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Version: Firmware AT3 v1.6

Recovery beacon

The recovery beacon is designed to enable device localization in environments with limited or no network coverage, or where standard geolocation technologies are unreliable. The device's position can be determined using a dedicated device (FindR) or a network of proximate devices capable of detecting the recovery beacon's signal.

The recovery beacon feature is available only in the EU868 (865.25 MHz) and US915 (907.3 MHz) regions.

Overview​

The device will send special LoRa frames (beacons), depending on the LoRa provisioning. The beaconing will start based on the device state (SOS, motion, or static) with specific configurable intervals. When the FindR detects the beacon, it can send a dedicated command to activate the ranging mode on the device. In ranging mode, the FindR can estimate the distance between the user and the device.

Beaconing behavior​

The beaconing behavior, uplink content, and transmission intervals are managed through the configuration parameters in the LR11xx group.

Beaconing is triggered based on the device state (SOS, motion, or static) with specific configurable periods:

  • Beaconing SOS period: Interval between beacons when the device is in SOS mode.
  • Beaconing motion period: Interval between beacons when the device is moving.
  • Beaconing static period: Interval between beacons when the device is stationary.

If a beaconing period is set to null, the device will stop beaconing in the corresponding mode. The SOS state has higher priority than motion or static states, ensuring that when the device enters SOS mode, it will transmit beacons according to the SOS period.

Ranging mode​

When the FindR detects a beacon, it sends a dedicated command to switch the device into ranging mode. In ranging mode, the device enters a hold state: both the main and backup networks are suspended, and geolocation services are paused.

To limit the ranging mode time, the user must configure the ranging timeout parameter (lr_rbeacon_ranging_timeout) under the LR11xx group. Once this timeout expires, the device resumes normal operation, attempting to reconnect to the network and perform geolocation. Additionally, recovery beaconing will resume, if configured, according to the current device state.