Using LTE Beacon as GPS tracker

LTE Beacons
1

I have in my hands a developers kit. I would like to use my LTE Beacon for tracking my motorbike.
I have set the sync period on 4 hours. My question is how can I modify the sync period to every lets say 2 minutes when I figure out the beacon is stolen. How can I send a post request to the beacon?

2

You can use this API to enqueue message for LTE Beacon:
https://cloud.estimote.com/docs/#api-LTE
And then register a handler in MicroApp to receive it during synchronisation:
https://developer.estimote.com/lte-beacon/micro-app-api-reference/#onreceive

Simple code snippet:

cloud.onReceive( msg => {
 if(msg.type === 'stolen') {
  sync.setSyncPeriod(msg.payload.sync_period)
  startTrackingMyBike()
 }
}

Simple call to add new message:

curl -X POST 'https://cloud.estimote.com/v3/lte/user_messages' \
-u YOUR_SDK_APP_ID:YOUR_SDK_APP_TOKEN \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '
{
  "device_identifier": "YOUR_DEVICE_IDENTIFIER",
  "type": "stolen",
  "payload": {
     "sync_period": "2m"
  }
}'

You may also consider using accelerometer to detect movement and then start tracking (there is a Motion Detector template in WebIDE). This will start tracking much quicker than a user message for which you need to wait till next synchronisation.
However this may lead to many false alerts and you will need to remember to disable alerts when riding. Consider following scenario:

  1. You have a Proximity Beacon attached to your ignition keys or in a backpack.
  2. When LTE Beacon (that is attached to motorbike) detects motion, it will start quick 10s BLE scan and will look if Proximity beacon is nearby.
  3. If it is able to find it then it does nothing, but when it is not found it means that unauthorised person is trying to move motorbike. In this case GPS is started and sync period is set to to short value.
2 Likes
3

Thank you for the great answer and fast response Lukasz.I am impressed. Yes great point for the proximity beacon. I can see that LTE Beacon can act as proximity beacon itself. I must also figure out an app that detects the distance to the LTE Beacon in two use cases. If the user is out of long-range 100m it starts greedy alarm mode and if the user is in close range lets say 5 meters deactivates movement sensor alarm in the car if someone else goes in to steal parts. I installed the template from the Estimote server https://ide.estimote.com/#/shared/ZkpxRxuq2Y but I says that the beacon does not belong to me.