More videos with your dad! Not only is it nice to see father-son activity time, but he's a hoot! Come for the interesting topics, stay for the great personalities!
I was enraptured to see the "back office" of my favorite radio system family for Catholic radio. Thank you for all that you do to support Covenant Radio.
The DataVac Electric Duster is a darn good piece of kit. It cost about $109 and beat the hell out of any caned air, or air compressor I have ever dealt with.
Still better than coming back after someone filled in for you to find that they've messed up all your carefully chosen settings! Why is it that so many stations have more presenters and admin staff than they need, but only one engineer?
I have the kickstarter PiKVM V3 coupled with regular RaspberyPi 4 4G ram board. Love the open source of PiKVM as you can tailor it to add additional functions with it. My next challenge is to control a 4 or 8 port hardware KVM with it. Haven't bought one yet as I am still researching it.
If they make a POE version I'm buying a few for sure, would be nice to have in your bag when out at customers where you have to run around. Would mean you could just put this on the server room and connect to it with your laptop while going around.
Jeff, this is awesome! I just found this channel after watching you for years! I love to see you working with your dad, and im interested in learning how they use computers at the radio station
What a time to be alive, one can build open source actually good KVM, an essential tool for the last fortress of own useful pastime, homelab, except one just not simply walk into Mordor and buy unobtanium Pi boards...
Man I so wish I new about this a few months ago I paid over 500 dollars for the adderLink IPEPS KVM over IP. Can't wait to see more content from you guys
set h264, 3000 kbps, & 25fps for better response & better clarity. there's currently no way to set a default though so a pikvm reboot reverts it. use nomachine on the pc as your daily remote driver as that has a better video encoder response give it a go. i like to mount the pikvm inside a spare 3.5 drive cage of the pc if used as 1 to 1 set & run a male/female patch lead inside
If the manufacturer already supplies tools (which would make more sense as an additional option than enclosing it with every device, because I think whoever needs such a device usually needs several), then they should also pack a few strips of Velcro to attach the box to the PC - not necessarily pretty, but easy.
@@SirFrag32 I have a few strips of industrial Velcro (no off brand stuff) that has stuck for about 8 years and counting around my office. That stuff's crazy. But yeah, getting it off can be a huge pain. Usually metal surfaces aren't too bad, but say goodbye to wood or fabric-like surfaces!
I don't like not having to consume the normal hdmi, power button, reset button and lights on the case when this is installed. It minimally needs Y cable attachments (or equivalent) for these. Also moving the system after it's installed means you have additional external wires and an external box to have to handle. For a more professional management solution I much prefer an internally mounted solution that keeps most the wires hidden and protected, and where after configuration the setup of the KVM follows the machine, not the rack position, such that it works more like HP Lights-Out; perhaps mounted in a spare 3.5" bay or expansion card slot for convenience. Just for long term maintenance and flexibility reasons the external case design shouldn't be the default, it should be the exception.
If you want a professional solution, you'd buy either an actual IP KVM, or you'd but workstation class hardware with out of band management like iDRAC built in. This is obviously intended to be DIY and home-user class.
I was experimenting recently with Raspberry 4 power supply. It turns out that Raspberry kind of "likes" to have about 5.3-5.4 Volts on its input capacitor to not complain about power at all. But it never utilizes 3 Amps, not even close. And considering loses in different power cords I needed up to 6.2 Volts on PS output to achieve 5.3 on capacitor. So if you're using regular power supply with no "smart" features you rather need a multimeter to check real supplied voltage than "magic" 3 Amp PS.
Like father like son. Good job guys. Nice video, instant subscribe, because hey, it's Jeff Geerling and his dad. Good to know that BLiKVM is an option for when one is on 'vacation' 😂
I didn't realize this was a new channel until the end. Time to like, subscribe, share, and comment for traction =P I love the content. Keep up the great work.
I was thinking seeing the USB key tag looks familiar, if it was BSI Simian automation. Not the latest, greatest, but like the old Ford Maverick sedan of the ‘70’s, did the job.
Wish these kinds of boards came with (or even the option of coming with) the Pi, as they are impossible to get up here in Canada. I do need to set up a better KVM setup in my server room.
I work in the pro AV industry. I wish for this type of product, with parsec latency, and on the go encoder optimisation for sending HDMI signals around a home via the home network.
