I bought a ibeacon tag that either did not work or is not supported.
Does anyone know of a battery powered tag that the beacon scanner in companion app can see?
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Mine can see the feasy one I bought off Amazon
Do you have a link to this one?
Canât get those here, Aliexpress seems to be the best option.
Thanks for the tip. I think I managed to get it working better with an ESP as the beacon.
But it would be nice to have a few to be able to triangulate where you are.
Any standard iBeacon should work. What iBeacon did you buy that didnât work?
Something local.
They claim itâs ibeacons that is used for indoor GPS.
I could not get a beacon signal when I used two phones and two different apps.
The seller just claims they work with their system.
I said either itâs defective or itâs not an ibeacon.
They refused to troubleshoot more and said I want to return it.
Haha, sounds like a dishonest/dumb seller! Itâs dumb for them to say it âworks with their systemâ since the whole idea of a common shared protocol like iBeacon is that it should work with all beacon scanning systems.
FYI, most of those Aliexpress sellers are just trading companies pretending to be factories. Even their pictures of their production line workers and factory buildings are fake. So they often donât even know anything about the beacons that they are selling.
FYI2, the standard app that beacon people use for testing beacons is LightBlue. You can also use nRF Connect, but I prefer LightBlue. Both are free to download for iPhones or Androids. Just open them up, start the scan, and you should be able to see the beacon that is broadcasting. LightBlue allows you to filter by name; this is handy when you have hundreds of BLE devices around you, otherwise it is hard to find one specific beacon on the long list.
Sometimes it is a little tricky to find your beacon on the list if you donât know the beacon name that it is broadcasting. In that case, you can use the sort function on LightBlue. Just hold your beacon right next to your phone, then scan, then tap the sort button on the app. Your beacon should then be the first one on the list (since it has the strongest RSSI signal due to it being so close to your phone).
Another tricky thing is to find out the broadcast UUID/major/minor of your new beacon. Most sellers will include this info in their setup guides. But some donât and then you gotta try to figure it out yourself. Itâs not easy. It can not be found with LightBlue or nRF Connect. The only app I know that shows the broadcast UUID/Major/Minor of a beacon is called Beacon Scope by David Young. There is only an Android version.
FYI3, donât try to use LightBlue to connect to your beacon and to change any configurations. It wonât stay connected in most cases since most beacons have passwords, and LightBlue has no way of sending that password. Even if you get a beacon without a password, you wonât know how to change the configuration since each manufacturer has their own secret proprietary way of doing it. In some cases, messing around with LightBlue trying to change a beacon configuration will brick the beacon.
Of course, none of this should be a problem if your beacon supplier has their own configuration app to use with their beacons. Using their app (not LightBlue), it should be easy to find the beacon during a scan, and also to change the configuration if needed. Also you can easily see/change the UUID/Major/Minor if you use the manufacturerâs app.
Sorry for the long answer; just thought I would leave it here in case anyone else is having similar issues.
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I have a situation where the third party app, I used WiFiman and LightBlue, can find the bluetooth signal coming from my Nikon digital camera. However, the HA app beacon monitor doesnât seem to ever show it.
I have already got ESPresense set up, found all the appropriate IDâs etc and it is working fine for that.
Would really like to have the app âseeâ the device from the beacon or something. I was hoping to use the connection to implement a âlast known locationâ style tracking.
Edit:
After using the Beacon Scope app, I realize the signal from my camera is not a âbeaconâ just the standard ble bluetooth signal, which works while Iâm in the house with the ESPresense.
Still looking to see if I can do outdoor tracking without having to buy a Tile to sit next to something that is already putting out a BLE signal.
Tiles donât broadcast iBeacon signals either, as far as I know. People are using them for beacon-type usages cases, but I think it might also be using the Tileâs BLE non-beacon signal as a workaround.
Also, Tiles are expensive! 
My Android 10 tablet doesnât detect any iBeacons, also not with the HA companion app. Could it be that i have to enable Eddystone on these beacons to be detected? There now set ot broadcast iBeacon protocol only. I use Shelly(BThome), Teltonika and Mikrotik beacons. All set to to iBeacon.
App permissions, locations, blurtooht enabled etc allready done.
No, the beacons donât have to be set to Eddystone.
Be sure that Bluetooth is turned on on the phone.
Sounds like there is some setup wrong on your phone. Probably you did not give correct permissions to the apps. Iâm not super familiar with Androids, but itâs some setting called location or privacy. You need to give each app, such as HA companion, specific permission.
As a test, try downloading a free app called LightBlue. When you are installing it and opening it for the first time, slow down and read the pop up notifications. There should be something asking you to give LightBlue permission to something something. Accept/ok those. Then try scanning with LightBlue. You should see your beacons then.
Then go back and figure out how to correct the permissions for your other beacon-related apps.