Use USB Button Panels

Owned by BrightSign TechDocs
Last updated: Jun 28, 2024
2 min read

Overview

USB capacitive touch button pads let you implement button interactivity and LED controls. Two models are available: a 4-button (BP200) and an 11-button (BP900) touch pad (see BrightSign Accessories | BrightSign® for more information). Both models have a USB Mini-B port and are compatible with any BrightSign player that supports USB.

Button triggering and functionality is easily customized in BrightAuthor and BrightAuthor:connected. You can also connect multiple button pads to a single player as described below. The device self-calibrates on bootup and is not manually adjusted in the player software or hardware, so test your application before deploying it broadly. 

Connecting Multiple Button Panels

You can normally connect one BP900 or BP200 button panel to a BrightSign player that has USB functionality. You can also connect two button panels using models with multiple USB ports. However, using any consumer-grade USB hub, you can connect as many as three button panels of either type to any BrightSign player that has a USB port.

When a button panel connects to the BrightSign player through a USB hub, the player assigns it a letter (A, B, or C) depending on how many button panels are already connected to it. No matter which BP type is connected, letters will be assigned to button panels in the following order:

A > B > C > D

Here are just a few examples of this behavior:

BP900A > BP900B > BP900C > BP900D

BP200A > BP200B > BP900C > BP200D

BP200A > BP900B > BP900C > BP900D

Even though there are eight separate BP events in BrightAuthor (BP200A, BP200B, BP200C, BP200D, along with BP900A, BP900B, BP900C, BP900D), you can only use one of each letter in your presentation.

Mapping behavior will be consistent no matter how many times the player is reset. However, the mapping may change if you modify the hardware configuration of the USB hub or the BrightSign player, or if you apply a firmware update to the player. In these cases, retest the mapping after the changes are applied. 


Additional Notes/Troubleshooting

  • If you are covering the buttons with other materials:

    • The material must be ¼” or thinner; if too thick a plastic is used, the buttons will not trigger. Acrylic, PC, and ABS surfaces have all been verified to work. 

    • There must not be an air gap between any material you're using to cover the board and the board itself. 

  • When specifying a button number for a BP200/BP900 event, selecting Any Button will enable only the button numbers used in other BP200/BP900 events in the presentation: For example, if the interactive playlist contains defined BP900 events for buttons 1 and 4, then a BP900 event set to Any Button will trigger for buttons 1 and 4 only. This behavior ensures that it will never be possible to trigger or light up buttons that aren't used in a kiosk or button panel. To manually enable BP200/BP900 button numbers in a presentation:

    1. Go to File > Presentation Properties > Buttons.

    2. Choose the appropriate Button Panel.

    3. Select Specify which buttons are enabled.