Is there a way to set Location Beacons' Broadcasting Power (dBm) to -30?

1

Hello all
Is there a way to set Location Beacons’ Broadcasting Power (dBm) to -30? Estimote app does not allow the value of -30 dBms. The lowest value is -40 but it then jumps to -20, however we have a need for -30 dBms

Thanks a lot

2

The -30 option got replaced with -40 in Nordic’s nRF52 chips which we’re using. So sadly, no way to set it anymore.

Why do you need -30 specifically?

3

Yeah, for our use case next setting up is -20 dBms results in max range of approximately 12 ft. And -30 would be great to try. We are using region monitoring to wake up the app in the background in a small room about 10 m wide. We need to trigger enter/exit events at about 2 meters distance from Location Beacons mounted to the wall.

4

Maybe try Estimote Monitoring then?

The “near” proximity zone should trigger the enter event about 1.5 m.

5

Thanks a lot for the idea. Does Estimote Monitoring works in the background on iOS? What is the max amount of regions one can monitor per app? Does this mechanism wake up the app if the app is killed? For how long is the app woken up by iOS?

Thanks

6

Does Estimote Monitoring works in the background on iOS?

Yes

What is the max amount of regions one can monitor per app?

Estimote Monitoring uses a mix of Core Location monitoring and Core Bluetooth discovery. Core Location has a limit of 20 regions, and we use 1 region per beacon, so the first 20 beacons you’re monitoring with Estimote Monitoring will get the best/most responsive results. Beyond 20, we can’t use CL anymore, but we’re still using CB, so it should still work, it just might not be as reliable/responsive as for the first 20. (This is unlike “pure” CL monitoring, where 20 regions is a hard limit.)

Does this mechanism wake up the app if the app is killed?

It should, yes! Again, this will work best if you’re monitoring no more than 20 beacons though.

For how long is the app woken up by iOS?

Core Location seems to be waking the app for about 10 seconds, and with Core Bluetooth, it varies, sometimes the app remains woken up as long as you’re still in range of the beacon! There are no guarantees though, so it’s best to start a Background Execution Task (https://developer.apple.com/reference/uikit/uiapplication/1623031-beginbackgroundtask) to guarantee yourself that the app won’t be put back to sleep until you’re done with whatever you’re doing. (Note that as of now, the Background Execution Tasks seem to be hard-capped at 3 minutes though, if you don’t finish the task before that, iOS kills your app.)

7

Thanks a lot for the response. Last question:
For first 20 regions will your sdk emit enter/exit events per each proximity (far, near, immediate)?

Thanks

8

With Estimote Monitoring, all the monitored beacons emit enter/exit events per the proximity you defined when calling “startMonitoring”.

9

Great, where i can find documentation on how to start monitoring with proximity? Does it mean if i wanted to monitor all 3 proximities i will need to start monitoring for 3 regions for same beacon?

10

Here’s the API reference:
http://estimote.github.io/iOS-SDK/Classes/ESTMonitoringManager.html

You’ll also need to use the Estimote iOS app to enable the Estimote Location packet on your beacon.

11

Thanks a lot for the info.