Estimote Sticker vs Classic Estimote Beacon

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1

hey,

what 's the different for a developer between estimote stiker and the other version.

2

I beat my head against the wall for a bit before someone at Estimote finally explained to me briefly that their API calls are totally different. They really need to document this ASAP.

3

Hi Nicolas,

this is Jakub, co-founder here.

From the technical/hardware perspective both “fat” rock beacons and stickers are almost the same.
They have ARM Cortex M0 processor, flash memory, temperature and motion sensor. They have similar BLE chips even thought slightly different size.

Both products are waterproofed and have built-in adhesive layer.

The main difference is the battery:

  • large beacons are optimized to last 3+ years depending on the power management settings
  • small stickers are designed to last aprox. 1 year

There is also a difference in the software firmware they operate:

  • large beacons are designed mostly for proximity and location; they are supported by Indoor Location SDK and they broadcast generic iBeacon packets you can use with Estimote SDK or Core Location
  • small stickers broadcast something we call Nearable packets; these packets contain not only the identifier but also nearable type (dog, chair, car, bike, etc), it’s motion state, motion duration, temperature and other data. Thanks to Estimote SDK for Nearables it’s easy to build context-aware apps that respond not only to proximity but also gestures, e.g. you trying the red shoes with sticker, etc.

What apps do you plan to build? We can advise which beacons are best.

1 Like
4

hello,
I want to make an application that displays a annimation according iBeacon near the receiver.

5

Nic,

if this is going to be a simple iOS app classic beacons are fine and you can use this code example, e.g. ProximityDemo as a reference: https://github.com/Estimote/iOS-SDK/tree/master/Examples/beacons/Examples

Here is similar example when it comes to stickers: https://github.com/Estimote/iOS-SDK/tree/master/Examples/nearables/RangingExample

If you haven’t tested our beacons yet you can try our iOS app and virtual beacon that is part of it:

6

Do you have a security mechanism for stickers like you have with beacons - UUID rotation?

7

No, not yet at least (:

Want to share what app you’re building, and why securing stickers would be important for it? Will help us inform the roadmapping decisions, thanks!

8

I moved 6 posts to a new topic: Do stickers implement the iBeacon protocol?

10

Hi Jimiasty,

First of all I am giving you a 5 star for developing these estimote beacons.

I would like to make an app for a company which will be detect when an employee enter to the office(suppose in the Entrance/HR section/Development). which type of beacons is suitable for this app.

Thanks in Advance

11

The bigger beacons are probably better for this use case. In general, if you don’t need to put beacons on moving objects, but on walls, shelves, tables, etc. (i.e., anything fairly static), then the bigger beacons will give you greater battery life and are mostly a better option.

For a full comparison between beacons and stickers, see this page:

12

HI
this link


is not working.
Could you provide a new link ?

13

Ooops. The comparison is now on:

I added a redirect from the old URL to this new one. Thanks for bringing this up!

14

Hi Jimiasty,

This is Sushmitha from India.
My project involves developing an indoor navigation system for which I have chosen Estimote beacons.
Does the app available on the iOS devices ‘Estimote indoor’ support only stickers or both stickers and Indoor beacons.

Thanks.
Sushmitha Rao