First time setup

Configure via WiFi

You can setup a BI-Beacon using a mobile or desktop device that connects to the Beacons own setup web page.

Instructions
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  1. Find your WiFi credentials (password and WiFi name)
  2. Plugin your BI-Beacon (it turns blue)
  3. Disable cellular network (if on mobile device)
  4. Wait up to 30 seconds until BI-Beacon starts shifting between blue and green (this means setup mode is active)
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  1. Connect to WiFi “BI-Beacon-A1B2C3” (where A1B2C3 is unique for your Beacon)
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  1. Browse to BI-Beacon’s Setup Page: http://192.168.4.1

    Note: You may need to reload the page a couple of times to ‘wake up’ the web server

  2. Enter details

    a. WiFi name: the WiFi lamp should connect to (also known as SSID)

    b. WiFi password: password of WiFi to connect to (leave empty if no password)

    Note: If you bought your Beacon before September 2019, or have firmware version 0.89 or older, the Beacon will not handle % (per cent) in the WiFi password field due to a bug.

    c. Channel key: the string identifier controlling the beacon state (read more in the API section)

    Optional settings available from firmware version 0.84 and upwards:

    d. State server: The channel state server to connect to. Default: api.bi-beacon.com

    e. Port: The TCP port to connect to on the channel state server. Default: 4040.
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  1. This should then happen:
    1. The Beacon will turn blue meaning it is trying to connect to the router
    2. It will turn purple which means it is connecting to state server
    3. Then it will turn green if all goes well!

Configure via USB cable

You can also setup a BI-Beacon using a USB data cable. (This, however, requires that your user is on a Linux machine and has the proper permissions (often this means being part of the dialout user group.)

Clone the cli repo (see Repositories).

Then, in a terminal of your choice,

$ python config_via_usb.py <ssid> <password> <channelkey> [stateserver] [port]

Reset configuration

If you want to go back to default settings, for example if you forgot the channel key you specified previously, hold down the FLASH button at least seven seconds. The Beacon will show a yellow light during this process, and green when the settings have been reset.

Note

The reset via FLASH is only available in firmware 0.87 and higher.

To reconfigure a Beacon with firmware 0.86 or lower, reboot it whilst it cannot connect to the router.

E.g by doing any of the following:

  1. Change SSID or password on the router
  2. Turn off the router temporarily
  3. Move the BI-Beacon far away from the router

When you plug it in again, the Beacon will try to connect and fail. It will then go into setup mode again.