Secondary BLE

Device Tracker 5.0

Overview

Secondary Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is an optional setting that allows a device to be located if it loses power due to critically low battery or is powered off. The location of the device is detected by the seeking device that listens for signals transmitted from the secondary BLE beacon of the powered off device. Attempts to locate the lost device must occur soon after the device loses power, prior to loss of power from the secondary BLE radio.

There are 2 types of secondary BLE:

  • Device-based - The secondary BLE radio is located on the device. In addition to the Device Tracker license, a separate BLE license is required for the secondary BLE to operate. Although the Device Tracker license is monitored by the web portal, this does not apply to the BLE license.
  • Battery-based - The secondary BLE radio is located on the battery. When purchasing the BLE battery, it comes with a 3-year term Device Tracker license for full operation of Device Tracker. A BLE license is not required. There is a difference in behavior when using battery-based secondary BLE, see battery-based BLE behavior.

Secondary BLE is used to find a device that is powered off. This should not be confused with the built-in device primary BLE, used for finding devices that are powered on.

Configuration

Secondary BLE is enabled through Beacon Manager (BeaconMgr), which controls the signals transmitted by the secondary BLE radio on the powered off device. Aside from administrative control detecting beacons, Beacon Manager also controls the power level of the transmitted signal to help balance power consumption within a detectable range. To enable and configure secondary BLE on devices, create a StageNow profile

See Beacon Manager documentation for more information.

Steps to Create Profile

Instructions to create a StageNow profile for secondary BLE configuration:

  1. Open StageNow on a host computer.

  2. In the StageNow home screen, click Create New Profile from the left menu.

  3. Ensure the proper MX version, MX 10.2 or higher, is selected at the top drop-down selector for secondary BLE support. Support for Manufacturer Byte and Reference RSSI options were added starting with MX 10.5. See MX documentation for instructions how to check the version. Select Xpert Mode from the list and click Create. imageWizard selection

  4. Enter the profile name. Click Start.

  5. Find BeaconMgr and click the plus (+) sign next to it. This adds BeaconMgr to the Config tab on the right side. Add config setting

  6. Click Add. In the BeaconMgr screen, select the following:
         • Beaconing: Turn ON
         • Beaconing in Airplane Mode: Turn ON
         • Beacon type: AltBeacon
         • Explicit Beacon UUID?: [uncheck checkbox]
         • AltBeacon ID1: EBEB
         • AltBeacon ID2: ECDD
         • Transmission (Tx) Power Level: High (1 dBm)
         • Transmission (Tx) Interval: Low Latency (100 ms)
         • Manufacturer Byte: 00
         • Reference RSSI: [For battery-based secondary BLE, such as TC52AX and MC33AX, enter C0. Otherwise, leave blank]

  7. Click Continue.

  8. Click Complete Profiles.

  9. Select one of the following based on the deployment method:

    • StageNow: Generate the barcode from the StageNow profile. Open StageNow client on the device and scan the barcode(s) generated.
    • EMM: Export XML from the StageNow profile. Do not edit the XML file - it can cause unexpected behavior. Deploy the XML using either OEMConfig or MX to configure the app and grant all required permissions. The installation profile and server connectivity profile XML files must be used separately.

Make sure devices are connected to the network and remain connected to the server for at least 5 minutes during intial setup.

Use

There are behavioral differences between device-based and battery-based secondary BLE. See battery-based BLE behavior. When locating a device based on its secondary BLE beacon, the Play Sound feature is disabled during device search since it cannot function due to the loss of device power. The Secondary BLE state is viewed from the Device Details screen. See Secondary BLE for reference.

See Also