DIY Pi-KVM guide, between $30 and $100 for parts

Features

  • Supported Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4 and ZeroW;
  • FullHD video using advanced HDMI-to-CSI bridge or USB dongle;
  • Extra low 100ms video latency (for CSI bridge);
  • Bootable Virtual CD-ROM and Flash Drive;
  • USB Keyboard and mouse (with leds and the wheel), PS/2 keyboard, Bluetooth HID;
  • Control the server power using ATX functions;
  • Access via Web UI or VNC;
  • Ability to use IPMI BMC, IPMI SoL, Redfish and Wake-on-LAN to control the server;
  • The ready-made OS with read-only filesystem;
  • Extensible authorization and SSL encryption;
  • Health monitoring of the Pi;
  • Control GPIO ports and USB relays;
  • It only costs between $30 and $100 for parts!
  • 100% Open Source!

Non-DIY Pi Hat version available for preorder soon:

Pi-KVM

Review:

2 Likes

This is awesome!! I’ve had nothing but poor luck with any commercial KVM solutions in the past.

There’s a huge range of quality in KVM solutions (and video modes changing can be a real nightmare, if you “cheap out”), but I’m really impressed with the “HDMI-to-CSI bridge” hardware solution, which handles video resolution changes the best.

Gee willikers! The Geekworm “HDMI to CSI-2” dongles are all sold out at Amazon!! :neutral_face: AliExpress still has an equivalent, at present.

I’m glad that they are creating a custom HAT for this. Granted it actually works as claimed, it will pretty much dominate the KVM world, IMHO.

BTW: for how awesome this project is, I think they deserve way more patronage. Like every mobo manufacturer (who doesn’t already have products which integrate in some kind of ILO solution) should be dumping wheelbarrows full of money on them. :smiley:

2 Likes

Follow up video.

  • Remotely accessing a KVM switch attached to the Pi so you can control multiple computers with one Pi.

  • The developer is working on audio passthrough

  • Non-DIY Pi Hat:

    • Board prototypes coming in 3 weeks
    • Product activity may begin January

2 Likes

I love how this project is so all-out to get every conceivable aspect of KVM and ILO goodness.

Ingesting audio from the server as well? I suppose the HDMI-to-CSI conversion can’t bring the audio within the HDMI along with it, as CSI would be video-only, right? Personally, audio isn’t very important to me, when it comes to KVM.

I’m guessing there should be a way to split the audio out of the HDMI signal prior to feeding it into CSI.

I don’t see audio mentioned on the HDMI pinout so it seems a bit more involved than redirecting some pins.

AFAIK, the audio is interleaved with the video signal, using ethernet packets. Yes, ethernet packets for separate audio and video within the HDMI!

1 Like

Prototype update:

1 Like

Installation on Raspberry Pi Zero and general image compiling/writing instructions:

The time has come!

Kickstarter if you want a pre-assembled Pi-KVM v3 for $145:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mdevaev/pikvm-v3-hat?ref=qtvabe&cmid=5e58e2fb-102c-47ec-9a48-e6ef9ab6e386

Tiny Pilot vs Pi KVM v3