WiPy as an iBeacon

[patrick]

Have been struggling for a few days now getting the WiPy to advertise an iBeacon frame. I've read on this forum that it should be possible but till now without any luck.

Does anyone have an example on how to do as the documentation on this is incomplete?

[surly]

@patrick I also need a better documentation to continue !

[papasmurph]

@patrick Try this, courtesy of Abiro AB :).

Also supports Eddystone-URL.

from network import Bluetooth
import pycom
import time

# https://docs.pycom.io/pycom_esp32/library/network.Bluetooth.html
# https://support.kontakt.io/hc/en-gb/articles/201492492-iBeacon-advertising-packet-structure
# https://github.com/google/eddystone/blob/master/protocol-specification.md
# https://github.com/google/eddystone/tree/master/eddystone-url/
# https://forum.pycom.io/topic/1120/creating-an-eddystone-beacon
# https://www.mkompf.com/tech/eddystoneurl.html

MODE_IBEACON = 1
MODE_EDDYSTONEURL = 2
mode = MODE_IBEACON

def twocompl(x):
    if x < 0:
        x += 256

    return x        

timeSleep = 1

bluetooth = Bluetooth()
bluetooth.init()

power1m = -59

if mode == MODE_IBEACON:
    major = 22240
    minor = 234

    data = [
        0x4c, 0x00, 0x02, 0x15, # Manufacturer data
        0xA6, 0xE3, 0xE0, 0x06, 0xBB, 0xC4, 0x4D, 0xD1, 0x9C, 0xA3, 0x3E, 0x86, 0xC4, 0x95, 0x7D, 0xF0, # UUID (CliqTags)
        (major >> 8) & 0xFF, major & 0xFF, # Major ID
        (minor >> 8) & 0xFF, minor & 0xFF, # Minor ID
        twocompl(power1m) # Power
    ]

    bluetooth.set_advertisement(name = None, manufacturer_data = bytes(data))
elif mode == MODE_EDDYSTONEURL:
    url = 'https://www.abiro.com'

    uuid = [0xfb, 0x34, 0x9b, 0x5f, 0x80, 0x00, 0x00, 0x80, 0x00, 0x10, 0x00, 0x00, 0xaa, 0xfe, 0x00, 0x00]

    url = url.replace('http://www.', chr(0))
    url = url.replace('https://www.', chr(1))
    url = url.replace('http://', chr(2))
    url = url.replace('https://', chr(3))

    url = url.replace('.com/', chr(0))
    url = url.replace('.org/', chr(1))
    url = url.replace('.edu/', chr(2))
    url = url.replace('.net/', chr(3))
    url = url.replace('.info/', chr(4))
    url = url.replace('.biz/', chr(5))
    url = url.replace('.gov/', chr(6))
    url = url.replace('.com', chr(7))
    url = url.replace('.org', chr(8))
    url = url.replace('.edu', chr(9))
    url = url.replace('.net', chr(10))
    url = url.replace('.info', chr(11))
    url = url.replace('.biz', chr(12))
    url = url.replace('.gov', chr(13))

    data = [
        0xAA, 0xFE, # Eddystone ID
        0x10, # Eddystone-URL
        twocompl(power1m), # Power
    ]

    for c in url:
        data.append(ord(c))

    bluetooth.set_advertisement(service_uuid = bytes(uuid), service_data = bytes(data))

bluetooth.advertise(True)

while True:
    time.sleep(timeSleep)

[patrick]

@papasmurph thx, your code works fine. I figured out whats wrong, if you put a name in this line

bluetooth.set_advertisement(name = None, manufacturer_data = bytes(data))

then the beacon advertisement doesn't work. I don't know if this is a bug or by design but it is easy to reproduce.

[jmarcelino]

@patrick
There isn’t enough bytes in the (standard BLE 4.x) advertisement packet for both a name and beacon data, so if you have a name the extra beacon data is dropped

[papasmurph]

@patrick I've seen beacons that include a name, that BLE scanners pick up, but it's not specified by iBeacon.

[jmarcelino]

@papasmurph
In those cases the device name is sent in a scan response packet (as a response to a scan request sent by the WiPy), this different from the advertisement.

[jmarcelino]

@surly
Have the answers above helped you? if you still have problems let me know please let us know what you're trying to do and where the problem is - I'll help you out

[EchoBravoVictor]

@papasmurph You're code is not working in iBeacon mode with my WiPy. Any Idea ? No problem at all on Eddystone

I'm on 1.20.0.rc13

Thanks !