The node-beacon-scanner is a Node.js module which allows you to scan BLE beacon packets and parse the packet data. This module supports iBeacon, Eddystone, and Estimote.
The supported beacon data formats are as follows:
- iBeacon
- Eddystone-UID
- Eddystone-URL
- Eddystone-TLM (Unencrypted)
- Eddystone-EID
- Estimote-Telemetry
- Estimote-Nearable
See the document of the noble for details on installing the noble.
Note that the noble has to be run as root on most of Linux environments. Though the default user of Raspbian pi can run the noble on Raspbian, normal users can not access the BLE using the noble generally. See the document of the noble for details.
$ cd ~
$ npm install noble
$ npm install node-beacon-scanner
This sample code shows how to start scanning and how to get parsed packets.
const BeaconScanner = require('node-beacon-scanner');
const scanner = new BeaconScanner();
// Set an Event handler for becons
scanner.onadvertisement = (ad) => {
console.log(JSON.stringify(ad, null, ' '));
};
// Start scanning
scanner.startScan().then(() => {
console.log('Started to scan.') ;
}).catch((error) => {
console.error(error);
});The sample code above will output the result as follows:
Started to scan.
{
"id": "c7dfbfd9f64a",
"address": "c7:df:bf:d9:f6:4a",
"localName": null,
"txPowerLevel": null,
"rssi": -59,
"beaconType": "iBeacon",
"iBeacon": {
"uuid": "B9407F30-F5F8-466E-AFF9-25556B57FE6D",
"major": 21983,
"minor": 57807,
"txPower": 180
}
}
...
In order to use the node-beacon-scanner, you have to load the node-beacon-scanner module as follows:
const BeaconScanner = require('node-beacon-scanner');You can get an BeaconScanner constructor from the code above. Then you have to create an BeaconScanner object from the BeaconScanner constructor as follows:
const scanner = new BeaconScanner();The BeaconScanner constructor takes an argument optionally. It must be a hash object containing the properties as follows:
| Property | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
noble |
Noble | option | a Noble object of the noble module |
The node-beacon-scanner module uses the noble module in order to scan the beacons coming from the BLE beacon device(s). If you want to interact other BLE devices using the noble module, you can create an Noble object by yourself, then pass it to this module. If you don't specify a Noble object to the noble property, this module automatically create a Noble object internally.
The sample code below shows how to pass a Nobel object to the Linking constructor.
// Create a Noble object
const noble = require('noble');
// Create a Linking object
const BeaconScanner = require('node-beacon-scanner');
const scanner = new BeaconScanner({'noble': noble});In the code snippet above, the variable scanner is a BeaconScanner object. The BeaconScanner object has methods as described in sections below.
The startScan() method starts to scan advertising packets from BLE beacon devices. This method returns a Promise object.
Whenever a packet is received, the callback function set to the onadvertisement property of the BeaconScanner object will be called. When a packet is received, an BeaconScannerAdvertisement object will be passed to the callback function.
// Set an Event handler for becons
scanner.onadvertisement = (ad) => {
console.log(JSON.stringify(ad, null, ' '));
};
// Start scanning
scanner.startScan().then(() => {
console.log('Started to scan.') ;
}).catch((error) => {
console.error(error);
});The stopScan() method stops to scan advertising packets from BLE beacon devices. See the section "startScan() method" for details.
If a callback function is set to the onadvertisement property, the callback function will be called whenever an advertising packet is received from a BLE beacon device during the scan is active (from the moment when the startScan() method is called, to the moment when the stopScan() method is called).
See the section "startScan() method" for details.
The BeaconScannerAdvertisement object represents an advertising data coming from the BLE beacon device. This object is just a hash object containing properties as follows. Note that the structure varies depending on the format of the beacon. You can know the format of the beacon from the value of the beaconType property.
