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

(mtlynch.io)
756 points mtlynch | 2 comments | 23 Jul 20 13:56 UTC | HN request time: 0.404s | source
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mtlynch ◴[23 Jul 20 14:11 UTC] No.23927535[source]▶
Author here. Happy to answer any questions or take any feedback about this post.
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ghaberek ◴[23 Jul 20 15:06 UTC] No.23928102[source]▶
Would a Pi Zero W work for this, or do you need a full-size Pi 4? I would think that with the HDMI dongle doing the hardware MJPEG encoding, a Pi Zero might suffice. It'd be really neat to A) bring the cost down another $30 and B) be able to package everything into a tiny 3D printed case.
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Nexxxeh ◴[23 Jul 20 21:47 UTC] No.23932694[source]▶
The immediate issue would be the Pi Zero W only has one usable (micro)USB port, the other port is Power In only. If you run it for OTG, you can't use it for the dongle.

There would be ways around this though, perhaps using a cheap microcontroller for the USB HID stuff.

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1. ghaberek ◴[23 Jul 20 21:53 UTC] No.23932779[source]▶
Yeah I forgot that only one of the USB ports actually does data. I guess you could use a Teensy that interfaces through the GPIO pins and pretends to be the keyboard and mouse.
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2. Nexxxeh ◴[23 Jul 20 22:09 UTC] No.23933032[source]▶
That's what I'm thinking, or worst case, one that communicated via USB to TTL adaptors. Or an ESP-based board that connects over WiFi. Or BT-enabled board.

Combined with a HDMI switch, you could then control multiple devices with just one Pi+Cap device.

I've been looking to do something similar for a while, albeit possibly with Windows as that's where I've (very rusty Delphi) programming experience.