Home

Awesome

Deprecated!

Due to shutting down the Proximity Beacons API by Google this project has also been deprecated.

nRF Beacon for Eddystone

nRF Beacon for Eddystone is an application that supports the new Eddystone GATT configuration service allowing users to configure your beacon to advertise all types of Eddystone frame types from UID, URL, TLM and the newest EID and eTLM frame types. In addition the application uses Nearby API for scanning Eddystone beacons in close proximity and Google Proximity API to register UID, EID beacons and create attachments for them on the Proximity API cloud.

Features

The basic features of the application includes

-Foreground and background scanning of beacons using Nearby API which are registered on the Proximity API. Once an EID beacon is registered to the cloud with an attachment, the Nearby API will send the beacon EID packet to the proximity API, resolves the EID packet and retrieves the data attached to it. Please note only UID and EID beacon types can be registered on the proximity API

-Registering beacons and creating attachments to proximity API

-Configuration of Eddystone beacons using the new Eddystone GATT configuration service.

-URL shortener for configuring URL beacons

How to Guide

  1. First press the button 1 on the nRF52 Devkit which turns the devkit/beacon in to connectable mode for 60 seconds
  2. Press the connect button on the update tab on the application and the list of devices will be prompted.
  3. Select the device and you will be challenged with the beacon manufacturer lock code. the lock code used for this application is 16 F's and the application will have the lock code hard coded
  4. After entering the correct lock code the application will read through all slots and display the information for each slot.

This application goes hand in hand with the nRF5 SDK for Eddystone posted on Github on the following link. This link also contain a complete how to guide and the new Eddystone GATT configuration specs. Please note that some of the advanced characteristics are not supported on the firmware application and will be implemented in the near future.

https://github.com/NordicPlayground/nrf5-sdk-for-eddystone

The nRF Beacon for Eddystone application is available on Playstore on the following link.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=no.nordicsemi.android.nrfbeacon.nearby

Setting up the project

-Two important steps would be to enable the Nearby API, the Proximity API and URL Shortener API from the Google developer console's api manager.

-Generate an API Key for android by clicking in credentials which will be used for the Nearby API. Make sure to enter the API Key for the Nearby API in the manifest file

-Generate a browser API Key by clicking in credentials which will be used for the URL Shortener API. Make sure to add this api key in the class ReadWriteAdvertisementSlotDialogFragment

-Next using the debug keystore retreive the SHA1 Key and enter it with your project package name

-Generate an OAuth2.0 Client for Web Application and include the client id and the client secret in the calls to the Authorization end points. This is to allow server side api access with the integration of Google Sign-In. Google Sign-In has been integrated in the app in order to maintain a seamless signin procedure. You can read about this more on https://developers.google.com/identity/sign-in/android/start-integrating and follow the steps to generate your own Json file for google services. Don't forget to read about the Migration Guide on it https://developers.google.com/identity/sign-in/android/migration-guide

-Read more about the Project Delegation on the Proximity API. This will allow only users to register beacons to projects which they have write access to. This means that the user has to be either an owner or an editor which could be set on the developer console project to be able to register beacons. In case you don't own a project make sure you create a project first and then enable Proximity API and Nearby API if you are thinking of using the Nearby API for scanning beacons. more information about this could be found on https://developers.google.com/beacons/proximity/projects-and-ownership

Follow the full instructions from the google documentation https://developers.google.com/beacons/get-started#obtain_and_provision_beacons

Note:

-Android 4.3 or newer is required.

-Tested on Samsung S3 with Android 4.3, on Nexus 5, 6 and 9 with lollipop, Marshmallow & N Developer Preview 5 and Samsung Galaxy S6, S7 with Marshmallow.

-Location Services need to be enabled for scanning on android 6.0 Marshmallow requesting a runtime persmission ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION

-Google Sign-In has be integrated to Authorize the application for the Proximity API, Google Cloud Resource Manager permission.