First, you need to have the External Communications feature enabled on your account - if you don't, just reach out to us so we can add it for you (it's free!)

With this enabled, there is a three-step process to follow:

Disclaimer: This article assumes adequate knowledge of how GPIO pin connections work. Brightsign players output power over their GPIO pins so, please use the GPIO connections in a safe manner to prevent damage or injury to the player or to yourself.

Please refer to this article as to the correct pin locations on the Brightsign players https://support.brightsign.biz/hc/en-us/articles/218065937-GPIO-Which-pins-correspond-to-which-buttons- to

Let's dive in...

Go to the External Communications section and add a new comms setup by clicking 'Create New':

Give it a name that is relevant to you and hit 'Create'

Under 'Type' select 'Brightsign GPIO':

We can now hit 'Save Changes'

Click the 'Commands' tab:

Then click, 'Add New Command'

Next please select the pin you wish to use :

Pin's 1-8 represent the buttons as seen on the Brightsign pin table located here.

Pin 1 = Button 0 etc..

https://support.brightsign.biz/hc/en-us/articles/218065937-GPIO-Which-pins-correspond-to-which-buttons-

Then set the command type to input or output. This sets whether the pin will be setup to receive data in on that pin or output data out to that pin. For example you would set it as an input if you were using a physical button and you would set it as an out put if you were sending a signal out to trigger an LED :

You can now click 'Save Changes' and proceed to the next step to get the GPIO connection setup in your layout :

In this example, we are going to set up a layout that has a virtual button you can press to activate an LED via a GPIO pin on the Brightsign player.

In our External Communications setup, we have set Pin 2 to output and created a connection for Pin 2.

Next, create a layout and we will do a brief setup of the layout with a background colour and a zone for our virtual button:

Next, we need to add the External Communications trigger to the zone. Select the 'Virtual Button LED Trigger' zone and go to the 'Interactivity' panel in the zone options on the right :

Next, add a new interactivity event and select 'Tap' and then set the action as 'Send External Comm Command' :

This will add a touch event listener to the zone so when someone taps/clicks the zone it will send an External Communication command

Next, click 'Configure' :

We now need to add the command or commands we want to send to the trigger via the External Communication modal that is now shown click 'Add Command' :

Next, select the GPIO External Communication connection we set up in the previous steps and select the 'Pin 2 Output' command we created. This can be done with any of the pin outputs we have just chosen Pin 2 for the example. You then just need to select whether you want to set the pin output state to on or off. 'On' will send the information to activate that pin causing our LED to turn on. 'Off' will deactivate that pin output causing our LED to turn off :

We now just need to click 'Save Changes' and publish your layout down to your Brightsign device.

You can follow the same steps to set up any Pin to activate or deactivate. You can also set the Pin to be used as an input and use the External Communications listeners to listen to inputs from those pins if you were for example to use a physical button to activate content.