DIY iBeacon and Beacon Scanner with Raspberry Pi and HM13

Made your own iBeacon and track it with a Raspberry Pi as a beacon scanner!

BeginnerFull instructions provided1 hour13,742

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Seeed Studio Seeeduino V4.2

Seeed Studio Grove - Blueseeed - Dual model (HM13)

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

Li-Ion Battery 1000mAh

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

Story

A beacon will continuous broadcast signals to let other bluetooth devices know the presence of it. And I've always wanted to have a bluetooth beacon to track my keys since I've already forgot to bring them like 10 times last year. And I happendly got a HM13 dual module. So I think I could turn it into a simple iBeacon to let me know if I forgot to bring my keys. But when I finished it, I realized I wouldn't keep checking my phones. Thus, I decided to make a continuos beacon scanner with Raspberry Pi as a bluetooth gateway. So I can trigger it to email me or text me to remind me of my keys.

And here is how to make it happen.

Step 1: DIY an iBeacon

I programmed the HM13 module with an arduino compatible board. I think it can be done with other kinds of dev boards even raspberry pi. But as there are plenty of libraries with Arduino, why bother? Connect the HM13 module to the right Tx and Rx pin. Then upload the sketch. But remember to set UUID, macro and minor value in Arduino code. When it's done, you just need to power the HM13 module to keep it working.

a done beacon

Step 2: Test it with an app

Here I recommed an app called Locate. You can find it in appstore and it's free.

Then add your beacon in the app. The UUID, macro and minor value was specified in Arduino code. After that you'll see your beacon on the front page of the app.

Take your phone and walk around. You'll see the rough distance between you and your beacon.

Step 3: Turn your Raspberry Pi into a Bluetooth gateway

Thanks for GitHub user singaCapital. Clone the repository and follow the instructions to make it work on your Raspberry Pi. Then you'll see this.

Now you have your own iBeacon and beacon scanner. You can even attach the beacon to your cat to let you know in advance that she's going to step on your keyboard. You can also calculate the distance by utilize the RSSI value which stands for the strenghth of the bluetooth signal.

Enjoy your beacon and track everything you want!

Code

Turn HM13 into iBeacon

// Use Library Manager or download here: https://github.com/sparkfun/SparkFun_HM1X_Bluetooth_Arduino_Library
#include <SparkFun_HM1X_Bluetooth_Arduino_Library.h>
#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

HM1X_BT bt;
char * uuid0 = "01234567";
char * uuid1 = "89ABCDEF";
char * uuid2 = "01234567";
char * uuid3 = "89ABCDEF";

SoftwareSerial btSerial(6, 7);

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600); // Serial debug port @ 9600 bps

  // bt.begin --
  // in this case takes a HardwareSerial connection and
  // a desired serial baud rate.
  // Returns true on success
  if (bt.begin(btSerial, 9600) == false) {
    Serial.println(F("Failed to connect to the HM-13."));
    while (1) ;
  }

  // Enable iBeacon
  if (bt.iBeacon(true)) {
    Serial.println("iBeacon enabled");
  } 

  // Configure iBeacon UUID's
  if (bt.setiBeaconUUID(uuid0, uuid1, uuid2, uuid3) == HM1X_SUCCESS) {
    Serial.println("Set iBeacon UUID");
  }
  Serial.println("UUID: " + String(bt.getiBeaconUUID()));

  // Set iBeacon major version
  if (bt.setiBeaconMajor(65011) == HM1X_SUCCESS) {
    Serial.println("Set iBeaconMajor");
  }

  // Set iBeacon minor version
  if (bt.setiBeaconMinor(12345) == HM1X_SUCCESS) {
    Serial.println("Set setiBeaconMinor");
  }

  // Reset to re-configure device
  if (bt.reset() == HM1X_SUCCESS) {
    Serial.println("Ready to iBeacon!");
  }
}

void loop() {
  if (bt.available()) {
    Serial.write((char) bt.read());
  }
  if (Serial.available()) {
    bt.write((char) Serial.read());
  } 
}

Credits

memoryleak

5 projects • 7 followers

A soft and hardware engineer motivated by interest and fun

DIY iBeacon and Beacon Scanner with Raspberry Pi and HM13