Is there a way to distinguish between a BGX and Lyra module or device running Wireless Xpress in the field without having physical access to it?

Yes. Lyra is a 100% software functional replacement for the BGX220 and BGX13 parts. We recommend reading and evaluating the OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier) of the BLE MAC address. The OUI is a 24-bit number that uniquely identifies a vendor, manufacturer, or organization where the first three octets / bytes are assigned by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). For Lyra and Ezurio (formerly Laird Connectivity) it is 18-C2-93. In Wireless Xpress, you can make use of the bl a (BLE MAC Address) variable which will return with the complete BLE MAC address of the BGX device.

It is also possible to rely on both sy u (Hardware UUID) and sy v (Bluetooth Xpress Firmware Version) variables. The first 8 digits of the Hardware UUID must be always FFFFFFFF for Lyra. This value should also contain the Ezurio OUI (18C293) value somewhere in between. The Bluetooth Xpress Firmware Version must include the 1.3.0000.0-0-0 string at the end. We will only provide support for this particular software version, and it is the only Wireless Xpress release available for Lyra.

Please note that Wireless Xpress is frozen at its current software release / version, so it will not receive any further development or bug fixing in the future. For comparison reasons you will find attached an example of the get al (Get All Variables) command, captured using one of our Lyra S development boards running Wireless Xpress.