Advertising the transmit power data is good enough for me, I can use that information in my own code [to bad I'm a bad and lazy coder]. The iBeacon feature was just to allow using third party apps «hardcoded» to iBeacon-like devices.
Glad to know you are considering all those options.
The "capture the flag" idea is also nice :)
I need to check wether it's technically possibe, I think it might be possible to listen to advertisement data packets while connected as a peripheral. If this works, than the SBrick could indicate the presence of a nearby beacon to the application.
The current firmware do include transmit power data in the advertisement packets, so distance approximation is indeed possible without resorting to iBeacon (which designed to serve a somewhat different purpose).
I suspect there are a lot of apps already that can work with virtually any BLE device. Hm. I've actually used one: It's Nordic Semiconductor's "nRF Mater Control Panel". It can draw you a graph of the signal strength of received advertisement data packets, and can help to locate BLE devices.
As for the SBrick apps, we have a large TODO list, and one item is to provide range indication. Your device could sound an alarm and/or vibrate if it sees the model getting out of range. I don't know when this feature will get it's way into the public release, since we need to concentrate on the basic features on all platforms, but we think it's an important piece of functionality that will be included in the very near future.
Hi all!
Since SBrick is BT4.0 BLE, are you considering proximity/iBeacon feature in the firmware?
It would make possible:
- the client app could locate my tank/robot after wrong turn in the park or bad coding
- a «guided visit to the boxes» before a race - people would receive info from each model just by passing nearby
- central server could track all cars in a race and display real time position
- my client app could tell if the tank nearby mine is friend or foe and locate enemy's flag