How do I change the sensitivity of the BLE Beacons used in Asset Tracking? What does "RSSI" mean?
RSSI stands for Received Signal Strength Indication and it is measured in Decibels. Specifically, it measures how well your device can 'hear' a signal from your BLE beacon which you've attached to your asset; therefor, the RSSI threshold in the PosiTrace Locate Platform acts as a sensitivity slider.
This measurement sits on a scale of -100 (wide detection, or "more sensitive") on the left, to 0 (more narrow detection, or "least sensitive") on the right. This number is the minimum signal strength for the system to say "Asset Detected".
The RSSI slider also comes with an approximate "distance" measure (in metres), underneath the slider itself. It is important to understand this slider is approximate only, and presumes a wide-open space with no obstacles, walls, wiring, barriers, metal, etc. between the beacon and the device.
This approximate distance will be decreased in many common installation situations, so if you do find your beacon is not being detected, please increase (slide to the left) the detection distance. You can also connect with our Support Team and we will double check that the BLE beacon is detected by the GPS device, and what the currently-reported RSSI value really is.
Change RSSI Settings
There are two areas to access RSSI settings:
- Account level, which applies to all vehicles on the account. This is found under Account > Account Information
- Equipment level, which creates custom vehicle-specific settings that will override the Account Level option.
