Remote Control / Kiosk Mode Support for Dedicated Screens

[tjgurwara99]

It would be very helpful to allow sevadars to connect to a dedicated display running SikhiToTheMax in kiosk mode, backed by an integrated single-board computer (e.g., Raspberry Pi).

This would significantly lower the barrier for users who may not be comfortable using a laptop or desktop computer, but are familiar with using a phone. In this setup, sevadars could control and update the display directly from their mobile devices, without needing physical access to a computer.

While exploring this idea, I looked for documentation related to the protocol used by Bani Controller, with the goal of potentially contributing to or extending similar functionality. However, I wasn’t able to find any publicly available documentation.

Questions / Requests

• Is there existing documentation for the Bani Controller communication protocol?
• If so, could it be shared publicly?
• If not, would you be open to documenting it so contributors can:
  • Implement similar remote-control functionality within SikhiToTheMax, or
  • Build compatible external tools that adhere to the same protocol?

Having this information available would make it much easier for contributors to help build or extend remote control and kiosk-style features for dedicated displays.

[evan377]

If you’re talking about running a dedicated screen in kiosk mode and still being able to control it remotely, yes, that’s doable and fairly common.

The usual setup is to lock the device into kiosk mode locally, then use a remote management or remote desktop tool that works at the system level. On Android, this is often done with Android Enterprise or a device owner app. On Windows or Linux, you can combine kiosk mode with RDP, VNC, or an MDM agent. The key point is that kiosk mode does not block remote access unless it’s misconfigured. As long as remote access is allowed at the OS or MDM level, you can manage, update, reboot, and troubleshoot the screen without breaking kiosk mode.

[tjgurwara99]

If you’re talking about running a dedicated screen in kiosk mode and still being able to control it remotely, yes, that’s doable and fairly common.

The usual setup is to lock the device into kiosk mode locally, then use a remote management or remote desktop tool that works at the system level. On Android, this is often done with Android Enterprise or a device owner app. On Windows or Linux, you can combine kiosk mode with RDP, VNC, or an MDM agent. The key point is that kiosk mode does not block remote access unless it’s misconfigured. As long as remote access is allowed at the OS or MDM level, you can manage, update, reboot, and troubleshoot the screen without breaking kiosk mode.

Unfortunately it seems we are talking about two different things. I was talking about the in-built feature that already exists in STTM desktop app but favours a multi-screen setup. The request here is to use the same concept with just a single screen with a better UI for single screens such as QR code showing up on the screen and once connected through the same protocol that is currently used, it should just show the secondary screen only which would be controlled by the phones.

[indersinghkhalis]

@tjgurwara99 let me invite you to our slack, so that i can put you in touch with right people, who can help with this.