Cool if on a tight budget but then the pi is an additional point of failure in the remote access chain. If you've got minimally more budget it would make more sense to build systems that may require remote access before the OS loads on a platform that includes native lights out management.
Something like IPMI would be ideal, but in practice many SMBs don't have the budget for true 'server' hardware (especially nonprofits like the radio station in this video), and even if they do, many server vendors offer lackluster long term support for their remote management interfaces (and many wind up with major security holes after a few years!). That said, if you have the budget for newer and supported hardware with built-in remote management, it's definitely preferable to tacking on a separate KVM on each server.
@@GeerlingEngineering I'm thinking of something like an HP microserver with a slot for an optional ILO card. That platform is not a budget buster by any stretch.
Dang! This will go great for my home server while does have DRAC, but it only supports like Windows 98 or something ... Thanks for demoing and sharing this RPi project!
Well we get to see pops as an older gentleman after seeing him riding you on a bike when you were a toddler. Good episode Jeff. BTW, I am probably closer to your dad’s age.
Looks like a really nice solution. PoE would be wonderful and I'd have bought it already before commenting if it had that, but I might wait and see if they produce a PoE version as it is.
I am loving my PiKVM.. I got the kickstarter version. One thing I wish I could do, but haven't found a way, is to switch my keyboard controlled hardware KVM.. In otherwords, I have 4 PCs hooked to a cheap KVM, then the PIKVM hooked to that. I want the PIKVM to be able to press "CTRL-CTRL-1-ENTER" for example, so that the hardware KVM it's attached to will switch to another computer. Obviously to do this, I'm going to have to give up the physical ATX power control and monitoring since there's only one plug, but I'm OK with that. The problem is, being a web-based client, I haven't found a way to send just a "ctrl" press and release.. I could send "Ctrl-C" but not just a press/release CTRL.. If you know of a way, through the PiKVM software, I'd love to hear about it. In the meantime, I've been experimenting with using some kind of ESP or arduino as a separate HID that I can connect to the KVM separately to simulate those other keypresses. I dont have anything solved yet, so curious if anyone else is interested or has solved this problem?
I'd like something like this as a backup and in case main OS does not boot while I'm traveling. Serial console would be awesome for Linux, and for Windows, virtual keyboard/mouse/video would be great. However, both my Linux and Windows installation are SSHable and have remote desktop software installed for good measure; and if they lock up, they're in a smart power outlet that I can powercycle. Machine is configured to power on when getting power from mains, but also takes in wake-on-LAN packets. Same goes for my NAS. Things can go wrong, but this has mostly worked out well enough. What I'd suggest if you have a 24/7 operation is to have remote monitoring and alerting. You don't use your PiKVM regularly: you should likely monitor that it's actually on, lest you get surprised at it crashing just that one time when you need it. Also, have a second (or even third!) machine you can always remote in, and the infrastructure to fail your workload over to it. All I'm saying (monitoring, replicas, failovers) are common in medium and large scale operations, especially "cloud".
You need one of those for every single computer you want to use with KVM. Compare this to the ready made KVM switches and add to this that not all of my servers have HDMI, some come with display port in various forms and flavours. Could become pretty expensive!
You can put one in front of a multi-port KVM switcher that uses keyboard shortcuts for switching, though you'd still only be able to control ATX functionality of one computer.
Great content! How about getting your dad to talk about those Axial iQ Broadcast consoles in the studio! Better yet, how about getting the Axial IP Livewire driver running on a Raspberry Pi to use as an audio source or for a backfeed setup!
Sounds like an interesting idea for a future video! The changeover from analog to IP audio made for quite a revolution in the studio space. I remember helping my dad pull cables for studios back in the 80s and 90s... and nowadays it's just a few Cat5e or Cat6 cables! (Heck, some places are probably going with fiber now...).
@@JeffGeerling Awesome! I can get you in contact with Kirk at Telos/Axia...unless your dad already deals with him. Kirk is also a media savvy tech geek (the type that runs an Asterisk PBX at home) ...so i'm sure he would love to see a project like that.
I think OTG is kinda mislabeled here as OTG is when a normally guest device (such as a phone) can also turn itself into the host. this is more like reverse OTG.
Yeah, it's a slight bit of a misnomer, but the port is labeled according to it's Pi-side functionality. It might be more end-user friendly (for those less familiar with the Pi's internals) to call it 'USB in' (even if that's technically not what it is, that's what it's used for).
