BrightSign Explorer on Windows Pc

This is an UNOFFICIAL app to control your locally networked BrightSign players. It's super lightweight and (I hope) super easy to use.

This app will list BrightSign players using a bonjour-like search mechanism, this will usually require the BrightSigns to be up and running with a working autorun. I have provided a way of doing a direct lookups by providing a name, often the device serial number will suffice. Additionally you can connect to your devices using just an IP address (a password is sometimes required).

With this app you can view your players, update user variables and send UDP commands. The app also provides an easy way to open your default browser should you want to access the device directly.

The app searchs for BrightSign players automatically but if your particular unit isn't found then please do try the manual lookup. Internally the app relies on NsdManager and does require multicast to be enabled on your wifi network (which is usually is).

Please please please, any bugs/queries/suggestions then get in contact.

If you want to show your appreciation please click on an advert at the bottom of the main screen (it costs you nothing!). You could also watch a full screen advert but this is totally your choice. There are no unexpected full screen adverts popups in this app.

FAQs

* No devices ever appear?

The app only finds locally networked BrightSign devices. If you don't see any units appear then try switching off the 'Use Filter' option in the preferences to see if any other device types are found (e.g. Printers, Streamers). You can also try a manual lookup if you know the serial number of your device, this will work even if no autorun is loaded. Lastly you could try a connection by IP address - this should work across routers (other methods won't).

You could also try more generic bonjour browsers on your network to see if your BrightSigns appear. I've used "Bonjour Browser" on Windows and "ZeroConf Browser" on android, if you can't get your BrightSigns to appear on other apps they probably won't appear on mine!

* IP Connect, why is the password optional?

Using the IP address we try to connect to the open autorun server first and the Diagnostic Web Server next. Usually the DWS password is the serial number that we obtain in the first step. If the device has no active autorun server (or indeed no autorun) then you will need to enter the DWS password.

* SmartEdit, what is it?

When editing user variables SmartEdit looks for text that appears to be numeric/currency and will adjust the edit controls accordingly. By default SmartEdit is available with a long press on the edit icon (normal editing via short press), you can swap this in the preferences. If SmartEdit doesn't apply to a variable then the normal editing control will appear.

Handle autoruns created by "BA connected"

Allows applications to open network sockets.
Allows applications to access information about networks.
Allows using PowerManager WakeLocks to keep processor from sleeping or screen from dimming.