That Blue Charm Beacon is pretty large. I've been using an NRF51822 module (which is half the surface area and pretty unnoticeable when hanging off a keyring) for HE presence (also based off the Domoticz project) since the end of 2019 with a battery change at 12 months . Also these modules are cheap compared to tile mates or any dedicated tracker modules.
With BLE 4 all the trackers I've tried have similar ranges (ie not much) so wall penetration is limited.
I wouldn't waste money on a starter kit. You only need the RPZ and a case and a (branded name eg Sandisk) 8/16gb sd card. It will happily power off any 5V source.
Super expensive compared to Aliexpress/Bangood where you can get them for less than half of that (of course you'll be waiting a few weeks for it to turn up.) , but yes they all use the same board as the one you've linked to.
Im not exactly new to this sort of thing, but Pi's were not something id used before and i struggled! i struggled so much, i must have annoyed the hell out of Brian!! Thankfully hes very patient!!
im just making a step by step vid of how to do this from a bare raspi w to the finished working system its been made with the total novice in mind.
If you dont know how to find the IP addresses of equipment in your house , you might need to research how to do that before you try this. It not something i can easily show you because your router will be different to mine.
i do show how to use a free IP scanner but in my experience for some reason it doesnt always detect raspi's so its best to do it on your router.
Oh, I have that down. I have an ASUS AI Mesh system with router and two nodes. I have some wifi bulbs that I had to identify the IPs for and put into a device handler, so that I can do. I'll be able to identify the RPi's IP in a snap. Actually that will be here tonight. The BTLE tags will be here... well like in 2-3 weeks. (Wha WHaaa).
Great. I did a full desktop install and things were really slow using the browser, like painfully slow. I have fiber and that is not the bottleneck. I did a diagnostic on the Pi and it said the Samsung PRO 32GB SD card (Samsung PRO Endurance 32GB 100MB/s (U1) MicroSDXC Memory Card with Adapter (MB-MJ32GA/AM) https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07B98GXQT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_FPRZFFAX8G78AJ47PAD7?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1) failed the random read/write test.
I’ll download the lite version on another SD card and see if I get better performance.
Heres the video for the first part, it covers setting up your pi, its very rough, but you seem to be in a rush! its still uploading but will be live in 2 hours. it is VERY basic and designed to enable people with no knowledge of ras pi to set it up, it might be a little basic for you!
I personally would not do a full desktop install, or at least use the full desktop regularly with anything but a 4GB or 8GB RPi 4. Personally I see the RPi as cheap and easy micro-servers or embedded systems, not as a all-purpose computer replacement.
I’ll be redoing an SD card with the lite version. I’ll need to setup for ssh to remote into it after setup, correct? I had not planned on having it connected to a screen and keyboard.
Yes, but that is super simple in 90% of cases. I would recommend still having a display and keyboard nearby so in the event of network troubles you still have access. I have mine in my TV cabinet and just plug it into the TV since I do not have a dedicated server room.
Actually if you have a Zero/ZeroW then you can be even more fancy and buy a USB adapter case that effectively makes it a large USB stick sized computer than you can power off of a USB port and in the case of a computer, share internet/ssh over the USB port.
I currently have it connected to my TV to work on it and have a wireless keyboard that I used last night. Things worked, slow accessing the internet, but it worked. Hopefully the lite version and better SD card show improvement. It is a Pi Zero W by the way. It will be a 32GB SD card.
