Anty theft alarm

Hi,

I am looking for the hardware that could deal as an “anty theft alarm” system. One of estimote devices seems to fit well to my needs, but I would like to clarify some doubts.

Simple Use case would be to stick the device to the object (bicycle, trailer etc…) that you leave outside the building, and activate it. If the movement would be detected the stick will send the SMS to owner Phone.

  1. GSM - my first idea was to send an SMS, but I suppose it is not possible with estimote sticker directly…
    1.1 what is the real maximum BT range for different estimote devices ?
    1.2 is it possible to send broadcast message to all nearby devices with open BT ?

  2. Are estimote stickers sufficient for this, or should I go up ?

Thank you for the answers :slight_smile:

Thanks for sharing your idea! (:

Stickers would be great for that because they’re so tiny and you can stick them to anything … but they also max out at about 10–15 m range, so if we’re talking about some larger objects (like a trailer), Location Beacons might be a better choice, since they offer about 50–70 m range. Naturally, if the trailer is outside and you’re inside, then the walls will affect the max range, but it’s hard to say exactly how—depends what the wall is made of, how thick it is, etc. Worst-case scenario, if it’s a heavily steel-reinforced wall, it might block the signal completely.

Beacons and stickers continuously broadcast messages (e.g., their identifier, motion status, etc.) “into the air”, and any device in range can pick this signal up.

Another Idea would be to use a Raspberry PI at the entrance of your store and it will detect when the beacons enter or exit the range of the pi, then you can set the Pi to send you a SMS or an alert, You could even have it sound an alarm or even a audible alert.

Yes, In fact instead of RPi it could be an old phone (battery, sim-slot, BT included).

But does all other phones must have app installed ? Or is it possible to program the sticker to use something similar to BT OBEX. In the way that sticker will force some message on the phones in neighborhood (like pair-request ) ?

You wouldn’t want some random BLE devices force-pushing notifications to your phone, believe me :slight_smile:

Which is why, yes, the user needs to explicitly install an app that will detect the packet and take action.