Hi,
I have a room about 30 ft X 15 ft. During configuration time, it is displaying that 6 beacons required in order to map out the room. Can you please let me know how the app is calculating the number of beacons to be used for mapping out the room. In the settings it has been mentioned that the Maximum Range for Location beacons is ~ 70 m / 230 ft and the Broadcasting Power is 4dBm. Based on these specific settings, 4 beacons could have easily mapped the same room.
Please highlight your view on the same.
Thanks
P.S. - The beacons have been placed at chest height level and according to the document/tutorial as provided from estimote’s end.
The thing is, signal strength goes down quadratically with the distance. For example, if the signal strength is X at 7 m away from the beacon, if we increase the distance 10 times, to 70 m, the signal strength goes down 102 = 100 times.
So while at max range, the beacon signal might still be detectable at 70 m or (even 200 m with Long Range Location Beacons), but it’s already too weak for precise indoor location. I believe the current recommendation in the app is to have a beacon every 7 meters / 22 ft, and so it recommends for you to have 2 beacons on the 30 ft wall.
You can bypass the recommendations by mapping your space manually with the Location Builder API:
http://developer.estimote.com/indoor/map-your-location/#the-advanced-way-location-builder
… just note that the accuracy of indoor positioning might go down with custom setups.