Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) Support?

[Will Vande]

Hi,

Is it possible to set up profile in Tasker so that when you are near a Bluetooth LE (Low Energy / Bluetook 4.0 / Bluetooth Smart) beacon/device a task will trigger. 

For example if I have a beacon in my office it will change some settings when I come in range, but if I am out of range is puts the settings back. I would like to put beacons in my office, bedroom, car etc. now that Android 4.3 support Bluetooth LE (and the iPhone users are all bragging about support in iOS7).

I specifically want to use it with the TI Sensor Tag dev kit:

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Bluetooth_SensorTag?DCMP=lprf-stdroid&HQS=lprf-stdroid-pr-wiki1

Thanks,

Will

[Joseph Richman]

This would be extremely useful. I can't "pair" with my fitbit in the normal way it would seem but if I could detect it with tasker I would be able to use my fitbit as a security token and disable lockscreen when it can detect my fitbit. (Running Nexus 4 4.3)

[Will Vande]

So this is not possible?

[Joseph Richman]

Currently I don't know of a way this is possible, but if someone makes a plugin or Pent implements Low Energy support it might be possible.

On Sunday, September 29, 2013 6:56:12 PM UTC-7, Will Vande wrote:

[Pent]

BT near is already on the todo list for a long while.

Once I finally get this scene update out I can finally start working on groovy new
stuff.

Pent

[Will Vande]

Thank you.

[Matt Lovett]

When you say "BT near" do you mean Bluetooth Low Energy (BT Smart Ready) or just plain old BT?  

I know BLE support only came in 4.3 but I'm itching for it!  I search weekly to see if there is any news of Tasker support!   

I like BLE because you can buy BT beacons for less than $10 and the battery lasts for months/years.

[Pent]

When you say "BT near" do you mean Bluetooth Low Energy (BT Smart Ready) or just plain old BT?  

I know BLE support only came in 4.3 but I'm itching for it!

I need to look at the API.

It could be that adding the LE stuff while maintaining backwards compatibility is too difficult.
(referencing new features in an APK installed on an older device can cause crashing, even
if they aren't used)

Pent

[Matt Lovett]

Thanks!  I looks forward to either implementation being added!  BT near using traditional BT would still be awesomely useful if you could reference the RSSI as well.  ex, event is triggered if BT RSSI >-50 

Thanks for the great software!

[Nik Hookey]

Hi Joseph:

I want to do exactly this, but with a Samsung S3... do let me know if you find a way!

Thanks!

Nik

[Pent]

I added BT Near (with attempted LE support) in the latest beta, it's posted at the top of the forum.

Pent

[Drew Meyerhoeffer]

I know this is a little old, but I am interested in some home/car/work automation with BLE instead of the typical Tasker profiles that you see floating around a lot. What are these $10 beacons you speak of? What type of device would I need to test this on beta?

[Pent]

I like BLE because you can buy BT beacons for less than $10 and the battery lasts for months/years.

I'd also like to know where to get these things :-)

Pent

[Gary Sargent]

Not seen anywhere selling them, but they sound very interesting for Tasker...

 

http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?11053

 

 

[Jacob Klein]

Yes this would be a very useful device to have with Tasker. Having each profile based off of one of these for those situations would be great! I know this technology is still taking off, but when it's fully available I think it will be a huge hit!

I want some lol and I hope the galaxy S5 when it is announced has Bluetooth low energy support because that is seeming to be my next new phone

[Bob Hansen]

I believe this is referring to this: SERIES 10 GIMBAL PROXIMITY BEACON

http://9to5mac.com/2013/12/10/qualcomm-gets-in-on-bluetooth-beacon-action-with-ibeacon-competitor/

https://www.gimbal.com/#beaconGiveawayPanel

[Dave Birney]

@Pent & @Drew Meyerhoeffer 

if you havnt found them by now the ones i know are Stick N Find, Tile, and theres also one called Gecko that has an accelerometer in it as well that i cant wait to try out. or just look on Kickstarter, they seem to have a new one each week :)

  

[Pent]

if you havnt found them by now the ones i know are Stick N Find, Tile, and theres also one called Gecko that has an accelerometer in it as well that i cant wait to try out. or just look on Kickstarter, they seem to have a new one each week :)

Thanks, I ordered a couple of SNFs since they mention Android and have an SDK. The others I found don't seem to have noticed that Android devices are coming out with LE and just talk about Apple.

Pent

[nephilim]

Hi Pent,

I'm sure I'm a complete nutter but here is what I tried:

I'd like to use tasker to switch on bluetooth (2.1) whenever the phone (Sony Xperia Z1, Android 4.3) is in my car. Because of the limited range of NFC I hoped I could use one of those fancy Bluetooth LE (4.0) tags as trigger. Hence I got a Texas Instrument Sensor Tags.

Apparently, bluetooth can only switched on globally, i.e., there is no way to activate BT LE 4.0 scanning alone (which to my understanding should consume less power than 2.1) - bummer

Furthermore, the TI software does see the sensor tag and receives data but I can't make tasker's BT Near state to detect the tag. As the phone does see the sensor tag but I can't pair it (don't know the 4 digit code) I ticked the LE and unpaired options in the BT near dialog. The scanning result does not show the sensor tag, as it has been never paired. Any suggestions?

Di I need a dedicated trigger or would the BT near feature detect the car's BT without having BT switched on all the time?

Cheers,

Torsten

[Pent]

Furthermore, the TI software does see the sensor tag and receives data but I can't make tasker's BT Near state to detect the tag.

I'm still working on it.

Please comment on beta features in the beta thread so we can compare notes.

Thanks,

Pent

[Tristão East Camara]

Now there seem to be quite a few out there. Is there any that you recommend to use along with tasker in order to use it to trigger a profile when I'm close to it?

[Pent]

Now there seem to be quite a few out there. Is there any that you recommend to use along with tasker in order to use it to trigger a profile when I'm close to it?

Sorry, can't say, I've only used the Stick and Finds.

I've had a lot of problems getting LE to work, but I think it was more problems in Android than with the particular
LE device.

Pent

[Kristopher Kubicki]

Hi Pent,

Can you add a signal strength variable to BTNear?  This would help with iBeacon a lot

Thanks! 

Kristopher

[Stefano]

Hi,

was there any improvement with the LE bluetooth? It looks like I am not able to detect whether my "xiaomi mi band" is connected or not.

I know there is another tasker-like app which can detect it, but I do not like the idea to have another app running in background.

Thank you

[Felix Sand]

Hi Pent,

Bluetooth Near with an Bluetooth LE Tag (currently using a Gigaset G-Tag) works very well for me. Thank you for that.
Feature Request:
Like Kristopher said, a signal strenght (RSSI) variable would be nice, in order to limit range.
Best for me would be to set the "BT near" status with hysteresis, like: Enter BT-near if RSSI > -62 dBm, Leave BT-near if RSSI drops <= -81 dBm.
So i could not only check if it Tag is within 30m range (good i.e. for checking "at work or not") but also limit it to a specific room with accuracy of a few meters (Bedroom for example).
Several ranges could even be nested, like "At Home", "First Floor", "Bedroom", "Bed" depending on distance to only one Tag.

I believe, that wouldn't be hard to implement. Look here:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/bluetooth/BluetoothGatt.html#readRemoteRssi%28%29

Thank you,
Felix

[rkirmeier]

Pent - Any chance of getting a signal strength option? I have a bunch of BLE tags I've been hoping to use with tasker for 6+ months but its effectively useless without signal strength... thanks

[Jon]

I would be interested too, any chance of this?

Thanks