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DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

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Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#71

Post by fensgrim »

mtlynch wrote: post #23
progbits wrote: post #9

I like this project but the hardware seems quite overpriced at $300+. Similar for tinypilotkvm.com. In the past I've considered making and selling a cheaper version. Aside from lack of time (or motivation), one thing which discouraged me is that I would feel bad "undercutting" someone selling open hardware.

TinyPilot founder here. I understand the feedback about the price. When I created the original TinyPilot,[0] I wanted a low-priced alternative to the $600 KVM over IP options I was seeing, and now I sell my devices for $400-500/unit. The thing that's tough about selling hardware is that it seems easy to produce a few units cheaply, but creating a sustainable business for it, the costs add up. You have to fulfill orde…

> provide support when the customer has trouble understanding how to connect to a device on their local network.

Is it possible to order current revision of TinyPilot for someone in a remote location and connect to it on arrival through some managed service - without going through all the hoops of helping end user with setting up some form of reverse shell (e.g. either meshcentral or openvpn/wireguard for webinterface)?

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#72

Post by mtlynch »

progbits wrote: post #63
mtlynch wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TinyPilot founder here. I understand the feedback about the price. When I created the original TinyPilot,[0] I wanted a low-priced alternative to the $600 KVM over IP options I was seeing, and now I sell my devices for $400-500/unit. The thing that's tough about selling hardware is that it seems easy to produce a few units cheaply, but creating a sustainable business for it, the costs add up. You have to fulfill orde…

Hey, thanks for commenting. I'm a big fan of your transparency and don't get me wrong, I like the product and the price is certainly better than the "enterprise" gear. But I personally don't care about support, the enclosure can be 3d printed or some cheap plastic box, if sold as DIY kit it would save assembly costs and avoid need for certification and so on. I think there is a small market for homelabers like myself…

>But I personally don't care about support, the enclosure can be 3d printed or some cheap plastic box, if sold as DIY kit it would save assembly costs and avoid need for certification and so on. I think there is a small market for homelabers like myself who would pay maybe $100-150 for a simpler product.

We used to sell both the pre-made units and a $190 DIY kit. Surprisingly, when I tried removing the DIY kits, sales jumped by 50%. And it wasn't just higher revenue because people were buying the more expensive product - order volume increased too.[0]

My theory is that when we asked customers if they wanted to pay more for a pre-made version, some of them stopped to think about which version they wanted and then just never returned. So, when we simplified to just one product, it eliminated friction in the buying process.

With the Pi 4 shortage the past few years, using our limited Pi 4 supply for DIY kits instead of our pre-made product would be a terrible move. We're expecting the shortage to be over in the next few months, but even if there was a way for me to sell an extra 50 units per month at a $50 profit, selling a second product line and managing it end-to-end is so complicated that it wouldn't be worth the extra $2.5k/month. And that $2.5k/month is before chargebacks, hiring people to assemble and fulfill the kits, etc.

We do still work to serve DIY customers and make sure our software stays compatible with users who just use off-the-shelf parts. And we still sell a power splitter,[1] as it's the one thing you can't really buy off the shelf from other vendors. We're able to do that because they cost about $10/unit to make, so we can make a year's worth in a week and just ship them to our warehouse. But doing that with a whole kit would be way more costly.

[0] https://mtlynch.io/retrospectives/2021/12/#reducing-to-a-sin...

[1] https://tinypilotkvm.com/product/tinypilot-power-connector

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#73

Post by mtlynch »

fensgrim wrote: post #71
mtlynch wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TinyPilot founder here. I understand the feedback about the price. When I created the original TinyPilot,[0] I wanted a low-priced alternative to the $600 KVM over IP options I was seeing, and now I sell my devices for $400-500/unit. The thing that's tough about selling hardware is that it seems easy to produce a few units cheaply, but creating a sustainable business for it, the costs add up. You have to fulfill orde…

> provide support when the customer has trouble understanding how to connect to a device on their local network. Is it possible to order current revision of TinyPilot for someone in a remote location and connect to it on arrival through some managed service - without going through all the hoops of helping end user with setting up some form of reverse shell (e.g. either meshcentral or openvpn/wireguard for webinterfac…

No, unfortunately that's not something we offer.

