Electronic Team, Inc

Before the operator can connect to the client’s USB device remotely, it’s required to configure a Raspberry Pi Zero (provided as a part of the Helpwire Bridge receiver box) and connect it to the operator’s machine.

To achieve this, accomplish the following steps:

1. Write the HelpWire Bridge image to an SD card.

You will need:

1. An application for flashing images to SD cards. For example, Etcher (available for download at https://www.balena.io/etcher/).

2. A 2GB (or larger) SD card.

How to create a Pi SD card with Etcher:

1. Insert your SD card into the card reader on your PC.
2. Install Etcher on your computer, launch the app and perform the following steps:

Step 1 – click “Select image” and choose the HelpWire Bridge image file you received from Electronic Team, Inc.
Step 2 – click “Select drive” and choose the SD card you connected earlier.
Step 3 – click “Flash!” to write the image file to the SD card.

When done, your SD card can be used for further HelpWire Bridge configurations.

For more information on how to install images on an SD card, please see:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/README.md

2. Configure Wi-Fi settings

1. Mount the SD card that contains the HelpWire Bridge image to your computer.

2. Find the wpa_supplicant.conf file at the root of the SD card and change the settings of the Wi-Fi network using your SSID, password, and country code.

Here is an example of the wpa_supplicant.conf file:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=US
 
network={
    ssid="ssid name"
    scan_ssid=1
    psk="ssid password"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

3. Connect to the Raspberry Pi Zero via HelpWire Operator GUI

For Windows users:

1. Start the HelpWire Operator application.

2. Once started, a search window will open automatically. The search window will display the list of Raspberry Pi devices that are currently available for connection.

3. Select the IP address/MAC address of the required Raspberry Pi Zero and click the Connect button:

4. Once the PI Zero has been connected, log in to your Operator account.

5. You will see the list of USB devices that have been shared on your client’s computers. Find the one you need and click “Connect”.

Alternatively, you can connect to Raspberry Pi on Windows by following these steps:

1. Open the Registry Editor:

Windows menu> regedit

2. Find the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Electronic Team\HelpWire

3. Add the string variable “gui_host” and assign it the value “raspberrypi.local” or the IP address of the WiFi adapter of your Pi Zero.

4. Launch HelpWire Operator GUI.

5. Log in to your operator account.

6. Find the required device in the list and click “Connect”.

For macOS users:

1. Add the following fields to the defaults:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/us.electronic.flexihub.plist gui_host "IP address or the hostname of Raspberry Pi on the WiFi network"

For example, if “gui_host” = “raspberrypi.local”, run:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/us.electronic.flexihub.plist gui_host raspberrypi.local

2. Launch the HelpWire Operator application;

3. Log in to your Operator account;

4. Find the required device in the list of remote clients’ devices and click “Connect”.