RedBear Beacon is a dedicated beacon device and does not support BLE Mini or third party firmware; its firmware will not be open sourced and has proprietary iBeacon and LBS features.

Features

Tested with latest iOS 7 & 8
Run standalone as iBeacon, Arduino or external host is not required.
You can customize your own iBeacon configuration including UUID etc.
You can run multiple BLE Mini iBeacons at the same time.
No soldering work is required if power through Micro USB.
You have three options to power BLE Mini
- VIN pin (J4), 3.6V to 11V
- Micro USB connector, 5V
- Coin Cell Battery, 2.3V to 3.6V

Quick Start

You can power the BLE Mini with a 5V power source through the micro USB connector; if you do not intend to use coin cell battery or other power source, no soldering work is required.

Step 1. Upload the latest MiniBeacon Firmware into BLE Mini

Note: If you have developed your own firmware for BLE Mini that utilize the EEPROM, please backup your data in the EEPROM before using this firmware as part of the storage in the EEPROM will be used to save the configuration data.

You will need a Microsoft Windows PC and an USB cable with micro USB connector for the upgrade process. Press and hold the push button on BLE Mini while connecting it to your PC, it should show a mass storage drive (e.g. E:), then you can release the push button, delete the existing .bin file (e.g. Biscuit.bin or old RBL-iBeacon.bin) and drag the latest MiniBeacon Firmware into the drive.

MiniBeacon can operates under two modes, broadcasting mode or maintenance mode. It will enter broadcasting mode at startup, by default the green LED is ON. It will broadcast iBeacon signal periodically.

Step 2. Switch MiniBeacon to maintenance mode by pressing the button on BLE Mini

The Blue LED on BLE Mini should be ON.

Step 3. Download the sample MiniBeacon App to customize your MiniBeacon

Our sample app will automatically connect to the first MiniBeacon it discovers. You can also customize your MiniBeacon settings using your own codes or third party BLE utility apps.

Characteristics

iBeacon UUID UUID: 0xB0702881-A295-A8AB-F734-031A98A512D
a unique 16-bytes value in HEX for advertising
Major identity ID UUID: 0xB0702882-A295-A8AB-F734-031A98A512DE
a 2-bytes value, ranging from 0 to 65535 (0xFFFF)
Minor identity ID UUID: 0xB0702883-A295-A8AB-F734-031A98A512DE
a 2-bytes value, ranging from 0 to 65535 (0xFFFF)
Measured Power UUID: 0xB0702884-A295-A8AB-F734-031A98A512DE
a 1-byte signed value, ranging from -100 to 0
Please refer to Apple's AirLocate example about how to obtain Measured Power for your iBeacon https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action?name=WWDC iOS_AirLocate.zip
LED Switch UUID: 0xB0702885-A295-A8AB-F734-031A98A512DE
a 1-byte value used to control the on-board green LED, either OFF (0x00) or ON (0x01)
default is ON
Advertising Interval UUID: 0xB0702886-A295-A8AB-F734-031A98A512DE
a 2-bytes value, ranging from 100ms (0x0064) to 10000ms (0x2710) on a incremental of 5ms unit
default is 250ms
Output Power UUID: 0xB0702887-A295-A8AB-F734-031A98A512DE
a 1-byte value, four available settings: -23dBm (0x00), -6dBm (0x01), 0dBm (0x02) or 4dBm (0x03)
default is 0dBm
MiniBeacon Firmware Version: 0xB0702888-A295-A8AB-F734-031A98A512DE
current version "MiniBeacon_20131205"