Honestly, an old battery leaf blower works great to dust out the computers. that's what I've been using. (I mean obviously outside but you're going outside anyway)
I enjoyed this. As a security side note, please don't just expose an IP KVM to the internet. I'm sure you've thought of or considered this, but please try to keep that behind something like a VPN or SSH tunnel. Key based authentication SSH preferred if you use SSH tunnel. It might sound silly, but in an emergency, people sometimes get their updates from radio stations. (emergency broadcast system, and so on.) So although it may sound a bit paranoid, a radio station like that can still be some rather critical infrastructure. Also, I appreciate the jump cuts past the logins and passwords. 👍
The more computers controlled by one remote computer the more chance of rebooting or working on the wrong one. Very large server rooms the servers are named the same but with different numbers such as pi01, pi02 pi03 etc and when you are tired in the middle of night can mistake pi11 for pi01.. The next morning inquiry or wash up as to what happened depends on how important the sever was that was wrongly taken down.
Too bad they did not add a passthrough hdmi port... the rtc battery is a fantastic feature, you could potentially set alarms to turn off or on the computer at a given date no need to have ntp set up
@20:15 "It actually does split the signal" I assume this means that the front panel power / reset buttons don't work with the bare unit, and the add-on is required. Does this offer HDMI pass through? There are many times when you have a single display out, and although you want the remote management, you still need a local display. I suppose that you could remote in while local, but that seems a bit... Wrong....
Two questions Jeff (I hope you have time for a short answer): 1. Why don't they make KVMs in a pci-e form factor? It would be nice to have it working while inside. 2. Will I be able to edit videos on it? If I have the clips on the computer and work with proxies? I would love to try that out. I only have 1gbe internet, so I can understand that it will work better on the network, but still...
Editing wouldn't be very fun, the latency isn't great for that (100ms or so, at least), and the clarity for full screen motion would be a little reduced. Regarding PCIe, Blicube said they're considering building a full size PCIe slot version of the board, but I don't have a timeline for when it might be ready.
so is this a geerling family channel or is this Jeff's dads Channel, because I would love to know more about the broadcast software you mention. Also having another channel about the Audio broadcast end of the media industry would be interesting especially as in many ways twitch & streaming has much more in common with Radio production than television which is more like TH-cam. I would love to see an discussion about streaming issues between you & eposvox if he would be willing. Eitther way thanks for a great first episode, I'm looking forward to what else you bring fourth or fifth or sixth...
We'll definitely be delving into some broadcast gear and philosophy, as well as electronics and IT. The main reason for this channel is I (Jeff is typing this particular response) think my own channel is more geared towards the computing side. This channel can comfortably explore more outside the computing realm without TH-cam getting confused about it :)
@@GeerlingEngineering That makes a huge amount of sense & thanks Jeff for all that you do. I just hope someday to be well enough to put into practice some of what you teach And can you send big thanks To Red Shirt Jeff for the comic relief, now that is a man who needs his own channel as well!!
I have been following your channel for quite some time now and learned a lot of new things. I am new to this pikvm and thinking of getting one. Is the setup of the pikvm software is the same to the pikvm videos that you have done before where this one is using compute modules 4 instead of using the rpi 4 ? Thanks
Yes; PiKVM is the open source software (and the group behind it also makes the PiKVM v3 HAT for the Pi 4 that I tested on the Jeff Geerling channel). This BliKVM is basically the same thing, but using a Compute Module 4 instead.
Noobie on this…sooo stupid question time…: This unit can turn on power to any computer it is connected to. Benefit is when remote, I access this device to get in that computer attached to this device. Even power it down after use. Am I correct? If so, and not to expensive, I need 4 or 5 of them. When I travel to ASIA, I have access to those 4/5 computers at home when away…Super nice. Question2: I run VPN on laptops. Does that prohibit this interface from working properly? Do I need additional network security apps? I run PI-HOLE. LOOKING FOR MORE NETWORK SECURITY APPS TO RUN ON OLD PI’S. (SUGGESTION?)
Yes, this device can power on or reset a PC remotely without that PC being turned on at all, it's nice for that type of out of bounds management. The VPN a would work okay as long as you can connect your laptop to a remote network that has these boxes running on them. By themselves, they aren't directly exposed to the Internet.
Did you have to reseat the HDMI every time? Also, did you get to the login screen OK? It looked blacked out much like you get on an additional display.
