Dongle Configuration

Configuring dongles in order for Open Proximity 2.0 to use them is a straight forward process.

First you need to restart the RPC server so the dongle list is refreshed.

server_status.jpg

Then you refresh the page until you see that:

  • rpc server is running
  • There is at least one uploader register and one scanner registered

Then you will see your dongles in the known dongles list:

known_dongles.jpg

A Note on Dongles

OpenProximity 2.0 uses BlueZ services, BlueZ claims to support up to 15 dongles attached to the same computer but no one ever tried it yet. So OpenProximity 2.0 should suport up to 15 dongles per site (we tested up to 3 and it worked). But you can arrange OpenProximity 2.0 so that many servers are handled from one main server. For details on this configuration please get in touch at info at aircable.net

Any dongle can act as either scanner or uploader, but only dongles that were made by AIRcable are allowed to be used as uploader, that is because it makes no sense to have a marketing campaign with dongles that can barely deal with a few meters, AIRcable Host XR can give you up to 600 meters when connecting to cell phones, and an average of over 50 meters, while any other dongle can barely get you an average of 10 meters.

OpenProximity 2.0 has been made by AIRcable employees and is by now mainly maintained by this company, our 6 years in the market are a probed fact of our knowledge in bluetooth. During the last 3 years we have been seing very closely different proximity marketing solutions, and the proximity marketing market growth. During this period we have dealed and resolved lots of problems with this other systems. Based on our experience we can tell you that the best arrange is made when you have one generic dongle been used as scanner (so you can find lots of devices that are nearby) and having many AIRcable Host XR been configured as Uploaders. Host XRs can also be configured as scanners but take into account that given the long range you get on connection you also get a very long range on scanning, and you might find (and actually YOU WILL) lots of devices in the connection range, then you're campaign will look like it's not so good because of soo many timeouts.

To configure any dongle you click on configure on the same line of the bluetooth address you want to configure. The dongle configuration screen comes up:

configure_dongle.jpg

The dongle configuration screen is pre-filled with data from the database, and from your dongle.

  • Address: This is the bluetooth address of the dongle you want to setup, most of the time you will not play with this field at all.
  • Name: This is the name that the bluetooth dongle uses when connecting to marketing targets, this is the first name your clients will see when OpenProximity 2.0 tries to send the campaign file.
  • Scan: If marked this dongle will be used for scanning process.
  • Scan Priority (Scan pri): when multiple dongles are been used as scanners a scanner cycle is created, this cycle is composed of slots if priority is more than 1 then this device will get more than one slot, this slots are interleaved.
  • Upload: If marked then this dongle will be used as uploader.
  • Upload max: This field allows you to take some control over the maximum connection the dongle will try to open when uploading files, take into account that you can't get more than 7 connections per dongle, if you put a number of 7 here OP will not check it, and you might block your self.

By pressing on configure the configuration is saved, if there are no errors you will get a message telling you the settings had been saved. Otherwise you will need to fix the configuration before continuing.

Once you're done with this dongle you can click on Index in the navigation bar.

Finally before you can use your system you need to restart the RPC server again.

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