Chromecast-Kiosk

A system to create a digital signage system with google chromecasts.

release state

beta

requirements

• fixed ip address for each chromecast

recommendations

• Use ethernet instead of wlan, see DIY Ethernet Adapter or the offical adapter.
• Set a static ip address to the chromecast.
• Use subneting to protect your casts from unwanted access.

benefits

• see what your casts are doing
• discover the chromecast in your network
• set the website which shall be displayed on your chromecast based on chromecast-dashboard
• you can manage multiple chromecast in one browser
• cronjobs so you could plan what your casts should do
• multi lang support

installation

All you need todo is deploy the *.war - File in the webapps directory of a Tomcat 8.0.

upgrading

1. Copy the *.json files from WEB-INF/config as backup.
2. use the Tomcat manager to undeploy the current webapp and deploy the new one
3. copy the json files back to WEB-INF/config

start casting

1. add a ChromeCast, by IP and Name
2. set target chromecast, the url and the refresh rate of the website you want to be displayed (for internal sides use the IP of the server not his name)
3. see if they are still alive an playing

tips for using with google slides

Example URL https://docs.google.com/presentation/.../embed?start=true&loop=true&delayms=10000&rm=minimal

• start=true - start after loading
• loop=true - loop the presentation
• delayms=10000 - wait 10.000 ms between slides
• rm=minimal - show minimal interface (don’t show slidenumber etc.)

Thanks to

• DIY Ethernet Adapter
• “C” is for Chromecast: hacking digital signage
• ChromeCast Java API v2
• chromecast-dashboard