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DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

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Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#41

Post by PaulWaldman »

maxlin wrote: post #36

I once wanted to build one like this, but for console devkits. That situation was and went, but I did end up wanting to have the same for all windows machines at work and home (Unity dev, so workstations, test runners even servers are desktop windows machines). My solution was: -BIOS: auto-power on when power is connected -Smart power plugs on important computers -AnyDesk for software on all machines, with unattended…

I went with a similar setup and the only thing I'd add to your list is using multiple NICs and having one dedicated for remote management.

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#43

Post by deegles »

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…

You could do it with a 4 channel mixer and USB audio devices hooked up to one Bluetooth transmitter... I don't know about latency though and good luck with the cable management!

Rolls MX51S Mini Mix 2 Four-Channel Mixer https://a.co/d/48XLqLi

USB to RCA https://a.co/d/iam01Xj

Bluetooth 5.0 Transmitter 3-in-1 https://a.co/d/47TuAMn

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#44

Post by mike_d »

hattmall wrote: post #20
comprambler wrote: post #11

Used Raritans are pretty cheap on ebay. The dongles are even cheaper.

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?

There is a great video from Level 1 Techs where he explains why he started making KVMs and why it is an extremely hard problem. (Edit: I can't seem to find the video now, it might have been on another channel, but I'll keep looking)

The TLDR is that manufactures don't follow specs as closely as you'd think, and as a KVM you have to handle the bugs of thousands of different manufactures for both upstream and downstream devices.

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#46

Post by adamzegelin »

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…

Probably do-able using Pipewire/Pulseaudio.

I just tried, and I'm able to pair both my Macbook Pro and iPhone to my Linux desktop PC. The PC has Kensington Bluetooth USB dongle. Both the MBP and iPhone can simultaneously play audio over Bluetooth and I can route the incoming audio to a pair of wired headphones. The volume of each stream is independently adjustable via `pavucontrol`.

I also tried pairing a bluetooth headset, but the audio was choppy. Maybe too much bandwidth for 3 devices streaming audio at once? Maybe another dongle would work?

Note that at one point I was experimenting with receiving BT audio on my PC. I can't remember the exact set of configuration changes needed to make this work (if any -- it might've worked out of the box). But the stack is BlueZ + Pipewire on Archlinux.

Pipewire (and Pulse) have a lot of modules and config knobs. Might be possible to get auto-switch working too. They also expose a D-Bus interface, so control from some sort of e.g. Python webapp from your phone is likely.

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#47

Post by mbrameld »

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).

Best value I've found is a just a cheap USB switcher for the keyboard and mouse and use the monitor input switch for video. Might not work for all use cases, but if you just have 2 computers you want to switch between it works pretty well.

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#48

Post by universa1 »

mbrameld wrote: post #47
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).

Best value I've found is a just a cheap USB switcher for the keyboard and mouse and use the monitor input switch for video. Might not work for all use cases, but if you just have 2 computers you want to switch between it works pretty well.

Adding to this: search for haimgel/Display-Switch[1] on GitHub, which can switch monitor inputs using DDC commands on USB connect/disconnect events. Poor man's KVM :-)

[1] https://github.com/haimgel/display-switch

Re: DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi

#49

Post by numpad0 »

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.

I wonder if the cost can be cut by replacing computer part with ESP32 at the cost of losing .iso mount and video input quality, and at the same time take out SD card anxiety. The only problem is difficulty of getting framebuffer cheaply, I think.
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