Note: If you have any questions about any of the following instructions, please feel free to CONTACT us any time. We are here to answer your questions or help in any way. Almost all emails are answered by senior support staff within hours. If you don’t receive an answer, check your spam folder.
Brief Introduction:
The main function of a BLE gateway is to scan for BLE beacons, collect their data (UUID numbers, current received signal strength from each beacon, etc.) then send that data somewhere where you can access it.
In this Quick Start Guide, we will walk you through the steps required to configure the gateway. Firstly, you will use Wifi to connect directly to the gateway. Next, the gateway will open a browser page for you to access and change the configuration settings of the gateway.
The configuration settings will allow you to choose how the gateway will connect with the outside world (Wifi, Ethernet, or cellular network, if your gateway has this option) and where/how it will send its collected beacon data (via MQTT or HTTP protocol).
Condensed Instructions for Setting Up Your Gateway
Note: For those new to BLE gateways, it is recommended that you skip these condensed instructions and refer to the more detailed instructions further down this page where you will find helpful screenshots and other useful information.
Insert your SIM card if you plan to use the cellular network for data transfer and your gateway is equipped with this optional feature
Power on the gateway using the included power plug or POE (Power over Ethernet). Only use ONE power supply; using two power supplies at the same time will damage your gateway.
The gateway will now automatically create a wifi access point (default name “beacongw_”…). Using your smartphone or computer, connect to this wifi access point; the default password for the access point is 12345678.
Next, use a browser on the same device to visit the following webpage: http://192.168.8.1. On that page, enter admin as the user name and admin as the password. You now will see the gateway settings page.
On the gateway settings page upper menu, click on “Network” and then its submenu “Interface”. Select either Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or Cellular as the method for the gateway to send out data reports, then enter the appropriate info in the fields that appear. After you click Save & Apply, the interface setting for the gateway will be applied, and the gateway will restart. Wait 2 minutes, then reconnect your device to the gateway’s wifi access point and http://192.168.8.1 webpage to continue adjusting other gateway settings.
Under the Service menu on the settings page, you can select Filter Setting, Cloud Setting, or Other Settings to make further adjustments to the gateway as needed.
Logout of the gateway settings page when you having finished making changes and saving your gateway settings.
Check the data feed from your gateway by logging into your selected data service (MQTT or HTTP). You should be able to see the data being sent out from the gateway reporting the beacon(s) in range and their associated live data.
Detailed Instructions for Setting Up Your Gateway
Step 1 – Power on your gateway
Before powering on your gateway, if you plan to use a cellular network as the gateway’s data connection, please first insert your SIM card into the appropriate location inside the gateway (see below):
SIM card specification: USA customers typically use a nano EC25-AF series card, but you should double check this yourself depending on your area, network, etc.
The gateway can be powered via one of two different methods:
1. DC power adapter, 12V (1000mA)
2. POE (Power Over Ethernet) which supplies power to the gateway via the Ethernet cable interface (802.3af).
Be sure to only use ONE power source, as connecting two power sources will damage your gateway and invalidate any warranty. Note that most Ethernet cables/routers do not supply power, but you need to be 100% sure to avoid this mistake.
If you ever need to restart your gateway, you can press the reset button located here (see below):
Long press button for more than 8 seconds can restore the gateway to factory settings.
Step 2 – Connect your computer or smartphone to the gateway
Once the gateway is powered on, it will automatically begin to broadcast a wifi access point, similar to how your local coffee shop allows you to connect to their wifi router. Using your computer or smartphone, scan for this newly created wifi access point.
The default name of the new wifi access point of the gateway will be “beacongw_” plus the MAC address of the specific gateway that you are using. For example, when I scan for Wifi networks with my gateway near me, I can see a new one called “beacongw_282C02222068”. On some smartphones and computers, you may need to click on something like “other networks” in order to see the new wifi access point since you have never connected to this wifi before.
Once you have found the gateway’s wifi access point name on the list of available nearby wifi networks, click it and enter the default password 12345678 to connect your device to the gateway’s wifi access point.
Once your device is connected to the gateway’s wifi access point, use a browser on the same device to visit the gateway’s settings webpage at http://192.168.8.1 (see below):
On that settings webpage, enter the user name admin and password admin then click Login.
Step 3 – Gateway settings main page
We have now arrived at the gateway settings main status page (see below):
On the settings status, page you can see the system info, network info, and wifi access point configuration.
