Bleepie

Bleepie Paging

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 at EMF. You don’t need to know anything about the hardware or how it’s built to use it.

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. There are no timestamps — instead each message shows how many seconds ago it was received, counting up for as long as Bleepie stays powered. Once Bleepie is powered off, that count is lost, so afterwards a message simply shows as stored rather than a 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.

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 paging at EMF

At EMF 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.

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.

There are a number of digipeaters dotted around the site. These pick up your pages and re-broadcast them, so your messages reach across the whole festival even if the other pager is out of direct range.

The Bleepie paging bureau

You can also call the Bleepie paging bureau and speak to a virtual operator on 25337.

Call that number and you’ll be asked to enter the RIC number you want to page, and then you’ll be connected to the operator who’ll help you get your message through.

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 settings
  • freq 433.900 — set the frequency
  • power 10 — set the transmit power in dBm
  • alpha <ric> <message> — send an alphanumeric page
  • num <ric> <message> — send a numeric page
  • rics / ric add <ric> / ric del <ric> — see and manage the RICs you receive on
  • messages and read <id> — list and read received pages
  • help — 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: