For a long time, we chose to focus only on WiFi, LoRaWAN systems. However, circumstances encouraged us to add support for nB-IoT (think: SIM based, low-power/ battery based sensor nodes) last year.
When we say we add support, we imply that we have a base hardware board for it, the embedded software that goes into it, connectivity tie-ups with networks where required and of course integration into our SenseSight platform for data visualizations, alerts, WhatsApp interactions et cetera.
This August, as India is about to celebrate its 80th Independence Day, we are adding BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) to our set of supported wireless stacks!
The first product off our shelves, is a BLE beacon system that we are calling TinkerBeecons!
Well, what are TinkerBeecons?
This is an ecosystem that enables you to Know Where Your Assets Are (KWYA). Without Searching for Them 🙂
Simple, affordable indoor asset tracking for factories, warehouses and businesses.
In a busy factory, warehouse or facility, valuable assets are constantly moving.
Tools move between production lines. Trolleys move between departments. Equipment gets transferred from one room to another. Work-in-progress moves through different stages.
And when someone needs to find something, the answer is often:
“Check with the production team.”
“It was probably moved to the other room.”
“I saw it somewhere this morning.”
That lost time adds up.
TinkerBeecons give your team visibility of where assets are — across rooms, zones and work areas — in real time.
From “Where is it?” to “It’s in Room 3.”
Our solution combines three simple technologies that gathers asset BLE advertisements and then derives location insights from it.
BLE Tracker → BLE Gateway → SenseSight Platform→ (optionally, webhook to your platform)
We will talk about these one by one.
1. BLE Tracker
This is a small, low-power BLE tracker that is attached to an asset.
We have two versions. One lightweight unit based on Nordic Semiconductor nRF52820. This unit runs off a CR2032 battery (~220mAh) and may last for about a year or two before requiring a battery replacement.
Both of these modules use IndieSemic‘s ready to use modules. This drastically reduces our testing, validation and certification efforts.
The other unit is slightly larger, but still pretty tiny at 30mm x 30mm x 11 mm approx, but packs a Nordic Semiconductor nrf54L05 CR2477 battery (~950mAh). With our custom firmware, the calculated lifetime for this (at 10s advertisement interval and 0dB power) is about 26 years! However, we doubt if the battery itself would last that long, so lets say, about 10 years! Or, in other words, a significant part of the asset lifetime! This is intended to be a fix-it-forget it
A BLE tracker continuously broadcasts its identity.
These can be attached any asset such as the ones listed below using a simple screw/ nut-bolt/ cable-tie/ double-sided 3M stickers. We can also design custom mounting enclosures, if the volumes justify the same.
- Tools
- Equipment
- Trolleys
- Bins and containers
- Material handling equipment
- Work-in-progress
- Returnable assets
- Maintenance equipment
- High-value movable items
2. BLE Wi-Fi / Ethernet Gateway
Gateways are installed across the facility. Ideally, at least one per room/ zone of interest. We must also take into account the maximum range for a BLE beacon could be around 100m (many local factors affect this!).
Each gateway detects nearby BLE trackers and sends their information securely to the SenseSight platform. You could also use ANY readymade BLE gateways too!
The gateways need to be one-time assigned, accurate latitude, longitude co-ordinates (because the asset locations will be calculated based on this). This is also made simple using a drag-and-place interface on our platform UX. Just move it on a map to the correct location and it is done.
However, our gateways are designed to be more economical, low-power and of course smart! They are designed to keep track of last known signal strengths of each tracker they see and use a smart algorithm that only selectively sends data to our servers. This is intelligent edge-computing on our lightweight esp32-S3 boards, that reduces the load on the server while just the right actionable insights!
The additional simple smart change that we have made to the BLE trackers, is to add additional information on the advertisement name itself! So battery value, version number, app id (and optionally simple sensor data too, like temp/ humidity for some applications).
This is a significant efficiency boost since the gateway no longer has to make an additional BLE transaction to query these from the individual tags! Of course, third party gateways that are built the old way can continue to use them as well. But for us, a design goal has been: efficient use of the battery and this delivers it for us beautifully.
For communicating the tag information back to our servers, gateways can use either of the two following technologies for now (nB-IoT SIM/ LoRaWAN based gateway can also be developed on demand in the future):
Wi-Fi or Ethernet
making them easy to deploy in existing facilities. Ethernet deployment is just plug-and-play once you open the mac id on your firewalls, if any. WiFi deployment is also simple but requires an additional USB configuration to connect it to your 2.4GHz WiFi network.
3. SenseSight
SenseSight combines the signals received from multiple gateways to determine the most likely location of each tracker. It uses a triangulation algorithm to do this for each tag. Of course this is not for meter level accuracy, but more for a room/ zone level accuracy.
The result is a simple visual view of your facility:
Asset → Room / Zone → Gateway → Last Seen → Movement History
No complicated infrastructure required.
What Your Team Sees
Instead of searching through the facility, simply open SenseSight.
Asset: TOOL-1837
Current Location
Production – Machine Shop
Last Seen
2 minutes ago
Status
Stationary
Battery
87%
Movement History
Raw Material → Production → QA → Production
The question changes from:
“Where did someone keep it?”
to:
“It is in the Machine Shop.”
Built for Zone-Level Visibility
You don’t always need centimeter-level positioning.
For most factories and SMEs, knowing which room, department or zone an asset is in is enough.