{
"id": "c7dfbfd9f64a",
"address": "c7:df:bf:d9:f6:4a",
"localName": null,
"txPowerLevel": null,
"rssi": -59,
"beaconType": "iBeacon",
"iBeacon": {
"uuid": "B9407F30-F5F8-466E-AFF9-25556B57FE6D",
"major": 21983,
"minor": 57807,
"txPower": 180
}
}The value of the iBeacon property contains the properties as follows:
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
uuid |
String | Proximity UUID |
major |
Number | Major |
minor |
Number | Minor |
txPower |
Number | Measured Power (dBm) |
{
"id": "c6debed8f549",
"address": "c6:de:be:d8:f5:49",
"localName": null,
"txPowerLevel": null,
"rssi": -59,
"beaconType": "eddystoneUid",
"eddystoneUid": {
"txPower": -35,
"namespece": "EDD1EBEAC04E5DEFA017",
"instance": "2D3EA3203B6B"
}
}The value of the eddystoneUid property contains the properties as follows:
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
namespece |
String | Namespace ID |
instance |
String | Instance ID |
txPower |
Number | Calibrated Tx power (dBm) |
{
"id": "c6debed8f549",
"address": "c6:de:be:d8:f5:49",
"localName": null,
"txPowerLevel": null,
"rssi": -59,
"beaconType": "eddystoneUrl",
"eddystoneUrl": {
"txPower": -35,
"url": "http://go.esti.be/"
}
}The value of the eddystoneUrl property contains the properties as follows:
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
url |
String | Decoded URL |
txPower |
Number | Calibrated Tx power (dBm) |
{
"id": "c6debed8f549",
"address": "c6:de:be:d8:f5:49",
"localName": null,
"txPowerLevel": null,
"rssi": -59,
"beaconType": "eddystoneTlm",
"eddystoneTlm": {
"batteryVoltage": 6059,
"temperature": 28.59765625,
"advCnt": 83,
"secCnt": 361299
}
}The value of the eddystoneTlm property contains the properties as follows:
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
batteryVoltage |
Number | Battery voltage (mV) |
temperature |
Number | Beacon temperature (°C) |
advCnt |
Number | Advertising PDU count |
secCnt |
Number | Time since power-on or reboot |
{
"id": "d9d9fe86fb61",
"address": "d9:d9:fe:86:fb:61",
"localName": null,
"txPowerLevel": null,
"rssi": -59,
"beaconType": "eddystoneEid",
"eddystoneEid": {
"txPower": -35,
"eid": "79c58b83f198ddbe"
}
}The value of the eddystoneEid property contains the properties as follows:
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
eid |
String | Ephemeral Identifier |
txPower |
Number | Calibrated Tx power (dBm) |
There are two types in the Estimote Telemetry beacon data: Type A and Type B. The types can be obtained checking the value of the subFrameType property. If the type is A, the value is 0. If the type is B, the value is 1.
Type A
{
"id": "c9e1c1dbf84c",
"address": "c9:e1:c1:db:f8:4c",
"localName": null,
"txPowerLevel": null,
"rssi": -59,
"beaconType": "estimoteTelemetry",
"estimoteTelemetry": {
"frameType": 2,
"subFrameType": 0,
"protocolVersion": 2,
"shortIdentifier": "2d3ea3203b6b2446",
"acceleration": {
"x": -0.015748031496062992,
"y": -0.07874015748031496,
"z": 0.9921259842519685
},
"moving": false,
"gpio": {
"pin0": "low",
"pin1": "low",
"pin2": "high",
"pin3": "high"
},
"errors": {
"firmware": false,
"clock": false
},
"pressure": 100304.9765625
}
}Type B
{
"id": "c9e1c1dbf84c",
"address": "c9:e1:c1:db:f8:4c",
"localName": null,
"txPowerLevel": null,
"rssi": -59,
"beaconType": "estimoteTelemetry",
"estimoteTelemetry": {
"frameType": 2,
"subFrameType": 1,
"protocolVersion": 2,
"shortIdentifier": "2d3ea3203b6b2446",
"magneticField": {
"x": 0,
"y": 0,
"z": 0
},
"light": 80.64,
"uptime": {
"unitCode": 1,
"unitDesc": "minutes",
"value": 596
},
"temperature": 28.75,
"batteryVoltage": 6059,
"batteryLevel": 95
}
}{
"id": "f8d3c05e8001",
"address": "f8:d3:c0:5e:80:01",
"localName": null,
"txPowerLevel": null,
"rssi": -59,
"beaconType": "estimoteNearable",
"estimoteNearable": {
"nearableId": "bd20de5cd074de8d",
"temperature": 25.75,
"moving": false,
"acceleration": {
"x": -15.625,
"y": -78.125,
"z": -1031.25
}
}
}The value of the estimoteNearable property contains the properties as follows:
| Property | Type | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
nearableId |
String | Nearable identifier | |
temperature |
Number | Temperature (°C) | |
moving |
Boolean | Moving state (true: moving) | |
acceleration |
Object | Acceleration | |
| -- | x |
Number | Acceleration on the X axis (milli G) |
| -- | y |
Number | Acceleration on the Y axis (milli G) |
| -- | z |
Number | Acceleration on the Z axis (milli G) |
- v0.1.0 (2018-07-14)
- Supported the Eddystone-UID of Kontakt. The spec of the Eddystone-UID defines that the packet size is 20 bytes (the last 2 bytes are RFU). But the size of the packet form Kontakt device is 18 bytes. (Thanks to @EwaRvr)
- v0.0.3 (2018-06-24)
- Fixed a bug that an exception was thrown when an unknown packet came.
- v0.0.2 (2017-09-15)
- Fixed a bug that an exception was thrown when an unknown packet came.
- v0.0.1 (2017-09-06)
- First public release
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Copyright (c) 2017-2018 Futomi Hatano
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