If you want to support the author and purchase the whole kit, here it is https://tinypilotkvm.com/
(Edit: No affiliation. Just happy to see something like this for hacking :) )
Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi
231–240 of 284 posts
Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi
#232I got a cheap Lantronix Spider KVM from eBay, it works quite well. Mine was an older VGA model but you can use it with a DP or HDMI to VGA adapter.
I also have a couple of Lantronix Spiders. I use them at remote client sites.
Some of the models have video-passthrough, which is an awesome feature. The ability to redirect an SMB share or local disk image to an emulated disk over the network is also a great feature for installing an OS.
I recently had seen some article on CNX about those cheap USB video adapters and wondered about doing something like this to replace these old Spiders.
There is definitely a market for a low-cost product here. It doesn't have to be perfect. As the article highlights, the pricing for this kind of product is just stupid.
Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
If this just requires USB and HDMI, it should theoretically work identically a for Mac Mini or even something like a Fire TV, yes? Is there an upper limit on resolution and frame rate for the dongle?
> If this just requires USB and HDMI, it should theoretically work identically a for Mac Mini or even something like a Fire TV, yes? I believe so, but with the caveat that I haven't tested it. Does Fire TV take USB keyboard input? I have successfully captured video from a Roku Premiere[0], even though it's HDCP protected. The LKV373A couldn't capture anything out of it, but the $11 dongle did just fine. But that was…
I have a Fire TV brick (not stick) and it has a USB A port that I've successfully used with a mouse at least. I don't have a keyboard handy to test.
Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi
#234You could also probably add power/reset functionality by hacking something like this: https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Wireless-Compu... Or possibly just wiring up a transistor to the power button pin (not sure if it sources or sinks) between motherboard and the Pi, and just hold it high until it boots.
Just be careful with that - it doesn't look like it's encrypted, so you could easily have random people resetting your server or you might even be opening your neighbours garage door ;)
Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah that's true. I stopped thinking about the Pi Zero W early in the project because I assumed it would choke on video encoding. When I discovered that the HDMI dongle was doing the heavy lifting, I forgot to revisit that assumption. I'm going to order an USB to micro-USB adaptor to test it out because it would slim things down significantly.
Woops, forgot the major issue-- the Pi Zero only has one USB port (the other is just for power), so you couldn't get video frames in at the same time as you pretended to be a keyboard.
The Pi Zero's power port is actually a USB OTG port. I used it in my precursor project to forward keystrokes:
Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi
#236Hey OP, I was reading your linked HomeLab article and you mentioned you'd rather have gotten a mobo with integrated GPUs next time. Actually, motherboards do not include integrated graphics, it's all in the CPU/APU. The mobo you linked would not provide graphics either. AMD unfortunately does not have a high end APU released to consumers right now (there are some 4000 series, but only to OEMs I believe). However, for…
I have MSI 450 MITX board and a Ryzen 3600 that is doing NAS/homeserver duty and it refused to POST without a GPU plugged in. Given its MITX and it only has a single slot needing it for PCI-E is a real pain, I intended to use it for SATA ports so it hurt my plans quite a bit. Its motherboard dependent but its definitely something to check with AMD Ryzen motherboards.
Hm, I guess I lucked out then. I bought the cheapest motherboard I could find (at the time) for my 3600, an ASRock B450M Pro4. It makes a bunch of annoying beeps, but doesn't stop booting.
Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi
#237I respect this effort, I think it's a great accomplishment. I think most people are better off building their own home (lab) server with a motherboard that supports IPMI (KVM over IP) natively. Supermicro (only brand I've experience with) or other brands that build server motherboards all include IPMI with HTML5 support. Doing so will save you a lot of trouble. Maybe you may not be able to run the kind of hardware yo…
So the recent Supermicros have a HTML5 iKVM, but mine originally came with a Java-only thing. When I had to send my box away to get repaired (Intel C2000 bug) it magically came back with a newer firmware that wasn't listed on their site and supported HTML5. I haven't been able to get remote ISOs working with the new interface, though.
At my last job, some of the Supermicro servers I worked with needed their SSD firmware updated. The hosting company's firmware update tool didn't actually update the SSD firmware (ugh) and it took forever, so I started doing the updates with remote ISOs, but some of the hosts had gone through the hosting company's tool which sometimes updated the IPMI firmware even though I didn't tell it to (double ugh). For those, I ended up loading the ISOs via PXELINUX's ISO loader. Kind of gross, but it got the job done -- might be an option for you?
Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi
#238RaspberryIPMI
Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi
#239dell 2162ds are $60 each used on ebay for 16 ports not including pods
Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi
#240Author here. Happy to answer any questions or take any feedback about this post.
I was wondering if you could try my usb-ip software for the hdmi dongle. https://www.virtualhere.com (ill give you a license key) i think this is quite useful for my customers and its something i was looking for. Can you pass the dongle directly through to your pc (no need for intermediate software) and see what the performance is like.