Does the PC have dual HDMI out built in (on the motherboard), or is there a video card in there? At first I thought maybe there was some kind of split or pass-through, but the video makes clear it's detecting 2 separate displays. I keep thinking about older computers (running older OSs) that this would be great for, but the dual (or single headless) HDMI sort of restricts that use. I guess the way to deal with that is to buy a newer computer, convert the older computers into virtual machines, and then run the virtual machine(s) on the newer computer with the right hardware to work seamlessly with the BliKVM.
This PC had two display outputs; I believe DVI and HDMI. The DVI went into a splitter that sends that display's output to the HDMI monitor on the desk, and another monitor via Cat5e some distance away. So in effect, this computer has three displays driven by two ports, and since mirroring was turned on, all three displays show the same thing.
I'm planning on using an off the shelf HDMI splitter for this reason.. I still want a local display too, but coming off of a single HDMI on the server.
This unit (and other setups using PiKVM) can work with many KVM switchers, so you could have multiple computers behind one connection-but those switchers don't pass through ATX signals, so only one computer's power/activity/status/reset signals could be controlled directly.
True, i have the officially supported one, it’s a 4 pc version, works well. Wondering where to buy CM4 2GB or 4GB modules, seems no one has any in stock.
One question: do I have to disconnect the computer power and reset buttons from the desktop to connect the cable from blikvm and control the power cycles? It has a derivative cable so I can use original power controls and also blikvm?
That is one of my upcoming challenges. The software company considers the audio system at risk of intermittent audio drops if an SSD is used. Red shirt Jeff said he would take his best shot at the drive so we will see...
@@GeerlingEngineering I find that extremely hard to believe, especially if you use a nice SSD with a good controller, but I guess we will find out when you take a swing at it! My first thought when your pops said the machine locks up was that the mechanical drive is starting to fail.
@@SirFrag32 It definitely could be that-a lot of these vendors basically validate their system one way, then don't give full support on "untested" systems. Even if those systems might perform much better. Also (not sure if it's the case here), some kinds of AV latency issues can be well understood on certain media, but could actually perform worse if you use a device with way faster access speeds, especially depending on the types of caching that might throw off the software's timings. But it's probably mostly the case that the software company doesn't want to expand the supported/certified hardware range for this particular product.
does the managed system (the system to which the KVM is connected) see the USB as Keyboard and Mouse? My corp system locks down (blocks) external drives and encrypts etc. if this KVM is simply read by the managed system as mouse/KB then it would work but if its detected as an external drive it wont work for me. just curious. great video BTW. TY
The USB keyboard and mouse appear as normal USB HID devices (like any generic keyboard and mouse you'd plug in). The only thing that would show up as mass storage is if you attach an image file to the computer, but you don't need to use that functionality to use the KVM for anything.
It boggles my mind they can't come up with a version that is a PCI Express card, just plug it into the computer and it can do its magic over the bus. Just needs an ethernet and external power connectors to the outside). Basically a universal IPMI or DRAC card.
The one downside is you can't rely on the PCIe slot power since that goes away if the PC shuts down or reboots ;) However, they might make a card that physically slots in and has an external power connection or PoE support. Would be very cool.
No, the air alone keeps it from throttling. Though a thermal pad there would probably help even more (and might be able to keep the pi cool even without the fan).
Yes; this was the first time using some Rode Wireless Go II mics at this location, and unfortunately I (Jeff) had forgotten to monitor the audio for a bit. With all the RF equipment in the station, those little mics were picking up some interference. And the Wireless Go II can record a separate track on the transmitters for backup audio-but I didn't know how to set that up at the time. Oops! This problem was resolved now, so future videos shouldn't have that problem. Hopefully ;)
We considered making some custom dupont cables for it, but didn't do it this time. The PCI Express bracket / breakout kit does have splitters built-in though. I think that's an extra $30.
Why would you use a kvm over remote desktop/VNC for this kinda stuff? I can get for datacenter stuff like entering bios's and such, but I dont know why this
Mostly because these computers lock up / freeze from time to time, and this box allows remote hardware-level resets as well. It's also one less application that needs to be run on the host itself (which in this case isn't the fastest computer in the world).
It would only work with one display output. Usually in the case of multiple displays, you'd attach the KVM on the main display or one mirrored to the main display.
BLIKVM is the very best IP KVM solution. Now rolling out BLIKVM in a multinational scenario. A very very happy customer!!!
