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Raspberry Pi KVMs Compared: TinyPilot and Pi-KVM v3

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: Raspberry Pi KVMs Compared: TinyPilot and Pi-KVM v3

#21

Post by mtlynch »

aberoham wrote: post #12
mtlynch wrote: post #8

TinyPilot founder here. Happy to answer any questions about TinyPilot or KVM over IPs.

When might you add the ATX feature? And do you listen to any of these Covenant Network radio stations that are now under TinyPilot’s control?

>When might you add the ATX feature?

I started work on that earlier this year, but I paused it to focus on PoE. That work is almost done, so I should be able to revisit ATX early next year.

The challenge is more on the UX side. It's not that hard to connect the Pi's GPIO pins to a motherboard's ATX pins, but I want to do it in a way so that it minimizes the amount of nitty-gritty pin-matching that the user has to do to connect it correctly.

>And do you listen to any of these Covenant Network radio stations that are now under TinyPilot’s control?

I don't think they'll reach me out here in Massachusetts, but if I'm in the midwest, I'll check 'em out.

Re: Raspberry Pi KVMs Compared: TinyPilot and Pi-KVM v3

#22

Post by jldugger »

mike-the-mikado wrote: post #18

In all this, I've not seen any mention of what "KVM" means...

"Keyboard, Video, Mouse" is what the acronym means for anyone wondering. Some IT workers will have one at their desk to switch a single set of monitors, keyboards and mice between multiple computers.

In this context, however, there's an additional expectation that these devices make this happen over a network, so that you can handle things like BIOS configuration fully remotely.

Re: Raspberry Pi KVMs Compared: TinyPilot and Pi-KVM v3

#23

Post by mdevaev »

mtlynch wrote: post #15
ActorNightly wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

General microcontroller questions if you don't mind. Lets say that I prototype something on dev board like something from Raspberry Pi, or ones from STM. Now I want to do a full product, (like the Tiny Pilot) with the microprocessor on a custom PCB board with just the necessary hardware. I understand that you have to design the schematic and then get the PCB layout done, but in terms of figuring out which pins to con…

TinyPilot runs on the Raspberry Pi 4B, so I haven't made my own custom board yet. The Voyager 2 will use custom PCBs for the HAT, but it will still be on top of the Pi. In the next iteration, I'd like to use the Pi Compute Module to migrate to my own custom board, but I'll need to work with an EE firm on that, since I'm not knowledgeable enough about EE for that kind of project.

By the way, does Voyager 2 have its own CSI bridge, or are you planning to mount a ready-made module from Geekworm or another company next to your HAT?

All existing CSI bridges that you have used so far have two very serious problems: they do not work with audio capture and due to HDMI backpowering, your Raspberry may stop booting until you physically disconnect the cable. Backpowering is especially common when using KVM switches and some HDMI converters.

Both of these problems are solved on v3 HAT, thanks to our CSI bridge design. Are you planning to solve these problems? Just interesting :)

Re: Raspberry Pi KVMs Compared: TinyPilot and Pi-KVM v3

#24

Post by deivid »

whalesalad wrote: post #2

I want one of these with an LTE modem on it so that I can drop it in the rack (non-datacenter) and remote-in regardless of the WAN condition.

i used to have one of those "hdmi over ethernet" devices which i captured with ffmpeg and used for his purpose. worked well, about 100ms latency for the capture/conversion

Re: Raspberry Pi KVMs Compared: TinyPilot and Pi-KVM v3

#25

Post by mtlynch »

mdevaev wrote: post #23
mtlynch wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TinyPilot runs on the Raspberry Pi 4B, so I haven't made my own custom board yet. The Voyager 2 will use custom PCBs for the HAT, but it will still be on top of the Pi. In the next iteration, I'd like to use the Pi Compute Module to migrate to my own custom board, but I'll need to work with an EE firm on that, since I'm not knowledgeable enough about EE for that kind of project.

By the way, does Voyager 2 have its own CSI bridge, or are you planning to mount a ready-made module from Geekworm or another company next to your HAT? All existing CSI bridges that you have used so far have two very serious problems: they do not work with audio capture and due to HDMI backpowering, your Raspberry may stop booting until you physically disconnect the cable. Backpowering is especially common when using…

Voyager 2 uses the C779 bridge. I've heard of failure to boot when users chain TinyPilot to the AIMOS KVM, but I've never gotten reports of this being a problem otherwise.

There's no audio support, and audio would be a nice-to-have, but it's not my top priority at the moment.

I'd like to integrate the TC358743 onto the HAT itself, but Toshiba's got a huge lead time on orders right now.

Re: Raspberry Pi KVMs Compared: TinyPilot and Pi-KVM v3

#27

Post by geerlingguy »

mdevaev wrote: post #7

PiKVM v3 HAT on Kickstarter right now. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mdevaev/pikvm-v3-hat // I'm the author ;)

Thanks for sending me the prototype to test; besides the labeling issue, and the fact that I accidentally fried one of the fan power cables (thought I'd burnt up the whole unit!) when I first put it together, it's already a great product. I hope you sell many more thousands, and keep improving the experience!

Re: Raspberry Pi KVMs Compared: TinyPilot and Pi-KVM v3

#28

Post by mongol »

mdevaev wrote: post #7

PiKVM v3 HAT on Kickstarter right now. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mdevaev/pikvm-v3-hat // I'm the author ;)

It says PiKVM has support to press power buttons etc. Does PC hardware also have means for health checks, to determine if this is needed? Could be a useful feature

Re: Raspberry Pi KVMs Compared: TinyPilot and Pi-KVM v3

#29

Post by louwrentius »

Maybe for some context - although Jeff Geerling does provide it too in his video - most 'server' motherboards have build-in KVM.

I will make the bet that build-in KVM is more responsive and those interfaces are now HTML5 based, so no nasty Java applet stuff.

Motherboards / servers with KVM will consume around 8-10 watt extra, even when powered off, as the KVM solution is basically a tiny computer running Linux + proprietary software, soldered on the motherboard.

Motherboards with KVM support also support IPMI or redfish for remote management. For instance: I use IPMI to force a physical machine to PXE-boot into an automated installer, to provision the OS.

Re: Raspberry Pi KVMs Compared: TinyPilot and Pi-KVM v3

#30

Post by mdevaev »

geerlingguy wrote: post #27
mdevaev wrote: post #7

PiKVM v3 HAT on Kickstarter right now. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mdevaev/pikvm-v3-hat // I'm the author ;)

Thanks for sending me the prototype to test; besides the labeling issue, and the fact that I accidentally fried one of the fan power cables (thought I'd burnt up the whole unit!) when I first put it together, it's already a great product. I hope you sell many more thousands, and keep improving the experience!

No problem! I'm glad for constructive comments, it will help v3 to become better. I hope PiKVM will be useful to you.
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