I need keychain BLE beacons for use in unlocking the house, the boat, the cabin and the car with Hass and ESPresense. Basically a master key that works for everything we have. I had some from eBay that had a ridiculous short battery life, around two months. And of course it always went dead when my wife was coming to a door with her hands full, so she had to use the key or the keypad on the lock. That’s just the way it goes, she’s the original Bermuda Trinangle for electronics. So I’m looking at a shop on Ali that has several different types. I don’t need the sensors that can be in these, only the BLE beacon. Which one of these chips would be best for battery life?
A 99 cent beacon and free shipping? What could go wrong?
But seriously, there are a few indications in that listing that something is not right. Firstly, they’re using a CR2032 battery but only getting 8 months battery life at 1000ms interval and -4 TX. That’s very short. Any legit beacon would definitely give you 16 months battery life with that battery and those settings. My guess is there is some sort of defect on the circuit board that is wasting power. Hence the impossibly low price.
Also they claim the TX settings range from -95dB -4dB. I’ve never heard of any beacon not going up to 0 TX. And also never heard of any beacon going below -40 TX. So that range is highly suspicious as well.
Finally, that housing is a notoriously troublesome one; it’s been a common “public mold” in China for almost 10 years now. The little teeth that hold the two parts together are way too thin. I’ve tested that housing before and had to put a little tiny amount of chapstick on each tooth to prevent it from stripping out. You can pretty much only close it once. If you try to reopen it, the teeth will mostly be stripped.
OK, here’s a self-promotion for a much more “expensive” beacon: Our BC021. $18.95 and free shipping in the USA. Expected battery life is 16 months @ 1second interval & 0dBm & unconnectable mode. The housing is tough enough to carry around on a key chain. Plus you can configure the motion sensor inside the beacon to speed up the interval when it senses motion, and slow down the interval when it doesn’t sense motion. Using this method, you can have the beacon broadcast normally on motion and then slow way way down when no motion (e.g. the beacon is sitting in a drawer or in someone’s purse not being used at all). As a result, you can achieve even longer battery life than 16 months.
It also has a button trigger which you can use for secondary automation activations, but only if you use a BLE scanner gateway. I don’t think ESPresence or the iBeacon Tracker integration can handle this feature (two different UUIDs coming from a single MAC beacon). Not sure about that though.
Finally, to answer your question about which chip is best for long battery life: Any legit nRF or TI/CC chip will be about the same. More importantly, the firmware of the beacon and PCB design/quality has a much stronger influence on the battery life.
The other chip you list (RDL301) is not a legit chip; that’s just a fake number created by the beacon maker (Radioland). Probably they are using some non-brand Chinese chip that they are rebranding as their own.
Thanks for answering, and I understand that you have a lot of knowledge about this. Your device sounds nice, but it will be more than doubled in the original price with shipping and custom fees to Norway. So I’m afraid that’s more than I want to spend on this project. But I will look for another type of housing where I can afford it. Thanks again!
I’ve been using the NRF51822 beacons (without any additional sensors) from Aliexpress for a long time, although switching to my Apple Watch for the same functionality now. Their battery lasted well over a year, especially as mine were shipped with fully being able to access them, being able to set the uuid, major and minor the their broadcast interval, with the latter making it possible to prolong the battery life even further.
I have heard from others though, that some shops recently send them out without being able to access and change the settings for them, so you might just have to take a lucky dip.
So I’m looking at a shop on Ali that has several different types. I don’t need the sensors that can be in these, only the BLE beacon. Which one of these chips would be best for battery life?
