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Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

(mtlynch.io)
756 points mtlynch | 5 comments | 23 Jul 20 13:56 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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iron2disulfide ◴[23 Jul 20 19:15 UTC] No.23931135[source]▶
This is cool. Any chance this would scale for many machines? I have a ~15 machine lab with no KVM setup right now, and could really use something like this if it works for a large number of devices.
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jolmg ◴[23 Jul 20 19:38 UTC] No.23931390[source]▶
I'm not really into electronics, but I imagine it wouldn't be that difficult to control the switch of a cheap KVM-switch with the GPIO pins of the RPi. One might even control multiple KVM-switches and daisy-chain them.
replies(1): >>23931767 #
1. iron2disulfide ◴[23 Jul 20 20:16 UTC] No.23931767[source]▶
Haha, I am kind of the opposite: I work on electronics, and am not much of a sys admin. One of the problems I've run into is that I haven't found a single switch solution with enough connections. I could build a multi-level multiplexer with many switches, but that's too much effort. If TinyPilot can support multiple KVM-over-IP connections, it would be a perfect fit for me.
replies(1): >>23933711 #
2. jolmg ◴[23 Jul 20 22:59 UTC] No.23933711[source]▶
> If TinyPilot can support multiple KVM-over-IP connections, it would be a perfect fit for me.

RPis only have 1 OTG port, though. A device that could get it to handle more machines with that single port would functionally be a KVM-switch. I don't think there's a way around that, at least not one that'd be cheaper or more practical.

replies(1): >>23941877 #
3. tjoff ◴[24 Jul 20 17:05 UTC] No.23941877[source]▶
Couldn't you just connect a usb-hub?
replies(1): >>23944573 #
4. jolmg ◴[24 Jul 20 21:18 UTC] No.23944573{3}[source]▶
I don't think there are usb-hubs that can work with the idea of one slave to multiple masters. Do you know of a USB hub that would work to connect one keyboard to multiple computers? That'd simply be against USB protocol. KVM switches are the devices that allow you to connect one slave to multiple masters by giving you a control of what master the slave should engage with at any one time.
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5. tjoff ◴[25 Jul 20 10:37 UTC] No.23948119{4}[source]▶
Yeah, my bad, I thought of another usecase.