android altbeacon bluetooth low energy

Question

I am trying to scan beacons with bluetooth low energy and the altbeacon-library on an Samsung Galaxy S5, and maybe I did not understand It correctly, or I just can't get it running.

A part of my manifest looks like this:

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="18" android:targetSdkVersion="21" />

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN" />

<application
....
<service
    android:name=".BeaconScanner"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="BeaconScanner" >
</service>
....

I am scanning for beacons inside a service:

public class BeaconScanner extends Service implements BeaconConsumer {

private BeaconManager beaconManager;
private DBHelper myDB;

@Override
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {

      myDB = new DBHelper(this);
      if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 19 && getPackageManager().hasSystemFeature(PackageManager.FEATURE_BLUETOOTH_LE)) {
          // BLE
          BeaconManager.setAndroidLScanningDisabled(true);
      } else {
          // kein BLE

      }
      beaconManager = BeaconManager.getInstanceForApplication(this);
      beaconManager.getBeaconParsers().add(new BeaconParser().setBeaconLayout("m:2-3=0215,i:4-19,i:20-21,i:22-23,p:24-24,d:25-25"));
      beaconManager.setForegroundBetweenScanPeriod(15000l);
      beaconManager.setBackgroundBetweenScanPeriod(15000l);
      beaconManager.bind(this);

      return Service.START_STICKY;
}

@Override
public void onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy();
    beaconManager.unbind(this);
}

@Override
public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
    return null;
}

@Override
public void onBeaconServiceConnect() {
    beaconManager.setRangeNotifier(new RangeNotifier() {

        @Override
        public void didRangeBeaconsInRegion(Collection<Beacon> beacons, Region region) {
            if (beacons.size() > 0) {
                for(Beacon beacon : beacons)
                {
                    if (beacon != null && beacon.getId1() != null) {
                        System.out.println("id1: " + beacon.getId1().toString());
                        System.out.println("id2: " + beacon.getId2().toString());
                        System.out.println("id3: " + beacon.getId3().toString());
                        String majorMinor = beacon.getId2().toString() + "-" + beacon.getId3().toString();
                        System.out.println(majorMinor);
                        long count = myDB.beaconExists(majorMinor);
                        System.out.println(count);
                        if (count == 0) {
                            getAndInsertBeaconDataSet(myDB, majorMinor);
                            System.out.println("inserted beacon: " + majorMinor);
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    });

    try {
        beaconManager.startRangingBeaconsInRegion(new Region("trewysUniqueBeaconRegion", null, null, null));
    } catch (RemoteException e) {

    }
}

private Boolean getAndInsertBeaconDataSet(DBHelper dbHelper, String beaconId) {
    try {
        BeaconGetter beaconGetter = new BeaconGetter();
        return beaconGetter.execute(dbHelper, beaconId).get();
    } catch (Exception e) {
        return false;
    }
}

}

I checked, if my phone is able to use Bluetooth low energy, and it is. If my bluetooth is not activated I get this message from the library:

06-15 09:16:46.399: W/CycledLeScanner(22748): Bluetooth is disabled.  Cannot scan for beacons.

If I activate Bluetooth, the library is working fine and I get all beacon in range.

So maybe I understood it wrong, do I need to activate Bluetooth on android to use Bluetooth low energy? I thought it is possible to get bluetooth-signals without activating bluetooth?

If it is possible to scan Bluetooth low energy without activating Bluetooth: what am I doing wrong?

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

rholtermann

Answer 1

You MUST activate Bluetooth to use BLE (Low Energy). Otherwise you can't scan for Beacons. Also your device MUST support BLE, most modern devices support it.

Answer 2

I guess there would be a way where we can use the BLE scanning for beacons without activating Bluetooth. check the image : I dont know how but I speculate there must be a way