PiKVM HAT Turns a Raspberry Pi 4 Into a High-Performance HDMI Keyboard, Video, and Mouse Streamer

Clever add-on offers video and audio capture and streaming up to 1080p50 alongside USB keyboard, mouse, and even virtual CD-ROM support.

Gareth Halfacree
3 years agoProductivity

Software engineer Maxim Devaev and colleagues have launched a crowdfunding campaign for an add-on designed to turn a Raspberry Pi 4 into a network-connected keyboard, video, and mouse (KVM) device for servers and more: the PiKVM v3 HAT.

"PiKVM is a feature-rich, production grade, open source, Raspberry Pi based KVM over IP device," Devaev explains. "It will help you to manage servers or workstations remotely, whatever the state of the operating system or whether one is installed. PiKVM allows you to turn on/off or restart your computer, configure the UEFI/BIOS, and even reinstall the OS using the Virtual CD-ROM or Flash Drive."

"You can use your remote keyboard and mouse or PiKVM can simulate a keyboard, mouse, and a monitor, which are then presented in a web browser as if you were working on a remote system directly. It’s a true hardware-level access with no dependency on any remote ports, protocols or services!"

While the project started off software-only using off-the-shelf capture dongles, it has produced DIY designs for two Hardware Attached on Top (HAT) boards to better support its use — and it's a third generation board, building on six years of work, that Devaev and colleagues are looking to fund.

The board gives a Raspberry Pi the ability to capture HDMI video and audio — though the software for the latter is still in-progress, Devaev admits — and stream it to any web browser at 1080p50. It can act as a USB keyboard and mouse for a connected server, and also includes bootable virtual CD-ROM and flash drive emulation — along with an on-board ATX controller to manage the power supply on the target device.

The latest revision of the design also includes a real-time clock with rechargeable supercapacitor, a PWM-controlled fan to keep the Raspberry Pi cool, and support for external hardware via SPI, I2C, 1-Wire, and NeoPixel interfaces.

PiKVM isn't the only project looking to turn a Raspberry Pi into a low-cost remote management system: Michael Lynch developed TinyPilot for the very same purpose, primarily to avoid spending $300 on an iDRAC license from Dell or $500-1000 to buy an off-the-shelf KVM-over-IP device.

The PiKVM project is now funding on Kickstarter, priced at $145 for a single HAT with ATX adapter, USB Type-C bridge, two CSI-2 cables, jumper wires, and mounting hardware, to which the user will need to add a Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB or more of RAM, USB Type-C cable, HDMI cable, microSD, and power supply — plus a target device to control, of course.

Gareth Halfacree
Freelance journalist, technical author, hacker, tinkerer, erstwhile sysadmin. For hire: freelance@halfacree.co.uk.
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