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Is there a way to configure the physical gimbal beacon without an iPhone?

In these instruction, it says you need to use the iPhone app. Is there another way with Android, PC, etc?

Gwyn Morfey
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Alexis
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4 Answers4

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To apply custom configurations to a Gimbal Beacon or to change the Beacon Type from "Gimbal" to "iBeacon", you need the Gimbal Beacon Manager iOS App: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/gimbal-beacon-manager/id785688563

The configuration app is iOS only, there is no desktop or Android version of this configuration utility.

The steps to configure a beacon are: -- register the beacon at Gimbal.com -- create a configuration for your beacon(s) -- set the beacon to use the specified configuration on gimbal.com -- Launch the app on your iOS device, and go to the "Configure" section -- reset the beacon by opening it and taking out the battery and closing it again -- at this point the app will see the newly reset beacon (via Bluetooth), and ask if you want to update it. Press the "Update" button, and you're done.

So yes, you need an iOS device to configure the beacons.

James Eberhardt
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As of today, Gimbal's beacons will work on both iOS and Android. You are certainly able to set everything up on your Gimbal Developer Account and configure the Gimbal SDK to work with your application and OS of choice. However, you won't be able to test these beacons without a device with BLE or Bluetooth Low Energy support.

This could be a tablet or a phone but most certainly will need a physical device to test things with. Also, keep in mind Gimbal's beacons are compatible with the iBeacon specification but aren't necessarily considered to be official iBeacons (strictly from a trademark/brand perspective). You must have a Gimbal Developer Account in order to use their beacons (whether running in iBeacon or Gimbal proprietary mode) and when going to production will want to consider the pricing per active user to use the service.

As noted before, what's nice about the Gimbal beacons is they are cross-platform. Some manufacturers will only allow their beacons to work on certain platforms or require the use of a proprietary SDK other than one which is open/public. Gimbal uses a proprietary SDK and requires the use of their backend service.

I hope I cleared things up for you. If you wish to know more about using the Gimbal Proximity SDK for Android or setting up the Gimbal Proximity SDK for Android Studio, please click on the respective links.

Update 10/11/2016

You are also able to configure a subset of items directly with the SDK inside your application but Gimbal is really pushing everything to be configured via your Gimbal Developer Account (a.k.a. Gimbal Admin Dashboard).

As far as configuring everything with a separate application from the one you are developing (e.g. a standalone application that allows you to configure your beacons which are associated with your Gimbal account), the only option I'm aware of is the Gimbal Manager for iOS.

Keep in mind this app basically accomplishes the same thing as if you were at your computer and logging into your Gimbal Developer Account. This could be convenient in situations where you are running around placing beacons and are not directly near a computer.

Granted, you could also accomplish the same thing on a mobile browser logging into your Gimbal Developer Account but a native app is likely to work better.

Thus, looking back at your question, the only standalone app for any platform to configure your beacons is the Gimbal Manager for iOS. With that being said, below is a simple list showing current options to configure your beacons.

  1. Gimbal Developer Account
  2. Gimbal Manager for iOS
  3. Gimbal SDK from Within Your Application

Finally, if you need any assistance troubleshooting your beacon signals please see this article.

Daniel Eagle
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  • thanks for the great answer. Do you know if it is in the lineup to release an Android app that can be used to configure the beacons? I think there are a lot of use cases where people want to configure them without having to code it up – Alexis Nov 09 '14 at 19:37
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    I am not aware of anything in the works for an app that helps perform site surveys or configuration assistance. I had to code something up myself that returned the signal on the receivedSighting() callback method. So usually about every 3-5 seconds I'd get a signal back to my phone in a separate testing activity. The only thing I could think that Gimbal could do is release a template project where you can just plug in your account information (secret key, etc) and then it would just return the survey data and other information to help you tune the beacons. – Daniel Eagle Nov 10 '14 at 01:11
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    I wanted to provide an update. It appears Gimbal does have some apps available for site surveys now. Checkout this URL: https://support.gimbal.com/hc/en-us/articles/203404026-When-using-Proximity-how-can-I-optimize-RSSI-. You will need to log into your Gimbal Developer Account to see the contents. – Daniel Eagle Dec 01 '14 at 21:20
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    Actually, iBeacon is just a trademark registered by Apple Inc. It got implemented under "Bluetooth advertising mode" in the standard Bluetooth 4.0 protocol and is therefor platform independent. As @James Eberhardt mentions below, the CONFIGURATION APP is iOS only though. – Jens Kooij Jan 28 '15 at 14:14
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    @JensKooij +1 as I really appreciate you adding something great here. I have edited my answer to include this information as it's very important. It's easy to confuse iBeacons as a spec with iBeacons as a physical device. This should make things clearer for people. – Daniel Eagle Jan 28 '15 at 20:29
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    I think this answer is incomplete. You can _use_ a configured Gimbal beacon from many platforms. But to actually set it up (ie update the configuration stored in the beacon itself), I believe you currently have to use an iOS device. – Gwyn Morfey Dec 16 '15 at 03:59
  • @GwynMorfey It is my understanding that the beacons themselves don't actually hold configuration data but only information on how they can be identified. The real magic comes from the software that detects them (usually the SDK used with your program on iOS or Android). Gimbal uses an algorithm that only allows their SDK to properly use these beacons and the desired logic for what happens when one is discovered is stored both on the phone and the Gimbal servers as you can configure some aspects through the Gimbal developer account. Keep in mind they are changing this technology constantly. – Daniel Eagle Dec 17 '15 at 06:40
  • useful information in this answer, but it doesn't answer the *question*: can you configure the beacons on Android? No. The Gimbal Manager app is IOS only. the answer below should be the accepted one. – edovino Oct 09 '16 at 13:48
  • @edovino I appreciate the feedback. I have updated my answer to contain as much information as possible to make things more complete. – Daniel Eagle Oct 11 '16 at 19:08
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The Gimbal proximity feature is currently only available on iOS. The beacons are set up in such a way that they can only be seen from an iOS device with the Gimbal SDK (On any other platform, the Gimbal beacons signal appears with a different ID each time it is transmitted). Because of this, the only way to identify a Gimbal beacon is with an iOS device, and therefore the only way to change its configuration is with the Gimbal Beacon manager for iOS. Hopefully they will soon release an android sdk, and then you should be able to configure them from an android device as well.

jpecoraro342
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I think you should have iphone or ipad to configure it. Since it use gimbal beacon manager app to reconfigure it after we configure in gimbal manager (via web).

you can also check this link : Gimbal beacon discovery

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Harkedian
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