mdevaev

> Why didn't you tell me three years ago

You didn't ask :P

> Yeah, Ansible was a huge mistake.

I have some experience operating large clusters and distributing software, and these damn things like Ansible have never led us to anything good. So either packages or the whole chroot (docker, whatever).

In fact, I'm a fan of the good old time-tested solutions. You know, Makefiles, packages, maximum integration with native OS tools. A lot can be done with simple tools, and although the start will be difficult, the support will be simple.

> there's ton of space for both of us to win back market share from the huge enterprise players

Ofc. In addition, users clearly benefit from competition.

Well, I don't know what you consider a short term, but PiKVM feels pretty good throughout its existence, and it has been for several years. It seems that we have set priorities differently at the start. My policy has always been that throughout the entire lifecycle of the device, the user must be sure of its security. In particular, this means that the user must receive updates. There is nothing more important than security when it comes to equipment, and I hate when a device turns into a unsafe brick after a few years. That's why we put it into the business model even before the first Kickstarter.

Another thing that made it possible to do this is the automation of all routine processes, such as testing and package builds. In PiKVM, the first component that was written was a build system to solve this issue once and for all. In this vein, I made a huge contribution to the "pre-launch" before flying. BTW, to be honest, I was somewhat surprised that you used Ansible instead of packages, it seems that this caused you a giant overhead for support.

Of course, in the future we plan to provide some paid services, but this does not concern the regular OS and access to updates at all, they should remain free.

You are legend! // PiKVM's dev :)

PiKVM can do this. We have developed a cloud-like platform that is already being tested, and we plan to launch it before the new year's release.

Technical details here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mdevaev/pikvm-v4/posts/...

If you REALLY want to try it and you have PiKVM, you can contact us at Discord (https://discord.gg/bpmXfz5) and we will give you access to the beta version.

PiKVM founder here :)

This project is a full-time job for an entire development and support team, and it's a way to keep the software open. For this money you get excellent hardware, software without any restrictions and a huge number of features. We also have a production-grade support: if you find a bug, it will be fixed quickly, and if the device fails due to a defect, we will quickly replace it.

In fact, we have developed and support all the key components of the KVM stack for Linux - the video server, kernel patches, and so on, which is also used by our competitors, like TinyPilot. But unlike them, we don't impose any licensing restrictions - for example, buying TinyPilot you find yourself bound by a subscription, and if you stop paying, your OS will no longer receive updates. With PiKVM, you don't need to do this - the device is yours forever, with updates until the end of time.

In addition, the production of large quantities of iron is quite expensive. Each device must be assembled, tested, packaged, and so on. When you do some small project, you can do it yourself, but in a large batch it inevitably has to be delegated to the factory, where each operation costs a certain amount of money.

In summary, that's where the price comes from: software, support, development, people.

PiKVM is a remote management device for a workstation and a server at the hardware level. It captures an image from HDMI and emulates a USB keyboard, mouse and mass storage to support bootable disks, and allows you to control the host from the browser. The new hardware revision is based on Raspberry Pi CM4, supports 1920x1080@60Hz and uses WebRTC/H.264 for video. There are many other technical details on KS.

It's open source, but not open hardware. All the code is completely free, so closed hardware is our way of monetization to continue development.

This is done by reading the status of the power LED of the PC.

No problem! I'm glad for constructive comments, it will help v3 to become better. I hope PiKVM will be useful to you.

By the way, does Voyager 2 have its own CSI bridge, or are you planning to mount a ready-made module from Geekworm or another company next to your HAT?

All existing CSI bridges that you have used so far have two very serious problems: they do not work with audio capture and due to HDMI backpowering, your Raspberry may stop booting until you physically disconnect the cable. Backpowering is especially common when using KVM switches and some HDMI converters.

Both of these problems are solved on v3 HAT, thanks to our CSI bridge design. Are you planning to solve these problems? Just interesting :)

Thanks! I'm sure you'll like it.

PiKVM v3 HAT on Kickstarter right now. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mdevaev/pikvm-v3-hat

// I'm the author ;)

I am the original author of the software that helped TinyPilot achieve this (MJPEG uStreamer) and I wrote it specifically for Pi-KVM :)

Pi-KVM can do all the same, and it also supports IPMI, VNC, and Mass Storage Device emulation. The only difficulty is that for the USB dongle to work, you need to add a couple of options to the config, because it's not yet supported out of the box. Everything else will work on its own.