Heart warming to see the father and son collaboration. Also, that is a pretty neat project. Great to know how easy it is to add a feature like that.
Woohoo! Geerling Engineer!! Great first ep, Jeff!
More videos with your dad! Not only is it nice to see father-son activity time, but he's a hoot! Come for the interesting topics, stay for the great personalities!
More to come!
I was enraptured to see the "back office" of my favorite radio system family for Catholic radio. Thank you for all that you do to support Covenant Radio.
This is so fun and cool!
I'm so happy you use the second channel now too.
So nice to see you working with your Dad together.
The DataVac Electric Duster is a darn good piece of kit. It cost about $109 and beat the hell out of any caned air, or air compressor I have ever dealt with.
"Working during vacation"
Every broadcast engineer watching.... "Yep"
Still better than coming back after someone filled in for you to find that they've messed up all your carefully chosen settings! Why is it that so many stations have more presenters and admin staff than they need, but only one engineer?
I have the kickstarter PiKVM V3 coupled with regular RaspberyPi 4 4G ram board. Love the open source of PiKVM as you can tailor it to add additional functions with it. My next challenge is to control a 4 or 8 port hardware KVM with it. Haven't bought one yet as I am still researching it.
Awesome, I subscribed right away since I’m a radio engineer myself. Looking forward to seeing more on the channel.
I'm jealous as Jeff seems to have an endless supply of compute module boards! :)
Or the same CM4 used over and over ;)
This one was basically donated though, so my modest collection is about 10% smaller now.
If they make a POE version I'm buying a few for sure, would be nice to have in your bag when out at customers where you have to run around. Would mean you could just put this on the server room and connect to it with your laptop while going around.
there are plenty POE splitters out there
@@nick9323 Some of them even make it to 5V! (a TP-Link one I bought say at 4.8V in 5V mode, the cheap AliExpress ones ironically did better)
Boy do I have news for you, they do make one with POE
Jeff, this is awesome! I just found this channel after watching you for years! I love to see you working with your dad, and im interested in learning how they use computers at the radio station
What a time to be alive,
one can build open source actually good KVM, an essential tool for the last fortress of own useful pastime, homelab,
except one just not simply walk into Mordor and buy unobtanium Pi boards...
I really enjoyed the real world experience.
Man I so wish I new about this a few months ago I paid over 500 dollars for the adderLink IPEPS KVM over IP.
Can't wait to see more content from you guys
a really good use case for this is to access broken screen laptops or headless machines
set h264, 3000 kbps, & 25fps for better response & better clarity.
there's currently no way to set a default though so a pikvm reboot reverts it.
use nomachine on the pc as your daily remote driver as that has a better video encoder response give it a go.
i like to mount the pikvm inside a spare 3.5 drive cage of the pc if used as 1 to 1 set & run a male/female patch lead inside
If the manufacturer already supplies tools (which would make more sense as an additional option than enclosing it with every device, because I think whoever needs such a device usually needs several), then they should also pack a few strips of Velcro to attach the box to the PC - not necessarily pretty, but easy.
I actually asked about rack ears-for many of the PCs at the radio station, it would be great to be able to rackmount the box!
Or stuff it inside the rack mount case. And why did the pc lock up and n the first place. This old PC builder wants to know....
Have you ever used sticky velco? It lasts like 15 minutes then leaves a terrible residue.
@@SirFrag32 I have a few strips of industrial Velcro (no off brand stuff) that has stuck for about 8 years and counting around my office. That stuff's crazy.
But yeah, getting it off can be a huge pain. Usually metal surfaces aren't too bad, but say goodbye to wood or fabric-like surfaces!
Subscribed for all notifications.
I just love the way you both work together. 👍
I don't like not having to consume the normal hdmi, power button, reset button and lights on the case when this is installed. It minimally needs Y cable attachments (or equivalent) for these. Also moving the system after it's installed means you have additional external wires and an external box to have to handle. For a more professional management solution I much prefer an internally mounted solution that keeps most the wires hidden and protected, and where after configuration the setup of the KVM follows the machine, not the rack position, such that it works more like HP Lights-Out; perhaps mounted in a spare 3.5" bay or expansion card slot for convenience. Just for long term maintenance and flexibility reasons the external case design shouldn't be the default, it should be the exception.
If you want a professional solution, you'd buy either an actual IP KVM, or you'd but workstation class hardware with out of band management like iDRAC built in. This is obviously intended to be DIY and home-user class.
