![]() ![]() All 3 Estimote beacons are dead, and they all died around the same time (one in super conservative mode, one in what should be a normal use case, and then one in max power mode). The beacons my company received from you guys must have been out of the norm then. Hold the phone between you and the beacon and get a decent signal, then turn 180 degrees so that you are between the phone and the beacon. But they die too quickly, and don't provide granular signal data. And that's only because they don't have batteries. The only beacons that don't are RadBeacons USB sticks that plug into wall outlets. Did I mention power yet? All of the beacons we started with around 9 months ago have dead batteries. Using beacons for granular location-aware uses might as well go out the window if you're looking for accurate and precise readings around ~1-3ft. Speaking of indoor navigation, you need a ton of points to do it well (whether that's beacons or wifi routers, you decide). I recommend as the only solution that got close to what we needed (though it's still pretty darn immature). Indoor navigation that relies on iBeacons only is going to shoot you in the foot. Nobody likes things they didn't ask for getting sent to their phone. Estimated battery life was estimated very poorly. Some of my findings over the last 9 months: This is because the signal to noise ratio will be lower.įull disclosure: I am Chief Engineer for Radius Networks.As an iOS developer who has spent the last 9 months making beacon enabled things for my employer, I personally think beacons are shit. You should note, however, that by lowering the transmitter power, you will also increase the amount of variation on your distance estimates. The apps have a slider control to increase and decrease the transmitter power. Using Radius Networks' RadBeacon USB and RadBeacon Tag models, you can adjust the transmitter power using the free RadBeacon configuration app for iOS and OSX. If it helps your use case, you can also lower the beacon transmitter power so that devices only detect the beacon when they are relatively close. For this reason, you must design your app so such variation is acceptable. However, the best you can hope to do is reduce the variation as much as possible. ![]() When possible, place your beacons where there is a clear line of sight to the receiving devices. The stronger the signal, the lower the noise level will be (relatively speaking) from source 1 above. Use as high of a transmitter power setting on your beacon as possible. More transmissions mean more statistical samples of the signal level, which when averaged together help mitigate errors from sources 1 and 2 above. Use a beacon that transmits as frequently as possible, preferably at 10Hz or more. ![]() There are a few things you can do to minimize the error: This means that when you rotate your phone or the beacon, you will see a slightly different signal level.
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