Bleepie
Bleepie is a POCSAG/FLEX pager transceiver that plugs into your Tildagon badge as a hexpansion. Once fitted, it lets you send and receive pages to and from other pagers around the site.
This page is a user guide for getting your Bleepie up and running.
Assembly
Assembly is simple: connect the antenna to the u.FL socket on the back of the hexpansion. Line the connector up over the socket and push it straight down until it clicks on — then you’re ready to slot the hexpansion into your badge.
When you insert the Bleepie hexpansion, the badge automatically detects it and adds the Bleepie app to your launcher menu.
Bleepie also has a small USB-C board that connects with an FPC (flat flex) cable. You only need this if you want to update the Bleepie firmware, or to use Bleepie in USB mode without a badge. For normal use with your Tildagon badge you can leave the USB-C board off.
Using Bleepie with your badge
Open the Bleepie app from the badge launcher. The main menu has six items: Messages, Send Page, RIC List, Phonebook, Settings and Flex BaseStn.
Received pages pop up as notifications while the app is open, and the LED blinks blue when you have unread messages.
Messages
Your inbox of received pages, with unread ones marked. Scroll the list and select a message to read it in full.
Messages are stored on the Bleepie hexpansion itself (up to 50 of them), so they survive the app closing and the badge restarting. As of 1.2.0 Bleepie will attempt to set its own internal clock from the Badge when it first starts up, Provided you have the correct time set or WiFi so it can get NTP. Messages are then stored with the timestamp they were received, any messages on todays date will just show the time, older messages show the date and time.
Send Page
Send a page to another pager. Enter the recipient’s RIC (the pager’s address) digit by digit, then either pick one of the preset messages (TEST, HELLO, ACK, SOS, OK) or type your own free text.
RIC List
Controls which RICs Bleepie listens on — you’ll only receive pages sent to a RIC in this list. You can add more, remove ones you don’t want, or restore the default at any time.
Every Bleepie has its own default RIC — a unique number baked into the device and derived from its chip’s serial number, so no two Bleepies share one. It’s subscribed out of the box, so this is the number to give people who want to page you. You can remove it like any other RIC if you want, and restore it again later from the RIC List.
Phonebook
Save people’s RICs as named contacts so you don’t have to remember the numbers. Unlike your messages, the phonebook is stored on the badge itself rather than on the Bleepie hexpansion. You can also add your own preset messages from this screen to be sent in the Send Page view.
Settings
See “Settings explained” below for what each option does. The firmware version is shown at the bottom of the settings screen.
Flex BaseStn
Starts and stops the FLEX base station and lets you queue messages for it. This is an advanced mode — most people won’t need it. While the base station is running Bleepie stops receiving pages, so leave it off for normal use.
Buttons
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| UP / DOWN | Navigate menus, change digits, scroll messages |
| CONFIRM | Select an item, move the cursor on, send a page |
| CANCEL | Go back, move the RIC cursor left, minimise the app |
Status LED
Bleepie has a small colour LED that tells you what it’s doing:
| Colour | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green flash | Radio activity — a page is being received |
| Red | Transmitting a page |
| Blue blink | You have unread messages |
| Off | Idle, nothing unread |
Settings explained
Bleepie comes preconfigured for EMF, so you normally won’t need to touch these — but here’s what each one does:
- Frequency — the radio frequency Bleepie transmits and listens on, in MHz. At EMF this should be 433.900. Both pagers have to be on the same frequency to hear each other.
- Power — the transmit power in dBm. Higher means more range but more battery use. At EMF the limit is 10 dBm, so leave it there.
- Mode — the paging protocol, either POCSAG (the usual one) or FLEX. Use POCSAG unless you have a reason not to.
- Baud — the transmission speed. For POCSAG this is 512, 1200 or 2400; for FLEX it’s 1600 or 3200. Both ends need to match.
- Correction — a fine tuning adjustment (in Hz) that compensates for tiny differences between individual radios. Only change this if you’re told your Bleepie is slightly off frequency.
- LED — the brightness of the status LED.
- Buzzer — turns the beep on received pages on or off.
Frequency and power
The default settings are:
- Frequency: 433.900 MHz
- Maximum power: 10 dBm
Your Bleepie comes preconfigured with these, so you shouldn’t need to change anything.
What the firmware allows
The Bleepie firmware deliberately locks transmission to a small set of bands so you stay legal out of the box:
- 433–434 MHz — the licence-free ISM band. This is where EMF paging happens (433.900), and anyone can transmit here.
- 439.9875 MHz — the UK DAPNET frequency on the amateur band. Only transmit here if you hold an amateur radio licence.
- 10 dBm maximum transmit power.
What the hardware can do
The radio inside Bleepie is capable of far more than the firmware lets you use — it can transmit anywhere from 137 to 512 MHz and up to 22 dBm. Reaching those extra ranges would require a jailbreak of the firmware, and transmitting outside the bands and power limits above may well be illegal where you are, so it’s on you to know the rules.
As for whether such a jailbreak exists — I can neither confirm nor deny it, but you might want to look at the readme for the firmware to discover more!
You can send a page to any RIC — that’s the address of the pager you want to reach. Ask people for their RIC (or save it in your phonebook), then send away.
USB mode (no badge required)
You can use Bleepie on its own, without a Tildagon badge, by connecting the USB-C board to your computer. This turns Bleepie into a USB pager you can control from a serial terminal.
Connect at 115200 baud and you’ll get a human-friendly command prompt. Some of the things you can do:
status— show the current frequency, power, mode and other settingsfreq 433.900— set the frequencypower 10— set the transmit power in dBmalpha <ric> <message>— send an alphanumeric pagenum <ric> <message>— send a numeric pagerics/ric add <ric>/ric del <ric>— see and manage the RICs you receive onmessagesandread <id>— list and read received pageshelp— show the full list of commands
Received pages appear automatically in your terminal as they arrive.
Source code
Bleepie is open source. The projects live on GitHub:
- sammachin/bleepie-fw — the firmware and the Tildagon badge app.
- sammachin/bleepie-hw — the PCB layout.
Firmware Updates
The bleepie firmware (which includes the badge app) can be updated via the USB board,
- Connect the FPC cable between the board and your bleepie then holding down the boot button plug it into USB.
- You should see a RPI-RP2 removable storage device appear on your desktop.
- Get the new firmware from the Releases Page you want the .uf2 file
- Drag this file onto the removable storage, Once copied it should automatically unmount the storage.
- Remove the USB and insert Bleepie back into your badge,
- You can check the version number from the bottom of the Settings screen in the Bleepie app.
Want a Bleepie?
I’m doing another PCB run and a few different options for the level of assembly, fill out this google form to let me know what you’d be interested in. (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd2g_hLUfKAYB_eCyy3B2bZy0L_4_zsO7PqDt8lfB0IjLFm-w/viewform?usp=publish-editor)s