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Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

mtlynch.io

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Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#141

Post by vetinari »

Haemm0r wrote: post #56
x87678r wrote: post #23

This looks awesome. I was looking for a solution like this last year. I budgeted a few hundred bucks but couldn't find anything. Ideally would have a way to handle a few different boxes. I did see something called Intel AMT, part of Intel vPro. https://www.howtogeek.com/56538/how-to-remotely-control-your... Does anyone have experience with this? (I have AMD box so doesn't help me) - actually looks like AMD has simila…

It works, however you need a non-free special client called VNC Viewer Plus [1]. Afaik it is Windows only. You can enable regular VNC protocol capabilities for AMT[2], but then you can't use the interesting stuff anymore. [1] https://www.realvnc.com/en/products/viewerplus/ [2] https://blog.michael.kuron-germany.de/2011/10/using-intel-am... //edit: link [2] added.

You can use meshcommander[1], which has a nodejs version that runs under linux and mac.

Then you just have to pay attention to your certs (if you are using https), because browser policy will apply.

[1] https://www.meshcommander.com/meshcommander

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#142

Post by da39a3ee »

mtlynch wrote: post #2

Author here. Happy to answer any questions or take any feedback about this post.

This isn't an area I know anything about but I really enjoyed your write-up (I still don't know what KVM stands for! But I get that you wanted to act as a physical keyboard and display over IP). From a quick skim of your site it looks like you've worked at large companies and now are doing some independent projects. Do you think you'll go back to working for a company (perhaps a smaller one?), or do you see yourself working independently for many years? I ask because (a) I'm also casting about at a similar point in my career doing independent projects, but (b) I've never worked at a truly large company, and (c) (someone like) you seem(s) like you'd be a great colleague to work with, and (d) my vague ambition is to work for a small company with skilled colleagues that I can learn from and to work on "technical" projects as opposed to product development but (e) I guess, when I see talented people such as yourself apparently rejecting the conventional job market, I partly infer that they've looked at what's on offer and declined and thus that I'm deluding myself in thinking that I'll find something in the conventional job market that I really want.

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#144

Post by ajford »

stamps wrote: post #86
btgeekboy wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an old Belkin USB 2.0 switch from god-knows when that works beautifully. I use it to share a hub with a keyboard and mouse attached. I’ve given up trying to find a 4K60 x2 DisplayPort KVM that doesn’t suck.

I have this one[0] that works great. Wendell at Level1Techs does good work and there's even newer ones that can do 8k30. [0] https://store.level1techs.com/products/kvm-switch-dual-monit...

I couldn't find the details on their site, but do you know whether the 3.5mm audio jack is 3 or 4 pole? I've found that most KVMs have the 3 pole jack, meaning it just supports audio out, but I need 4-pole so my headset microphone works.

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#146

Post by close04 »

R0b0t1 wrote: post #85
x87678r wrote: post #23

This looks awesome. I was looking for a solution like this last year. I budgeted a few hundred bucks but couldn't find anything. Ideally would have a way to handle a few different boxes. I did see something called Intel AMT, part of Intel vPro. https://www.howtogeek.com/56538/how-to-remotely-control-your... Does anyone have experience with this? (I have AMD box so doesn't help me) - actually looks like AMD has simila…

vPro is error prone and may require multiple setup attempts. If you want to use it on anything but the same LAN there is a built-in VPN. If you can find anything about the AMD version I'd be interested, they don't seem to publish anything unless you are a partner.

Here are some AMD tools, docs are thin on the ground. [0]

I have a boatload of Intel vPro machines spread throughout multiple countries (or the basement) and connect to them both via internet (mutual TLS authentication) and VPN. Never had any reliability issues at provisioning or operating. I had an old AMT v2.1 machine that was a bit unreliable, needed to be manually powered on once in a while or the remote connection wouldn't work.

I wholeheartedly recommend Meshcommander [1] for this.

[0] https://developer.amd.com/tools-for-dmtf-dash/

[1] https://www.meshcommander.com/meshcommander

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#147

Post by lxe »

Oh man, the video latency woes. I've been going through the same motions trying to get minimal-latency stream-to-browser from an Amcrest (Dahua) IP camera. Their app and cloud services leaves much to be desired, so I tried to roll my own. They cameras send h264-encoded stream over rtmp but also through some kind of custom HTTP protocol which their browser app (requiring a scary binary native plugin) decodes, but it's challenging to reverse-engineer.

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#148

Post by TaylorGood »

dukoid wrote: post #37

I have given up on KVMs altogether and I am using the following approach now: - Most monitors have multiple digital inputs. Connect each computer to one of them - Use a USB switch keyboard and mouse - Before switching the USB switch, press the "lock screen" key combination and make sure locking the screen drops the video signal - After switching the USB switch, pressing shift should bring up the login dialog and re-a…

I just bought a PiBookPro (1) that I discovered on Twitter. It’s a laptop shell for RPi at $80. Kind of a wild backstory but hard to beat that $

1) Http://pibookpro.com

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#149

Post by Scaevolus »

mtlynch wrote: post #139
trm42 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you happen to have any idea, whether older RPIs like 1 or 2 could work for this fast enough? Have some of those laying around.

The video capture part should work, but I don't believe they support USB OTG, so they wouldn't be able to impersonate the keyboard. The official documentation[0] says all Pi devices have USB OTG, but I'm not sure if there's something else about the Pi 4 and Pi Zero W that allows USB gadget mode because I've never found anyone talking about using it before recent generations of Pi. This StackExchange answer says the A…

I'd expect the Pi Zero W to be fast enough to pass through the MJPEG stream and impersonate the keyboard, which should cut the cost by $20+ plus however much you save on not needing a fancy case.

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#150

Post by jolmg »

iron2disulfide wrote: post #143

This is cool. Any chance this would scale for many machines? I have a ~15 machine lab with no KVM setup right now, and could really use something like this if it works for a large number of devices.

I'm not really into electronics, but I imagine it wouldn't be that difficult to control the switch of a cheap KVM-switch with the GPIO pins of the RPi. One might even control multiple KVM-switches and daisy-chain them.
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