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ibeacon-android

Setting iBeacon transmiting range


Currently, i am using a raspberry pi as a beacon transmitter and i would like to know if i can adjust the transmission range. I did configure my raspberry pi using this tutorial Radius Network Tutorial

Basically, i want to lower the transmitting range to about 1 or 2 meters. I don't really know if this is possible. At the moment i am handling the range in the application but the RSSI value is very unstable.

Is it possible to adjust this range ?


Solution

  • This does not appear to be possible with the IOGear GBU521 Bluetooth Adapter (the one specified in the tutorial) and Bluez under Linux. There are no power control commands that can be used to change the transmitter radio power level.

    In theory, controlling the radio power on a Bluetooth LE device is possible. Radius Networks' RadBeacon product, for example, supports changing between high, medium, and low power modes. In that case, however, the changes is made directly in firmware using a remote configuration app. Making the equivalent change on the GBU521 would require access to the firmware, something which the adapter does not provide.