How to receive notifications? How to configure Eddystone?

RuuviTag Troubleshooting
#1

Hi team,

i have 2 questions for my ruuviTag.

  1. How can i bring the notifications to a mobile device?

In the nRF Connect app i can see the beacon trasmitting with an url and i can open it from this app as well. But i do not get any notifications on my phone (Samsung Galaxy S7) automatically. I followed all the instructions from the docs (Nearby activated, bluetooth and location services activated)

  1. How can i edit the URL of the beacon?
    I tried with nRF Beacon for Eddystone by pressing the B button but i can’t select my device to configure in the app.
    What am I doing wrong?

I have the weather station app installed but i just want to transmit a Eddystone URL. How can i achieve this?

Best regards

Cloud925

#2

Welcome!

1) Do you mean you followed these instructions? I don’t know when the Physical Web team added this note or if it’s 100% true (because my S7 Edge gives me Nearby notifications):

Note: Nearby Notifications have been temporarily disabled due to an issue in the latest release of Google Play Services. In the **mean time**, please use Chrome for Android to use the Physical Web.

But please try Chrome as suggested.

2) In order to configure your RuuviTag to broadcast custom URLs (or TLM / UID / EID) you need to flash your RuuviTag with the correct firmware. Follow the instructions on setup page. FYI, we’ll update the tutorial video soon. Currently, it shows how it’s done using nRF Toolbox app (not nRF Connect which is better).

This is how it’s done (nRF Connect, Android):

  1. Boot your RuuviTag to bootloader (by following the instructions)
  2. Open the nRF Connect app
  3. Press SCAN
  4. You’ll see a device called RuuviBoot
  5. Press CONNECT
  6. Once connected, press a small DFU icon
  7. Select Distribution packet (ZIP)
  8. Select the correct file which you downloaded before (ie. XXXX-eddystone.zip)
  9. Wait until done.
Unable to update firmware (2)
#3

Thanks for your reply!

Yes i ment this instructions.

The configurations worked now with nRF Connect. :slight_smile:

But still the notifications won’t work. I used Chrome now for Physical Web but nothing happens. :thinking:

Additionally i tried the Physical Web App after updating the firmware. With the weather station on the beacon the app found it but with the eddystone firmware it didn’t. Is this strange as well or is this my fault? :grin:

I also recognized that the red light on my ruuvitag is not flashing like in the videos. (But yes it is on, i removed the resist between battery and battery clip:wink:)

Thanks for your help!

#5

Hello,

The Eddystone firmware has less frequent advertising interval ( 1 Hz ) than Weather Station ( 2 Hz ). It might be that your phone takes longer to detect the Eddystone Beacon URL.

Could you please check the Eddystone settings by entering the configuration mode (press B, red led comes on) and connecting with configuration tool? Personally I use “nRF Beacon for Eddystone” app or web-based configuration tool.

Default password is (0x)FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF (32 * F) or (0x)00112233445566778899AABBCCDDEEFF, newer version of Eddystone app has the 0011…EEFF password. The eddystone settings do not change on SW update, so if you have used earlier versions of Eddystone app the original FF…FF password will remain. Please not that web-based tool expects the “0x” in front of password while nRF app does not.

Eddystone URL should be “ruu.vi/setup” by default and Adv. Interval should be 1000 ms. You can try reducing the Adv. Interval to 300 - 500 ms. Please let us know if default settings are different and if reducing the advertising interval helps to see the notifications. Our Eddystone app somewhat experimental, so we highly value reporting any issues or rough edges you might find.

Please also note that the Eddystone app is not yet properly power optimized, we expect a battery life of one month or so on default settings. A software update which will increase battery life to > 1 year is expected to be ready by the end of January.

Default unlock code
#6

Hey otso thanks for your reply!

The default settings are as expected.

Here are some more questions out of my tests:

1.) Some URLs won’t work.
I tried several URLs (google, facebook, and one url of a local restaurant -> http://www.cafe-extra.de)

The first two “worked” but with a clue. The notifications won’t come automatically, instead i have to i have to refresh aktively (refresh the view in the Physical Web App). Then the notifications will come to my phone.

Which also means the Adv. Interval can be left on 1000ms.

Here my first question: The notifications should’nt come after i search manually, should they? Is there anything to fix this?

And additionally the URL of the local restaurant won’t work. I can’t get notifications for this site.

So my second question: Do websites have specific requirements for physical web to be shown in the notifications?

2.) How will i get notified when the Eddystone app update come?

Thanks for your help!

Best regards from germany

1 Like
#7

Hello, thanks for the test reports.

Generally the android notifications scan in background to conserve battery life of the smartphone, therefore it will take longer for the phone to get notification. Setting advertising interval a bit faster can help with that.
When you scan for notifications in app, the notifications will be found faster.

We have noticed that some URLs cannot show notifications: it happens when the SSL certificate is out-of-date or cannot be validated and if the website returns error (404 for example). Android notifications show only https links.

Please follow the Eddystone Thread, I’ll post there once update is live. Also, please “reply” to my post if you ask more questions, this way I’ll get an email notification and I can reply faster :slight_smile: