Creating AltBeacon with Raspberry Pi using BlueZ Example Code (updated)

This post shows steps to create an AltBeacon [1] with Raspberry Pi, by modifying BlueZ BLE Advertisement example code (i.e. “example-advertisement“).

*If you want to create Apple’s iBeacon [2], please see this post.

Prerequisites (parentheses indicate my environment)

Raspberry Pi (Raspberry Pi4 B with Raspbian Buster 2019-06-20)
Internet access
To download BlueZ example code. Here is a Wi-Fi Setup steps. If you downloaded already, you can work offline.

Steps
1. Downloading BlueZ
1-1. Download BlueZ source code archive.

wget www.kernel.org/pub/linux/bluetooth/bluez-5.50.tar.xz

1-2. Extract the archive file.

tar xvf bluez-5.50.tar.xz

1-3. Make sure that the sample code works. [Optional]

./bluez-5.50/test/example-advertisement

Output should be like this:

$ ./bluez-5.50/test/example-advertisement
GetAll
returning props
Advertisement registered

2. Modify BLE Advertisement Example Code
2-1. Copy the example code.

cp ./bluez-5.50/test/example-advertisement ./example-altbeacon

2-2. Open the file and look for TestAdvertisement class.

2-3. Replace ‘__init__’ method:

    def __init__(self, bus, index):
        Advertisement.__init__(self, bus, index, 'peripheral')
        self.add_service_uuid('180D')
        self.add_service_uuid('180F')
        self.add_manufacturer_data(0xffff, [0x00, 0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x04])
        self.add_service_data('9999', [0x00, 0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x04])
        self.add_local_name('TestAdvertisement')
        self.include_tx_power = True
        self.add_data(0x26, [0x01, 0x01, 0x00])

with:

    def __init__(self, bus, index):
        company_id =  0x0118
        type =       [0xBE, 0xAC]
        id1 =        [0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x04, 0x05, 0x06, 0x07, 0x08,
                      0x09, 0x10, 0x11, 0x12, 0x13, 0x14, 0x15, 0x16]
        id2 =        [0x11, 0x22]
        id3 =        [0x33, 0x44]
        rssi_at_1m = [0xB3]
        feature  =   [0x00]
        Advertisement.__init__(self, bus, index, 'peripheral')
        self.add_manufacturer_data(company_id, type + id1 + id2 + id3 + rssi_at_1m + feature)

3. Test
3-1. Run the code. The console output should be same as Step 1-3.

./example-altbeacon

3-2. Find your AltBeacon running on Raspberry Pi using a beacon scanner app. I used nRF Connect on an Android phone.

Summary
If everything goes well, the Raspberry Pi should be broadcasting AltBeacon message and you can find it with a scanner app. Some of the AltBeacon data can be configured on Step 2-3 for your application. Here is a brief explanation of those data.

‘company_id’
Company Identifiers are defined by Bluetooth SIG [3].
‘beacon_type’
It must be ‘0xBEAC’ for AltBeacon.
‘id1’
Application unique UUID.
‘id2‘ and ‘id3‘
Additional unique IDs which correspond iBeacon’s Major Number and Minor Number respectively.
‘rssi_at_1m’
Value of received signal strength at 1 meter from the device. It must be calibrated for each device when it’s deployed.