Reliable indoor positioning from fewer Bluetooth LE beacons
Plus: Auracast in Phonak's new hearing aids and an ESP32 library for e-bikes
This Week in Bluetooth & UWB |
Aug 28, 2026 |
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In This Issue
→ Reliable indoor fix, fewer beacons
→ An ESP32 library for e-bikes → Auracast lands in a hearing aid → A UWB Click board for RTLS |
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From the Course
Bluetooth LE Unplugged spends a whole module on what goes wrong, not just the happy path: connection troubleshooting, GATT error codes, and role and state confusion. You work through it on the two dongles that ship with the course, no embedded C required, so you can break both ends of the link deliberately and see what each side reports. From $199, with lifetime access and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
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Bluetooth LE
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WIoT Group
Researchers at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) have developed new methods for the automatic planning of Bluetooth Low Energy beacon networks. The algorithms take building structure and radio signal attenuation into account and are designed to enable reliable indoor localization using fewer beacons. In the architecture studied, distance is determined using RSSI, and position is calculated via trilateration. For this to work, each relevant point must be within range of at least three beacons simultaneously.
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Adafruit Blog
RideLinkBLE requires an ESP32-family board with Bluetooth Low Energy support. Install the Espressif ESP32 board package, select the correct ESP32 board, then install NimBLE-Arduino through Arduino Library Manager. RideLinkBLE has been tested with the 2025 version of the Fiido T2. Other model years, controller revisions, or firmware versions may use different protocol values. RideLinkBLE is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the bike manufacturer.
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Hearing Review
Phonak launched Eon, its next-generation hearing aid platform. It is designed to work with virtually any Bluetooth enabled device and combines Bluetooth Classic, Roger Direct, and Auracast broadcast audio into one hearing aid. Wearers can access calls, streaming, wireless microphones, and compatible public audio broadcasts in venues such as museums, theaters, and airports. For Auracast, they can even use the myPhonak app to scan a QR code or connect via the Auracast assistant offered by compatible phones.
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Ultra-Wideband (UWB)
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Embedded
Mikroe has launched its latest Click board addition, the real-time location system (RTLS) ultra-wideband (UWB) add-on board for high-precision real-time location, distance measurement, and motion-aware tracking. It can be used for indoor navigation in hospitals, shopping malls, and airports where GPS signals are not available. Mikroe worked with LEAPS, a provider of real-time location and telemetry systems based on UWB, to develop the new RTLS UWB Click board.
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P.S. The beacon-planning work is aimed at reliable indoor positioning from fewer beacons. If you’ve deployed a beacon network, I’d like to know how you decided where they went.
— Mohammad Afaneh
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