Gimbal beacon discovery

Question

Is it possible to discover Gimbal beacons using the iOS SDK? I want to use simple ranging but I don't know the UUID of the transmitter.

Do the Gimbal beacons use the iBeacon API, or some other BLE API? Apple's location manager ranging code will only work if it's a true iBeacon. You'll have to roll your own ranging code if it's not using iBeacons. — Duncan C, Jan 23 '14 at 19:58
No, they have a different API (their own SDK). Using the Android app mentioned by davidhelms, I was not able to discover this beacon. — Mihai Popa, Jan 24 '14 at 08:08

score 31 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 26 '14 at 16:14

31

YES, you can use Gimbals as iBeacons. You have to re-configure it using iBeacon configuration. Login to Gimbal website, create an account if you don't have one. https://proximity.gimbal.com/

Open Proximity tab. Click on Manage Configuration button at the top and create new configuration, select iBeacon as beacon type, assign UUID, major and minor. You can choose any UUID you'd like.

Now register your Gimbal beacon, and select your new configuration. You must open the beacon to get to the Factory ID that is required to register.

Download Gimbal manager app for iPhone, open it, select "Configure" option. Open Gimbal and remove battery, put the batter back in, and you should see your beacon in the Gimbal Manager app, click the Update button.

That's it, now you your Gimbal is in iBeacon mode.

answered Mar 26 '14 at 16:14

Sergey

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Any idea why I can't find that Gimbal manager app from the app store on an iPod touch? According to the listing at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gimbal-beacon-manager/id785688563?mt=8 the app should be compatible with ipod touch. It runs iOS 7.1.1, maybe that's the issue!? – hcpl May 20 '14 at 09:24
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And here's a great set of instructions with images: https://gimbal.com/doc/ios_proximity_ibeacon_quickstart.html – Lyndsey Scott May 25 '14 at 02:49
I am currently using Gimbal sdk, but i dont have any gimbal device, i just want to test sdk by configuring my iphone as a ibeacon transmitter. I followed the steps in the answer but still i am unable to detect my device as a beacon. – Rahul Mathur May 29 '14 at 07:06
@Rahul Mathur I don't think you can configure the settings of an iPhone acting as a beacon ,since only the configuration of Gimbal beacon can be changed using that. – Siddharth Aug 13 '14 at 08:53
@Sergey Your instructions make sense, but what I'm not clear about is whether you can now find the beacons using Core Location alone, or whether you still need the Gimbal SDK after following your directions. – Axeva Dec 05 '14 at 18:52

Mihai Popa · Answer 2 · 2014-01-27T07:35:14.447

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If anyone interested, I found this useful post on http://beekn.net/2013/12/inside-gimbal-qualcomm-beacons-tackle-bluetooth-le-challenges/:

Actually, you can’t sniff the iBeacon UUID as Gimbal use their own implementation for their beacons. They use BLE to transmit encrypted IDs that change with each broadcast, so it needs to validate with the SDK / API to confirm which beacon ID this ties up to.

update: davidyoung is right. There is some info that I skipped in Gimbal's documentation:

If your application's use case requires you to use iBeacon technology, the Gimbal Series 20 beacon can be configured to broadcast iBeacon compatible BLE packets. To learn how to configure a beacon to be iBeacon compatible please read the Proximity Quickstart Guide. The Proximity framework makes it very easy to use both iBeacons and Gimbal beacons from the SDK and lets you manage them through the Gimbal Manager Portal.

edited Jan 27 '14 at 07:35

answered Jan 24 '14 at 08:35

Mihai Popa

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If you read their documentation, it is pretty clear that their SDK is relying on a custom BLE beacon that is not iBeacon compatible. See: https://gimbal.com/doc/proximity/ios.html – davidgyoung Jan 24 '14 at 22:50
Gimbal is a regular BLE transmitter, and can be re-configured to comply with iBeacon spec. See my response below. – Sergey Mar 26 '14 at 16:15
Anyone know if this also works for the series 10? It claims it's in iBeacon mode but is still broadcasting different UUID's every half second. – LeslieOA May 28 '14 at 18:21
iBeacon mode only works on Gimbal Series 20 beacons. See iBeacon section here: https://gimbal.com/doc/proximity/ios.html Strangely the Series 10 beacons accept iBeacon configuration and report in Beacon Manager app that they're iBeacons, but still broadcast as Gimbal Beacons. – alexkent Jun 06 '14 at 22:50
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I got a Series 10 with Firmware 1.8.0 to work as a standard iBeacon. It appears to be broadcasting in both modes now (Gimbal proximity for reconfigurability?) as well as the iBeacon settings I applied in the manager as per the answer given by Sergey. – owenfi Aug 07 '14 at 20:30
@owenfi can you provide some for detail on how you did that? Also, can you provide info on where you got the firmware? – dr.doom Nov 05 '15 at 21:58

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 27 '14 at 05:11

Interesting - I recently received a reply from Radius Networks that said ScanBeacon cannot identify Gimbal beacons - at least that's how I read it..

"Scanbeacon should display any device that is transmitting an ibeacon advertisement. We have had several reports that the little blue beacons that Qualcomm has been making available are not showing up with ScanBeacon. Our own investigation into these units is that they are not advertising the iBeacon identifiers.

There may be some configuration or other steps that need to be taken that we are not aware of. But the out-of-the-box state of the Qualcomm beacons appears to be no iBeacon advertisement."

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 30 '14 at 10:23

To use iOS, you will need to know the UUID. There are some other options that do not require knowledge of the UUID.

If you have an Android device w/ 4.3 or later and support for BT4.0, you can use the free Locate application at the following link. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.radiusnetworks.locate
If you have a Mac w 10.9 or higher and support for BT4.0, you can use the ScanBeacon app ($9.99) available on the Mac App Store or at this link. http://www.radiusnetworks.com/scanbeacon-app.html

Good luck, and make sure you report back your findings to rest of the community!

David

Full Disclosure: My colleagues just firmly reminded me that I'm misbehaving by not noting that I work for Radius Networks, who provides the tools listed above, and am the developer of the second tool listed, ScanBeacon.

Gimbal beacon discovery

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