Good...very good 1st vid. A family brain! And yes going to the bios remotely can be really helpful for debug
I was experimenting recently with Raspberry 4 power supply. It turns out that Raspberry kind of "likes" to have about 5.3-5.4 Volts on its input capacitor to not complain about power at all. But it never utilizes 3 Amps, not even close. And considering loses in different power cords I needed up to 6.2 Volts on PS output to achieve 5.3 on capacitor. So if you're using regular power supply with no "smart" features you rather need a multimeter to check real supplied voltage than "magic" 3 Amp PS.
Like father like son. Good job guys. Nice video, instant subscribe, because hey, it's Jeff Geerling and his dad. Good to know that BLiKVM is an option for when one is on 'vacation' 😂
I didn't realize this was a new channel until the end. Time to like, subscribe, share, and comment for traction =P
I love the content. Keep up the great work.
Wholesome father & son content
I find it funny that I found your channel from this channel just now.
I was thinking seeing the USB key tag looks familiar, if it was BSI Simian automation. Not the latest, greatest, but like the old Ford Maverick sedan of the ‘70’s, did the job.
Heh, check out 16:52 ;)
Wish these kinds of boards came with (or even the option of coming with) the Pi, as they are impossible to get up here in Canada. I do need to set up a better KVM setup in my server room.
The TinyPilot KVM, while much more expensive, has a PI-4 included. I have one here, and it works very well!
I work in the pro AV industry. I wish for this type of product, with parsec latency, and on the go encoder optimisation for sending HDMI signals around a home via the home network.
I already love this channel
We already love this comment :D
We used Compaq RILO 20yrs ago in data centers for server remote access.
Cool if on a tight budget but then the pi is an additional point of failure in the remote access chain. If you've got minimally more budget it would make more sense to build systems that may require remote access before the OS loads on a platform that includes native lights out management.
Something like IPMI would be ideal, but in practice many SMBs don't have the budget for true 'server' hardware (especially nonprofits like the radio station in this video), and even if they do, many server vendors offer lackluster long term support for their remote management interfaces (and many wind up with major security holes after a few years!).
That said, if you have the budget for newer and supported hardware with built-in remote management, it's definitely preferable to tacking on a separate KVM on each server.
@@GeerlingEngineering I'm thinking of something like an HP microserver with a slot for an optional ILO card. That platform is not a budget buster by any stretch.
Go Geerlings!
Great video, love how you do these with your dad. 👍
Dang! This will go great for my home server while does have DRAC, but it only supports like Windows 98 or something ... Thanks for demoing and sharing this RPi project!
Well we get to see pops as an older gentleman after seeing him riding you on a bike when you were a toddler. Good episode Jeff. BTW, I am probably closer to your dad’s age.
Looks like a really nice solution. PoE would be wonderful and I'd have bought it already before commenting if it had that, but I might wait and see if they produce a PoE version as it is.
Love the comment "It might be awsome, and it might not"! :-) Otherwise a great video.
Surely the channel should be called “Geerlings Galore!” 🤔
I am loving my PiKVM.. I got the kickstarter version. One thing I wish I could do, but haven't found a way, is to switch my keyboard controlled hardware KVM.. In otherwords, I have 4 PCs hooked to a cheap KVM, then the PIKVM hooked to that. I want the PIKVM to be able to press "CTRL-CTRL-1-ENTER" for example, so that the hardware KVM it's attached to will switch to another computer. Obviously to do this, I'm going to have to give up the physical ATX power control and monitoring since there's only one plug, but I'm OK with that. The problem is, being a web-based client, I haven't found a way to send just a "ctrl" press and release.. I could send "Ctrl-C" but not just a press/release CTRL.. If you know of a way, through the PiKVM software, I'd love to hear about it. In the meantime, I've been experimenting with using some kind of ESP or arduino as a separate HID that I can connect to the KVM separately to simulate those other keypresses. I dont have anything solved yet, so curious if anyone else is interested or has solved this problem?
Best place to ask is on the PiKVM Discord!
Just build a 1 to 4 multiplexer
That's a flash from the past... that little nut driver was included with RC cars back in the 80's!
If you close your eyes and just listen Jeff and his father sounds almost the same, pretty difficult to tell them apart.
His dad definitely does sound more like he’s done radio though.
