3.1 Beacon Line Starterkit

The simplicity of the Beacon Line network concept makes it easy for you to implement large wireless BLE ideas with a high degree of technical flexibility and modular expansion.

Included in delivery:

1. 1x Ethernet Gateway
2. 9x Anchor
3. 3x Bluetooth Low Energy Beacon
4. 1x POE (Power over Ethernet Power supply)
5. 10x Cat5-cable (5 meter length)

We connect the anchors to the gateway. The gateway is connected to the POE port of the POE power supply. We connect the LAN port to our switch (up to 1000 MBit/s).

The gateway gets its IP address dynamically from the DHCP server and can be reached via the IP address or host name (BLGD-MAC). The MAC address is mapped on the housing of the gateway (e.g. BLGD-8C8E7601441E). To communicate with the gateway a “.local” is appended to the hostname (MAC address), so in this example:

BLGD-8C8E7601441E.local

3.2 Bline server software

The Bline server software can be started under Linux, Windows and macOS.

The Bline server can connect to several Beacon Line gateways or anchors. This can be set in the Bline-Server.yaml file.

An example (Bline-Server.yaml):

Download: Bline-Server.yaml

server:
    jwt: false                              # JSON Web Token
    basepath: /bline/v1                     # HTTP Prefix
    www: vue/dist
    httpport: 8080                          # Port number for RESTful API
    scanport: 4000                          # Scan TCP port number
    errorport: 4001                         # Error Port number
    grpcport: 50051                         # gRPC Port number
    verbose: false                          # Verbose Flag
    monitor: true                           # Monitor Flag
    monitorinterval: 30                     # Monitoring Interval in seconds
lines:
    line1:                                  # Name of the gateway
        anchors: 1                          # Number of anchors connected to the gateway
        desciption: blgd-8c8e76011316       # The description of the line
        url: blgd-8c8e76011316:3001         # The IP address or hostname from the gateway
        enabled: true                       # Enabled Flag
        scan: true                          # Scan Flag
        broadcast: false                    # Broadcast Flag
    line2:
        anchors: 3
        desciption: blgd-8c8e76010477
        url: blgd-8c8e76010477:3001
        enabled: true
        scan: true
        broadcast: true

We start the Bline servers:

In Windows we start in the command prompt with the following command:

C:\beacon_line_2023\Bline-Server.230210\windows>Bline-Server.exe

Then the Bline server is started and initializes the Beacon Line:

#./Bline-Server
Bline-Server, V1.0 (24.09.2023), (C) taskit GmbH, 2023

Scan server listen to port 4000
Error server listen to port 4001

Web-Hosting: vue/dist
API Basepath: /bline/v1
⇨ http server started on [::]:8080

Connect Lines
    line1      with 1 anchors   Port: 48236 <-> blgd-8c8e76011316
    line2      with 3 anchors   Port: 48237 <-> blgd-8c8e76010477
Initialise Lines
    Waiting for Anchors
    Initialising Complete
Statup Lines     1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20
    line1       S-
    line2       SB  SB  SB

3.3 Bline-Log Software

The Bline-Log software can be started under Linux, Windows and macOS.

The Bline log can log the scan data from the Bline server.

An example (Bline-Log.yaml):

Download: Bline-Log.yaml

cfgpath: .
datapath: .
logpath: log
scanport: 4000
errorport: 3001
verbose: false

In Windows we start in the command prompt with the following command:

C:\beacon_line_2023\Bline-Log.221211\windows>Bline-Log.exe

Log is started:

datapath: .
logpath: log
ScanLog ([::1]:3936) connected to tcp://localhost:4000

The observer data is redirected to csv files

For more explanation of the Observer data, see Chapter 5.