piBeacon: presence monitoring plugin discussions

[kw123]

Pibeacon is integrated with fingscan
I am using it with and AND with my iPhone. You can select the name of the beacon in fingscan to add to an event. You then have to enable fingscan in pibeacon.


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[kw123]

I am looking into adding some sensors to the rPIs.

the easiest one would be "one wire" temp/humidity sensor from adafruit:
DS18B20 Digital water proof $10
DHT22 temp + humidity $5 -$10
99% would be software. You would have to add the sensor + 1 resistor + some cables
the values would show up in a state in the rPi devices
temperature: 20 (in C or F)
humidity: 80 (in %)

Or the barometric pressure sensor BMP085/180 $10 .. + some cables
that would be IC2 interface, just a little bit more downloading, but we could automat that too.
also here the results would be shown in states like
pressure
temperature
altitude



Anyone interested?

Karl

[WouterK]

Hi,

Yes I know that's because I wanted to give it a try. fingscan is working great.

Both the rPi's have not rebooted overnight. The one with no beacons also and the logfile does not show the "loopMaxCallBLE: 900" message anymore.
Looking good.

Wouter

[kw123]

Good to hear. Good night.


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[WouterK]

Hi,

I am just awake A whole day of pibeacon testing ahead.
Good night

Wouter

[yassi]

I am looking into adding some sensors to the rPIs.

the easiest one would be "one wire" temp/humidity sensor from adafruit:
DS18B20 Digital water proof $10
DHT22 temp + humidity $5 -$10
99% would be software. You would have to add the sensor + 1 resistor + some cables
the values would show up in a state in the rPi devices
temperature: 20 (in C or F)
humidity: 80 (in %)

Or the barometric pressure sensor BMP085/180 $10 .. + some cables
that would be IC2 interface, just a little bit more downloading, but we could automat that too.
also here the results would be shown in states like
pressure
temperature
altitude



Anyone interested?

Karl

Karl, temp/humidity would be interesting for me!

Yassi

[CraftGeek]

Hi Karl,

I have the rPi running and beacons being automatically created in Indigo's device list.

I was hoping to be able to use PiBeacon to sense our phones when we arrive from work and turn off the alarm. After reading this thread, it looks like that dream may have to wait a bit.

Am I correct that the iPhone changes its identifier and that PiBeacon cannot be configured to save a phone's ID so we cannot create a trigger for an iPhone?

I saw the earlier post re finding Xcode then loading the Locate app, etc. This seems like a complex kludge to me. It may be that I just don't understand it.

Is there any way to pair the phone with the PiBeacon? When I get into my car the connection is made in moments. Couldn't the same happen in this case?


Thanks for your time, and your patience with noob questions.

Sean

[kw123]

Yes you can use your iPhone. Use locate app. Then when the device gets created go into edit and set it as iPhone. It will then remember the uuid as the identifier not the mac for this device. BUT when the iPhone goes to sleep it also stops sending Bluetooth signals. It is actually worse that wifi.

wifi stays associated to your router and when you have the right router it can be detected
Anyway try it out
Karl


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[kw123]

You can also test it with 2 iPhones (or iPads) use locate on both
Let one fall asleep and check if it disappears on the other iphone/locate


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[kw123]

Just FYI. Have one sensor working with i2c interface. But it is much more complicated than 1wire interface.
You will need to install some apps from adafruit , don't know if I can hide the complexity.
But it works nicely have now temp+humidity+pressure as states in the rpi device on the plugin

Is there anyone interested in on/off buttons . They are very easy to implement and should be very fast ~ 1/2 seconds to show up in the device state.
Could be used as light switch or any thing that need an on/ off trigger


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[WouterK]

Hi,

using version 1.7.1 The errlog file is showing "bef loop" when an rPi is not "seeing" any beacons.
Is this normal behaviour ?

Karl, you have tested several iBeacons. Can you tell me which one has the best range - can cover the geatest distance?

Thanks.

Wouter

[kw123]

"bef loop" thats a left over from debugging, will be deleted in the next version

will update iBeacon list regarding range.. strongest signal are TILE and pebbleBee BUT Jaalee beats everyone, but it is really really BIG

Karl

[WouterK]

Hi,

Thanks will check the tested I beacon page.......
Was looking for something in my car, so that could be the jaalee. I just checked where to buy one but so far they seem hard to get.
Also the xyfind, which I am using now for testing, seem to be hard to get. The 3 pack that is....

Wouter

[kw123]

coming next rPis will support

1. Sensors/ Inputs:

• OneWire DS18B20 temperature sensor $1- $5
• DHT 11 & DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor $4-$10
• BMP085 and equiv i2c Temperature & pressure sensor $5 - $10
• 6 digital input buttons either simple buttons or electric switches/relays etc, reaction time between button press and indigo state changes: < 0.5 seconds
• on list to be tested: BME280 (temP+humidity+Pressure)and MCP9808 (precision temperature)
• units for temp and pressure can be set.

2. Output:

• 5-14 (rPi1 vs rPi2) GPIO pins.
• supported functions
  • on/ off,
  • single pulse ON for x.y seconds
  • single pulse OFF for x.y seconds
  • continuous pulse up/down for x/y seconds for n periods
  reaction time: indigo action to rPI GPIOpin changes < 0.5 seconds
• the rPis will remember the states of the output GPIOs and will restore UP or DOWN states of the GPIOs after reboot

The pins can be set from menu, action or python script

All of above can be connected at the same time (tested on rPi2 don't know if all of them will work at the same time on the rPi1)

No manual configuration needed.
Connect sensor/ button/ LED etc to rPI and then select the proper settings in the plugin menu. the plugin will install the required libraries on the rPis.

Some of the functions (i.e. faster reaction to input) are better than on the arduino-plugin. Only the analog input / output functions are not present. And with rPI2 @ $5(+wifi+..) this becomes really cost competitive.

And the iBeacon functions also work on the rPis in parallel.

Karl


====
it uses now tcpip socket communication to send commands to the rPi( new learning )
Found that the interrupt function on the rPis to check for input changes of the GPIOs are not stable. Hence we test the states of the input GPIOs every 0.1 seconds. This does not seem to be taxing for the rPis.
The onewire and DHT sensors take ~ 1 seconds to complete a measurement. Hence the read functions for those are done in parallel tasks (every~ 30+ seconds) to improve reaction time for other functions

[ac4lt]

Karl,

I'm seeing the line "bef loop" repeated over and over in the errlog file on the Pi. I'm assuming that's just a debugging statement that never got removed but I don't know how often those files get recycled or if we ever have to worry about filling up the file system. It doesn't seem to be causing a problem yet, but it is growing over time.