I'd like something like this as a backup and in case main OS does not boot while I'm traveling. Serial console would be awesome for Linux, and for Windows, virtual keyboard/mouse/video would be great.
However, both my Linux and Windows installation are SSHable and have remote desktop software installed for good measure; and if they lock up, they're in a smart power outlet that I can powercycle.
Machine is configured to power on when getting power from mains, but also takes in wake-on-LAN packets.
Same goes for my NAS. Things can go wrong, but this has mostly worked out well enough.
What I'd suggest if you have a 24/7 operation is to have remote monitoring and alerting. You don't use your PiKVM regularly: you should likely monitor that it's actually on, lest you get surprised at it crashing just that one time when you need it.
Also, have a second (or even third!) machine you can always remote in, and the infrastructure to fail your workload over to it. All I'm saying (monitoring, replicas, failovers) are common in medium and large scale operations, especially "cloud".
That’s some good advice and planning! Thanks.
Great video. Definitely something I could use here at Spirit Catholic Radio. Thanks!
Thanks Jeff Dad for working in the Radio station!
You need one of those for every single computer you want to use with KVM. Compare this to the ready made KVM switches and add to this that not all of my servers have HDMI, some come with display port in various forms and flavours. Could become pretty expensive!
You can put one in front of a multi-port KVM switcher that uses keyboard shortcuts for switching, though you'd still only be able to control ATX functionality of one computer.
Yes, but those are ridicilously expensive by comparison. But the idea of combining this with a standard cheapo KVM is a great one.
You could use a smart plug and just set bios power management accordingly
Great content! How about getting your dad to talk about those Axial iQ Broadcast consoles in the studio! Better yet, how about getting the Axial IP Livewire driver running on a Raspberry Pi to use as an audio source or for a backfeed setup!
Sounds like an interesting idea for a future video! The changeover from analog to IP audio made for quite a revolution in the studio space. I remember helping my dad pull cables for studios back in the 80s and 90s... and nowadays it's just a few Cat5e or Cat6 cables! (Heck, some places are probably going with fiber now...).
@@JeffGeerling Awesome! I can get you in contact with Kirk at Telos/Axia...unless your dad already deals with him. Kirk is also a media savvy tech geek (the type that runs an Asterisk PBX at home) ...so i'm sure he would love to see a project like that.
Dad, you are a fortunate man.
Great start, expecting more videos :)
would it fit in one of those hard drive bays?
It's a bit tall to fit in a 3.5" bay, but it might fit in a 5.25" slot intended for optical drives...
I think OTG is kinda mislabeled here as OTG is when a normally guest device (such as a phone) can also turn itself into the host.
this is more like reverse OTG.
Yeah, it's a slight bit of a misnomer, but the port is labeled according to it's Pi-side functionality. It might be more end-user friendly (for those less familiar with the Pi's internals) to call it 'USB in' (even if that's technically not what it is, that's what it's used for).
@@GeerlingEngineering i might have maybe just labeled it "usb to pc" or whatever as that's super obvious on what to do without being wrong
Great topic and video!
Honestly, an old battery leaf blower works great to dust out the computers. that's what I've been using. (I mean obviously outside but you're going outside anyway)
And I use an air compressor with a water seperator. Works great.
I enjoyed this. As a security side note, please don't just expose an IP KVM to the internet. I'm sure you've thought of or considered this, but please try to keep that behind something like a VPN or SSH tunnel. Key based authentication SSH preferred if you use SSH tunnel. It might sound silly, but in an emergency, people sometimes get their updates from radio stations. (emergency broadcast system, and so on.) So although it may sound a bit paranoid, a radio station like that can still be some rather critical infrastructure. Also, I appreciate the jump cuts past the logins and passwords. 👍
The IP we used was the assigned private DHCP IP address inside the building; it's only accessible through a VPN from the outside, don't worry :)
@@GeerlingEngineering You may want to switch that to a private static IP instead so that it doesn't change on you long term, otherwise, sounds good!
@@erci78t77 At home I use static DHCP leases. Best of both worlds.
The more computers controlled by one remote computer the more chance of rebooting or working on the wrong one. Very large server rooms the servers are named the same but with different numbers such as pi01, pi02 pi03 etc and when you are tired in the middle of night can mistake pi11 for pi01.. The next morning inquiry or wash up as to what happened depends on how important the sever was that was wrongly taken down.
That's why attention to detail is a critical IT skill.