For example:
Factory
→ Raw Material Store
→ Production
→ Assembly
→ Quality
→ Maintenance
→ Finished Goods
→ Dispatch
SenseSight can show where tracked assets are currently located and where they were previously seen.
This zone-based approach provides the operational value of indoor tracking while keeping deployment simple and affordable.
Bluetooth’s industrial guidance similarly identifies zone-level awareness as an effective approach where precise positioning is unnecessary.
Where It Makes Business Sense
1. Manufacturing
Track the assets that move around your factory.
Track:
- Tools
- Jigs and fixtures
- Trolleys
- Dies
- Bins
- Maintenance equipment
- Work-in-progress
- Material handling equipment
Business benefit
Reduce time spent looking for tools and equipment.
Improve visibility of work-in-progress.
Reduce unnecessary purchases of duplicate equipment.
2. Warehouses
Know where reusable assets and materials are.
Track:
- Pallets
- Cages
- Trolleys
- Bins
- Containers
- Handheld equipment
- Material handling equipment
Business benefit
Know which zone an asset is in without manually checking every area.
Improve movement visibility.
Reduce misplaced and idle assets.
3. Maintenance Departments
Maintenance teams often have expensive tools and equipment shared across multiple teams.
Track:
- Power tools
- Test instruments
- Tool kits
- Calibration equipment
- Portable equipment
- Maintenance carts
Business benefit
Find equipment faster.
Reduce equipment search time.
Know which department currently has an asset.
4. Hospitals, Labs & Facilities
Track movable equipment across rooms and departments.
For example:
- Wheelchairs
- Portable equipment
- Diagnostic equipment
- Carts
- Service equipment
- High-value movable assets
Instead of asking several people where an asset is:
Look at SenseSight.
Bluetooth technology is already used for indoor asset tracking in environments such as hospitals, warehouses and factories.
The Real ROI Is Time
Imagine a technician spends just 10 minutes looking for a tool.
If that happens:
5 times per day
that’s:
50 minutes/day
Over a working month, that becomes roughly:
18+ hours/month
And that’s just one person.
Now consider:
- multiple employees
- multiple tools
- multiple departments
- multiple shifts
Small amounts of wasted time become a significant operational cost.
Asset visibility turns that wasted time into productive time.
More Than Location
The BLE tracker can become an information point attached to every asset.
Depending on the tracker model, you can monitor:
Identity
Which asset is it?
Location
Which room or zone is it in?
Presence
Is it where it is supposed to be?
Movement
Has it moved?
Battery
Does the tracker need maintenance?
Sensor information
Temperature, humidity, motion or other parameters can be incorporated into specialized tracker versions.
This means the platform can evolve from:
Asset Tracking
to:
Asset Intelligence
Set Rules. Get Alerts.
SenseSight can be configured to turn asset information into actionable alerts.
Example
A tool should remain in the Maintenance department.
If it moves into another zone:
Alert: TOOL-1837 moved out of Maintenance.
A trolley should be in the Finished Goods area.
If it remains elsewhere for too long:
Alert: Trolley-024 has remained outside its assigned zone.
An asset hasn’t moved for an unusually long period:
Alert: Asset-0187 has been stationary for 48 hours.
See Movement History
Location is only part of the story.
SenseSight maintains the movement history of tracked assets.
This provides visibility into:
- Asset utilization
- Movement patterns
- Bottlenecks
- Idle time
- Asset handoffs
- Process inefficiencies
The same principle is increasingly being applied to manufacturing and logistics to improve visibility and reduce operational friction.
Designed for Existing Facilities
You don’t need to redesign your factory.
You don’t need to replace your Wi-Fi network.
You don’t need expensive dedicated positioning infrastructure.
Our approach:
Attach → Install → Map → Track
BLE trackers attach to existing assets.
BLE gateways are installed in strategic locations.
Rooms and zones are configured in SenseSight.
The system starts building a live picture of asset movement.
Start With One Area
Don’t start with the whole factory.
Start with the problem area.
Pilot
20–50 trackers
A few gateways
One production area
SenseSight
Measure:
- Search time
- Asset utilization
- Movement
- Idle time
- Missing/misplaced assets
- User adoption
If the pilot demonstrates value:
Expand.
Why Tinkerbee?
Hardware + Gateway + Software
Many tracking solutions stop at the tracker.
Tinkerbee provides the complete system.
BLE Tracker
Low-power tracking hardware designed for long-term deployment.
↓
BLE Gateway
Wi-Fi / Ethernet connectivity for collecting BLE data across your facility.
↓
Location Engine
Multi-gateway signal analysis and triangulation.
↓
SenseSight
Visualization, history, asset management and alerts.
One integrated solution.
Tinkerbee BLE Asset Tracking
Know where your assets are.
Know where they have been.
Know when they move.
Know when something is missing.
Spend less time searching.
Keep your operations moving.
BLE Tracker + BLE Gateway + SenseSight
Simple indoor asset visibility for factories, warehouses and businesses.
Webhook API Ready
Integrate seamlessly with your existing applications and workflows. Our simple Webhook API sends real-time asset location and tracking data directly to your systems, enabling you to build custom dashboards, alerts, workflows, ERP integrations, or automation without changing your existing infrastructure.
Next step…
Just reach out to us via info@tinkerbee.in to know more/ run pilots/ explore partnerships!
