AkidaTag FAQ
Short answers to the questions people ask first. The user guide and the developer guide have the detail.
About the tag
Section titled “About the tag”What is AkidaTag? A small board with a Nordic nRF5340 microcontroller and a BrainChip Akida AKD1500 neural processor, a microphone, an inertial sensor and Bluetooth Low Energy. The AI model runs on the board; the phone only shows what the board found.
What does it do out of the box? It runs the keyword spotting demo: it recognises ten spoken words and reports each one to the BrainChip Connect app. The model is loaded before the tag ships.
Does it need the internet? No. The tag talks to the phone over Bluetooth, and nothing in the demo leaves the phone. The app needs the internet only to download firmware and model files.
Is the battery included? No. The box holds the board and its enclosure; there is no battery, camera or USB-C cable in it.
How do I turn it on? With the power switch on the board. The green LED blinks slowly once it is ready.
Phone and app
Section titled “Phone and app”Which phones work? Android phones running Android 13 or later, with Bluetooth. BrainChip Connect is coming soon to the iOS App Store.
Where do I get the app? Its Google Play listing, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brainchip.connect, is open for pre-registration. Google Play tells you when it is released.
Does the phone ask me to pair? The firmware does not ask for a pairing code, so no pairing pop-up appears.
Can two phones connect at once? No. One phone at a time. If the tag’s green LED is solid, another phone is already connected.
Using the demo
Section titled “Using the demo”Which words does it know? down, go, left, no, off, on, right, stop, up and
yes. Anything else is reported as silence or unknown and is not shown.
It does not hear me. The tag’s microphone is a quiet part. Speak clearly and close to it, and check that the Keyword Spotting card says Active.
What do the LEDs mean? See What the LEDs mean. The short version: green blinking is ready, green on is connected, a red flash is a detection, red on steady is a failure.
Can it learn a new word? The firmware can learn new words on the device, and every release
attaches akidatag-kws-edge-learning-model.zip for that. Running a learning session from the app
is not covered in this guide yet.
What does Factory Reset do? Today it restarts the tag and nothing else. A full reset that erases the model and settings will come in a later release.
What does Power Mode do? Nothing in this release. It is where a low-power mode to save battery will be switched on in a later release.
Updating
Section titled “Updating”How do I update the firmware? From the app, with a file from https://github.com/Brainchip-Inc/AkidaTag/releases. See Update the firmware over Bluetooth. A computer and the USB-C cable work too: Firmware update over USB-C.
The update did not install. The tag only accepts firmware signed with the key it trusts. Use a file from a BrainChip release. Anything built from the source code is refused over Bluetooth and USB-C, by design.
I cannot load a model. Older firmware predates the model transfer the current app uses. Update the tag to the latest release, https://github.com/Brainchip-Inc/AkidaTag/releases/latest, and try again.
Building your own
Section titled “Building your own”Can I build the firmware myself? Yes. The source is at https://github.com/Brainchip-Inc/AkidaTag and the developer guide starts from a fresh clone. Read the caution in its section 9 first.
Will the tag accept my firmware? Not over Bluetooth or USB-C: your build is signed with the public development key, and a tag from BrainChip trusts the production key. With a debug probe you can flash the whole image, after which the tag trusts your key instead. See Signing, and which firmware a board accepts.
Can I run my own model? Yes, converted with the Akida tools and loaded like the demo model. Models explains the pipeline.
Where do I ask? For help, BrainChip’s Discord at https://discord.com/invite/9bmd9g52vn. For a bug, an issue at https://github.com/Brainchip-Inc/AkidaTag/issues. Support says what to include.