ELA Innovations have a wide range of Bluetooth tags, suited to a variety of applications. ELA Tags have been integrated into device firmware, and Telematics Guru, so that they can be used with our BLE product line-up.
Read more about our BLE Device range and applications here - Bluetooth Asset Tracking
Digital Matter BLE Gateway Devices:
Eagle, G120, Oyster Edge, Oyster3 BLE, Remora2 and Remora3
Check out the range here - Bluetooth Asset Tracking | digitalmatter.com
ELA Tag Options
- ELA AI
- ELA DI
- ELA DO
- ELA ID
- ELA MAG
- ELA MOV
- ELA RHT
- ELA T (Including 'T Probe')
In Australia, ELA Innovation products are distributed and can be purchased from M2M Connectivity
Other Options
Digital Matter's Bluetooth Gateway devices (Remora2/3, Eagle, G120, Oyster 3 BLE and Oyster Edge) are able to support nearly any beaconing Third-Party Bluetooth tag if configured correctly. For more information see:
Set-Up and Configuration
ELA Tag Configuration
We must first configure the ELA Tags. For tags like the ELA ID, which don't have any sensors attached, or other data present it makes the most sense to simply configure these tags to broadcast in iBeacon or Eddystone format. These are generic beacon formats designed by Apple and Google - well supported in many platforms and by many devices (including ours).
We can configure ELA Tags using the ELA Innovations Device Manager Mobile App:
Then, we must set the tags to send Manufacturer Data in their payload.
Setting Manufacturer Specific Data Mode:
- Enable NFC on your mobile device
- Open the ELA Mobile app
- Click on Configuration
- Scan the tag by holding your mobile device directly above the ELA tag
- Once the tag has been read, click on the TAG PARAMETERS tab
- Enable Manufacturer Data Mode
(Click to expand below image)
ELA Mov Tag
Makes sure you pick the right Tag format either MOV (Tip Counts) or ANG (Angles) that you require.
Gateway Device Setup
In order to read ELA tag data, under your BLE Tag Scanning Parameters, select ELA Tags as a tag type.
For reference, the below strings represent the various tags.
Tag | Custom Tag Type String |
ELA AI | 255,6,0,570772,8,2 |
ELA DI | 255,6,0,570762,8,2 |
ELA DO | 255,10,0,570786,8,6 |
ELA ID | 255,10,0,570706,8,6 |
ELA MAG | 255,6,0,570732,8,2 |
ELA MOV | 255,6,0,570742,8,2 |
ELA RHT | 255,8,0,570721,8,1 |
ELA T | 255,6,0,570712,8,2 |
Troubleshooting
If you don't receive the tag data on your server, start with these steps.
- Check the tag is alive and transmitting, by scanning for it with a mobile phone. Apps like nRF Connect are invaluable.
- Turn on Data Capturing on OEM, to see if you are receiving Tag List logs with the respective ELA tag entries.
ELA Tags on Telematics Guru
The below ELA tags are now supported in TG as device types.
ELA MOV Tag
If you are after Tip counts, pick the ELA MOV device type. And for Angles, pick ELA ANG.
The MAC address of the tag is used to identify the tag type when creating the asset. The MAC address may be obtained from the OEM logs if Data Capturing has been enabled, i.e.
or alternatively you can scan for the tag with your mobile phone.
The tag data is currently exposed under the Tags -> Map view,
or alternatively, under the Tags -> Telemetry view. In a future update, the tag telemetry may be exported per tag, per day.
Troubleshooting and other notes
Problems Reading Tags
If you are facing issues with limited range or if the tags are often not being ready by gateways.
- Check the advertising interval configured on the tag. If it's very long, the gateway might miss the updates occasionally. Interval under 10 seconds should work well
- Increase 'Tag Expiry Time' for the Gateway - Only supported on devices like the G120 and Eagle where 'BLE Continuous Tag scanning' is featured. If the tag only broadcasts every 35 seconds, and you missed a single broadcast - then the gateway would count the tag as 'lost' and drop it off the list. Since you didn't hear from it for 70 sec.
- We have found that the Coin T has a lower range than the Puck T - this difference may be seen with all other Coin/Puck products.
Monitoring Tag Battery Life
The tag voltage is not reported to Telematics Guru. However tag battery life is easy to predict. At a given transmit power and update rate, we can determine accurately the battery life.
ELA have some handy Battery life curves, used to estimate Battery life. We simply need to work out the battery life and ensure to replace the tags or batteries on this schedule. You could use this with TG's Scheduled Maintenance Reminders (SMR) to manage battery replacements.