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bluetoothbluetooth-lowenergyibeaconraspberry-pi2

Do I need Bluetooth 4.0 dongle to detect iBeacons on Raspberry Pi?


I've a working version of a Raspberry Pi with a Bluetooth 4.0 (CSR) dongle that detects iBeacons (estimote) proximity using latest BlueZ.

It's working great but I don't know if I need a BT 4.0 capable device, or I can detect iBeacons with an older BT 2.0 dongle.

Does anybody have the answer or a pointer where I can get more info?


Solution

  • Yes, you need a Bluetooth 4.0 dongle to detect iBeacons, because they are based on Bluetooth Low Energy, aka Bluetooth LE, which wasn't released until the 4.0 Bluetooth spec.