Kiosk units
A kiosk unit is a single screen in your swarm: the hardware, the YBeeM image it runs, and the on-device settings that decide what it shows and how it behaves. This page covers the device side — everything you can set on one unit, whether or not it has joined a swarm.
Hardware and the YBeeM image
A unit is a Raspberry Pi 4/5 or an x86 PC flashed with the YBeeM image. The image is the same across your fleet; a unit becomes part of a swarm when you paste in a cloud key or adopt it from the dashboard, not by running a different build.
Flash the image, attach a display, and power on. From there a unit is fully configurable on its own — you can set its mode, target, display, and network before it ever reaches the cloud. See concepts for how units, swarms, and cloud keys fit together.
Kiosk modes
A unit's mode decides what fills the screen. Pick one mode per unit, then point it at a target — a host and port for the remote modes, or a URL for the web modes.
| Mode | What it shows | Target |
|---|---|---|
| VNC | The desktop of a remote machine over VNC. | Host + port |
| RDP | A Windows session over RDP. | Host + port |
| Web | A live web page in a full-screen kiosk browser. | URL |
| Node-RED | A Node-RED dashboard served on the unit. | — |
| HTML | Local HTML content shown directly on the screen. | — |
Change the mode or target and the display reconnects to it right away. The same mode and target points are also writable from the building system — see integrations.
Display controls
Each unit carries a full set of display settings, independent of what it's showing. Set them in the on-unit web UI or drive them from a BMS/SCADA system.
| Control | Values |
|---|---|
| Rotation | 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees |
| Mirror | None, horizontal, or vertical |
| Brightness | 0–100 |
| Volume | 0–100 |
| Screen blank | On or off |
| Remote-input disable | Makes the screen view-only |
Remote-input disable locks out local keyboard and mouse so a public screen stays view-only, while you keep full control from the dashboard and the web UI.
The on-unit web UI
Every unit serves its own web UI on port 8080. Browse to the unit on your network, sign in with the shared password, and configure that single unit. It works whether or not the unit has enrolled in a swarm, so you can stage a screen before it ever reaches the cloud.
From the web UI you can set:
- Kiosk mode & target — the mode plus its host, port, or URL.
- Display — rotation, mirror, brightness, volume, screen blank, and remote-input disable.
- Network — Wi-Fi and wired settings, ZeroTier remote access, and USB-over-IP.
- Updates — the unit's A/B update state; see updates.
Changes apply immediately and the display reflects them without a reboot.
Networking and USB-over-IP
Units run on Wi-Fi or wired Ethernet, configured from the network section of the web UI. Wired is the natural choice for a fixed video wall; Wi-Fi suits screens where running a cable isn't practical.
USB-over-IP passthrough lets a USB device attached to the unit appear on another machine across the network — handy when the screen is remote but the peripheral needs to reach a host elsewhere.
Remote access over ZeroTier
Each unit can join a ZeroTier network for a free, direct way to reach it from anywhere — no port forwarding and no inbound firewall rules. Once a unit is on your ZeroTier network you can open its web UI and manage it as if you were on the same LAN.
ZeroTier is a free direct remote-in option, available even without a swarm subscription. The hosted swarm cloud and automatic updates are the paid tier.
Watchdog and scheduling
Units are built to run unattended. A hardware watchdog restarts the unit if something hangs, so a screen self-heals without a site visit. On/off scheduling powers the display down and back up on a timetable — dark overnight, showing the right thing by opening.
Combined with power-cut-safe updates and built-in integrations, a unit can sit on a wall for months with nothing to touch. Manage the whole fleet from your dashboard.