Customers could do that on their end, but they'd have to buy the device from us, configure it for remote access,[0] and then forward the device to the final destination.

[0] https://tinypilotkvm.com/faq/cloud-access

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#74

Post by magixx »

pizza wrote: post #13

Would love a bluetooth muxer via rpi. Have a few devices that keep conflicting with one another and acquiring the connection to my bluetooth headset. I have to go through the hassle of navigating to the offending device's bluetooth settings, disconnect it, go to my desired device's settings (which, although it reports it is connected, doesn't actually produce any sound), disconnect it, then reconnect it. Each time. I…

I think the reverse of this kind of exists in the from of Bluetooth to 3.5mm receivers. The one I have and most I've seen support two connections so I can have both PC and laptop output sound on some speakers. You could probably chain a multi input receiver to a single output transmitter via 3.5mm to your Bluetooth headphones and just toggle connections on the receiver to select the device you want your headphones to use.

The bad news is the latency which is about 200ms regularly and 40ms with APT Low Latency or 80ms with APT Adaptive. If you go BT > BT RX > BT TX > BT this might be doubled. Both devices will also need to support the same codes and only newer devices support APT Adaptive.

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#75

Post by comprambler »

mcpherrinm wrote: post #24
hattmall wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain what all would be needed to make a similar setup? I see the dongles for ~30 but does it need to be in a location with another piece of hardware or what?

You buy a KVM device like the raritan kxiii. That’s a rack-mount unit that’ll support a bunch of connected devices. For each connected device you need a dongle, which is what will plug into the display and usb ports of the server.

Correct, the dongles connect via ethernet cables (not ip protocol) to the raritan unit. Then you access the raritan via IP to access the dongle outputs.

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#76

Post by bzmrgonz »

mtlynch wrote: post #23
progbits wrote: post #9

I like this project but the hardware seems quite overpriced at $300+. Similar for tinypilotkvm.com. In the past I've considered making and selling a cheaper version. Aside from lack of time (or motivation), one thing which discouraged me is that I would feel bad "undercutting" someone selling open hardware.

TinyPilot founder here. I understand the feedback about the price. When I created the original TinyPilot,[0] I wanted a low-priced alternative to the $600 KVM over IP options I was seeing, and now I sell my devices for $400-500/unit. The thing that's tough about selling hardware is that it seems easy to produce a few units cheaply, but creating a sustainable business for it, the costs add up. You have to fulfill orde…

Well said Mr. Founder. I think the best that can be wished for, would be the pi-hat/screws/case/etc plus a howto & code. perhaps you could explore the ce vs. pro version (ce being dated, less feature rich than pro. By getting your tech in the hands of thinkerers/homelab-builders, you will ensure once they get into the enterprise, they willa dvocate for paid products from you.

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#77

Post by nirav72 »

RockRobotRock wrote: post #54
nirav72 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which module/case did you get? I saw a bunch of them sold as BliKVM. Is that it?

Geekworm's KVM kits are what I got.

yeah, I saw those on amazon. Not sure how well they worked compared to the official PikVM board/kit. I might buy the CSI-HDMI adapter from Geekworm and try it out on a Pi4.

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#78

Post by theodric »

MaKey wrote: post #69
theodric wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roll your own. I've got one running PiKVM software on a Pi Zero 2W with an AliExpress HDMI-CSI board connected, and the whole thing bundled together with kapton tape and hanging off the USB port on a headless system. I had to mask off one pin on one of the two microUSB cables. I think I'm into it for about €50 including the Pi0. The instructions are/were on their website.

Do you have a link?

It's at the article link. Directly in the README.md: search for the text "HDMI to CSI-2 bridge based on TC358743"

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#79

Post by jjeaff »

dr_kiszonka wrote: post #45

I am curious if there are any decent and very affordable regular KVMs (to use locally, not over IP). The cheapest one I found for a three monitor DP setup was ~$500 (Star Tech).

Just a regular KVM? You can get them all day for $20-$30 on amazon. I use this $30 one for up to 4 systems.

https://a.co/d/eDtP3BW

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#80

Post by hackcasual »

mouth wrote: post #34
hackcasual wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

V4 is a massive improvement in lag. The CM4 doubles the camera interface bandwidth, which was the bottle neck.

How much has video lag improved?

I tested it out by playing dark souls 3, beating the first boss
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