Note that if you change the wifi access point password and then forget this password, there will be no way to get back into the gateway unless you hold the reset button for 8 seconds to restore factory settings. This will also erase any settings that you have already configured into the gateway.
Note on model numbers: KGxx indicates the gateway came from our China warehouse, whereas BGxx indicates it came from our USA warehouse inventory. There is no difference in the function of gateways with either K or B model numbers.
Step 4 – Setup the gateway to internet interface
Next we will select how the gateway will connect to the outside world (or to an internal network in your location).
On the gateway settings page, click on “Network” and then its submenu “Interface”. You will then see this page (see below):
In the example above, I have selected “Wi-Fi” from the Wan Mode menu which means I want the gateway to connect to the internet via my local wifi network. The gateway will automatically scan for local wifi networks and then create a list of those networks in the “Nearby WLAN” menu. Default is “custom” but if you click the pull-down menu, you will see a list of other possible local wifi networks. Choose the one that you want the gateway to use. In my example, I chose BCBMain. If you don’t see your local wifi network on the pulldown list at first, you can click the green recycle arrows to have the gateway rescan for nearby wifi networks.
Fill in the required info including the “Key” which is the password for your local wifi network. (Note that this is not the same as the 12345678 password you used for the gateway’s wifi access point.) Tap the * next to the password to make it visually readable so you can confirm you have entered it correctly. Be sure to double check capitalization.
You may also select Ethernet or Cellular from the Wan Mode menu depending on your data connection plans. Only one connection method at a time can be used.
Web Portal: When you select ACCEPT for this item, in the future, you will be able to login to the web portal settings page through the WAN IP. You will also need to set this to ACCEPT in order to report data to some internal MQTT or HTTP servers.
After you click Save & Apply, the connection setting for the gateway will be applied and the gateway will restart. Your device screen will show a “System – Restart” message and “waiting for changes to be applied” but nothing will be updated as there is no longer a connection to the gateway. Wait 2 minutes, then reconnect your device to the gateway’s wifi access point and http://192.168.8.1 settings webpage to continue adjusting other gateway settings.
Step 5 – Service/Filter settings
Under the Service menu on the settings page, you can select Filter Setting, Cloud Setting, or Other Settings to make further adjustments to the gateway as needed.
For example, I have selected filter, and will enter one specific beacon’s MAC so that the gateway ignores all beacons except for that single one. (This also makes troubleshooting easier at the beginning, but don’t forget to turn this off later). See below:
In the example above, I have added a “Filter by MAC” so that the gateway only reports the scan results of one specific beacon with MAC DD340209C6DC. Be sure to double check capitalization when adding filters; dd340209C6DC is not the same as DD340209C6DC.
You can also filter by BLE name (beacon device name), but you also need to turn on active scanning on the Other Settings menu in order to do this. Note that when using the gateway in PHY scanning or hybrid mode, you can not filter by name since active scan will not work under PHY scan mode. When in doubt, just filter by MAC only.
Step 6 – Service/Cloud Setting:
Next, I will enter the Service/Cloud Setting info to setup how the gateway reports the scanned data. In this example (see below), I am using a local URL on my internal network that leads to a MQTT server. I also input the specific port, user name, and password for that internal MQTT server. Finally, I set up the various topic names to be used on the MQTT server when allowing subscribers to access this data.
Of course, your cloud setting will be different from these settings depending on where your MQTT server is located and its specific URL, port, user name and password. Contact your MQTT server administrator to obtain the correct setup info to input here for your server.
Of course, you could also set the Service/Cloud Setting to HTTP, depending on your system needs.
Don’t forget to Save & Apply at the bottom of that page.
Step 7 – Checking the data feed from your gateway to the cloud server
In the examples above, I set up the gateway to scan for one beacon only (DD340209C6DC) and then to publish that live data via an MQTT server I have set up locally on my network.
Next, to confirm everything is working, I will use some MQTT client software (I use MQTTX on an iMac) to subscribe to the MQTT server that is publishing the reports from the gateway.
Below, you can see a screenshot from my MQTT client software showing one of the data reports from the gateway that was published by the MQTT server.
You can see the data for our target beacon which shows all the standard parts of an iBeacon broadcast (which our target beacon is broadcasting) including the live measured RSSI signal strength of -25.
