Smartphones are ubiquitous in people’s daily lives, and daily activities such as traveling, dining, shopping, entertainment, and chatting are almost inseparable from smartphones. The importance of smartphones is self-evident, so losing a phone is a significant problem for users. In response to this situation, Apple phones come with a built-in Find My program that can locate lost phones. Some manufacturers also launch additional wireless locators that connect to the phone to assist the Find My program, improving the accuracy and precision of the search.
Recently, I Love Audio disassembled a Smart Tag wireless locator that can assist the Apple Find My application in precisely locating lost Apple devices. Its accurate positioning function benefits from the internal GOODiX GR5513BENDU low-power Bluetooth SoC, which has extremely low power consumption and unique dual-slave characteristics. A single Bluetooth chip can simultaneously support the Apple Find My service and customer-specific applications, such as private business data and customized OTA.
The Smart Tag wireless locator features a diamond design with a delicate matte texture that is not easily stained with fingerprints. It weighs only 8.7g and is very compact and portable, making it easy to carry. The device also has a lanyard hole, allowing for convenient attachment with the included woven lanyard.
The Smart Tag wireless locator, as a third-party hardware product supporting Apple’s “Find My” feature, can work with Apple devices to realize tracking capabilities for lost devices. The device has a button for Bluetooth pairing and other functions to enhance the accuracy of locating devices.
After disassembling the Smart Tag wireless locator, I Love Audio found that it is equipped with a button cell battery and uses the GOODiX GR5513BENDU low-power Bluetooth SoC, supporting Bluetooth 5.1. It has outstanding ultra-low power consumption performance, providing longer standby and battery life, and excellent RF performance, supporting unique dual-slave characteristics.
The GOODiX GR5513BENDU low-power Bluetooth SoC features an ARM Cortex-M4F CPU core, integrates the Bluetooth 5.1 protocol stack, 2.4 GHz RF transceiver, on-chip programmable memory Flash, RAM, and various peripherals. The GR551x series has passed compliance verification by Apple-authorized third-party testing agencies, fully compatible with the latest specifications and functional requirements of Find My network accessories.
The GOODiX GR5513BENDU low-power Bluetooth SoC has outstanding ultra-low power performance, providing longer standby and battery life. In tests, using Keysight power consumption testing instruments configured to 3V output, the positive terminal connected to Smart Tag Vcc pin and the negative terminal connected to Smart Tag GND pin, the Keysight was used for overall power consumption testing. Mimicking the AirTag power consumption model, performing four close-range search beeps daily while the Smart Tag remains in standby mode for most of the time, long-term hanging tests recorded power consumption values under different testing scenarios as shown in the table below. Calculations indicate that in this typical anti-loss tag application scenario, using a CR2032 battery (245mAh) can achieve a battery life of over one year.
Key power consumption test data for the GOODiX GR5513BENDU chip
The GOODiX GR5513BENDU low-power Bluetooth SoC features unique dual-slave characteristics, meeting the needs of customer terminal products to seamlessly support Find My functionality. A single Bluetooth chip can simultaneously support Apple Find My service and customer-specific applications, such as private business data and customized OTA, while also providing excellent RF performance, allowing terminal devices to maintain a more stable connection signal and achieve longer-range searches.
Detailed information on the GOODiX GR551x series
According to I Love Audio, GOODiX’s low-power Bluetooth solution is currently applied in Smart Tag products from brands like Tuya and is also used in Ninebot’s electric scooter products, providing Find My functionality.
I Love Audio Summary
The Smart Tag wireless locator is a precision location device that incorporates the GOODiX GR5513BENDU low-power Bluetooth SoC, which has extremely low power consumption and unique dual-slave characteristics. A single Bluetooth chip can simultaneously support the Apple Find My service and customer-specific applications, such as private business data and customized OTA.
GOODiX is a comprehensive application solution provider based on chip design and software development, mainly providing leading semiconductor hardware and software solutions for smart terminals, IoT, and automotive electronics.
GOODiX aims to gather top talents globally with a global vision and layout, maintain high R&D investment, continuously lead technological innovation in sensing, computing, connectivity, and security fields, drive innovative applications in the intelligent interconnection of all things, and strive to grow into a globally leading comprehensive IC design company, enriching the smart lives of billions of consumers worldwide.
