribute 'debugRPI''
  makeParametersFile @line 19395: 'if pi == self.debugRPI: out["debugRPI"] = 1'

even though all 5 pis are already showing as beacons (with the 4 Pi 3s using Ethernet showing "up" and the Pi 0W on wifi showing as "expired" even though it is updating).

[kw123]

The first one is a bug. Will fix on Tuesday.

The second showing expired:
Do you have 2 ble dongles
Or
Wifi and Ethernet?
Or
Is the ip number correct?


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[johnpolasek]

VERY strange; apparently the power flickers we had earlier this week trashed it. when I put a keyboard and screen on it, the microSD card was trashed and would not reflash... So I flashed a new one and brought it back up; it came up to the correct IP, but a different MAC, which made no sense... I had to delete it and add it back as a new device; luckily it had no gpios configured, but it is now back in operation.

[kw123]

Good.

But as soon as it comes back online it will get the correct config: gpios , sensors etc from the plugin


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[kw123]

this error:

>> makeParametersFile @line 19395: 'if pi == self.debugRPI: out["debugRPI"] = 1' <<

can only occur if there is another error when you start the plugin...
and which version are you using?

Karl