Too bad they did not add a passthrough hdmi port... the rtc battery is a fantastic feature, you could potentially set alarms to turn off or on the computer at a given date no need to have ntp set up
@20:15 "It actually does split the signal" I assume this means that the front panel power / reset buttons don't work with the bare unit, and the add-on is required.
Does this offer HDMI pass through? There are many times when you have a single display out, and although you want the remote management, you still need a local display. I suppose that you could remote in while local, but that seems a bit... Wrong....
No, this model just has an input so if you want a local display, you'll need to have multiple video outputs.
Axia IQ! Nice! :-)
Found a broadcaster :)
Hi Jeff!
Two questions Jeff (I hope you have time for a short answer):
1. Why don't they make KVMs in a pci-e form factor? It would be nice to have it working while inside.
2. Will I be able to edit videos on it? If I have the clips on the computer and work with proxies? I would love to try that out. I only have 1gbe internet, so I can understand that it will work better on the network, but still...
Editing wouldn't be very fun, the latency isn't great for that (100ms or so, at least), and the clarity for full screen motion would be a little reduced.
Regarding PCIe, Blicube said they're considering building a full size PCIe slot version of the board, but I don't have a timeline for when it might be ready.
@@JeffGeerling dankjewel Jeff!
Awesome video thank you
so is this a geerling family channel or is this Jeff's dads Channel, because I would love to know more about the broadcast software you mention. Also having another channel about the Audio broadcast end of the media industry would be interesting especially as in many ways twitch & streaming has much more in common with Radio production than television which is more like TH-cam. I would love to see an discussion about streaming issues between you & eposvox if he would be willing.
Eitther way thanks for a great first episode, I'm looking forward to what else you bring fourth or fifth or sixth...
We'll definitely be delving into some broadcast gear and philosophy, as well as electronics and IT. The main reason for this channel is I (Jeff is typing this particular response) think my own channel is more geared towards the computing side.
This channel can comfortably explore more outside the computing realm without TH-cam getting confused about it :)
@@GeerlingEngineering That makes a huge amount of sense & thanks Jeff for all that you do. I just hope someday to be well enough to put into practice some of what you teach
And can you send big thanks To Red Shirt Jeff for the comic relief, now that is a man who needs his own channel as well!!
I don't know how long this channel has been in use, but I missed any promo for it on your other channel...
So far I just mentioned it in the end of my "so you like USB" video. I'll tie it in more when the opportunity arises :)
12:34 May She protect you both.
Thankyou Jeff and Jeff's Dad. Which of the raspberry pi CM4 modules do you recommend for the BliKVM please?
In this case, any work great! We are testing with the 1 GB CM4 and haven't run into any issues.
@@JeffGeerling thankyou
It would be nice if they offered a kvm with a edp input.
I have been following your channel for quite some time now and learned a lot of new things. I am new to this pikvm and thinking of getting one. Is the setup of the pikvm software is the same to the pikvm videos that you have done before where this one is using compute modules 4 instead of using the rpi 4 ? Thanks
Yes; PiKVM is the open source software (and the group behind it also makes the PiKVM v3 HAT for the Pi 4 that I tested on the Jeff Geerling channel). This BliKVM is basically the same thing, but using a Compute Module 4 instead.
@@GeerlingEngineering thank you for your reply.
Noobie on this…sooo stupid question time…: This unit can turn on power to any computer it is connected to. Benefit is when remote, I access this device to get in that computer attached to this device. Even power it down after use. Am I correct? If so, and not to expensive, I need 4 or 5 of them. When I travel to ASIA, I have access to those 4/5 computers at home when away…Super nice.
Question2: I run VPN on laptops. Does that prohibit this interface from working properly?
Do I need additional network security apps? I run PI-HOLE. LOOKING FOR MORE NETWORK SECURITY APPS TO RUN ON OLD PI’S. (SUGGESTION?)
Yes, this device can power on or reset a PC remotely without that PC being turned on at all, it's nice for that type of out of bounds management.
The VPN a would work okay as long as you can connect your laptop to a remote network that has these boxes running on them. By themselves, they aren't directly exposed to the Internet.
Not directly connected, but on my network that is. So I key in I’d for that device and it will find it, right?
pci breakout and pin splitter are needed. There is no reason to leave those physical power and reset switches hanging
Why don't you install Netsupport. You don't need the Pi then. Also Netsupport can boot up off LAN too.
what about piKVM and something like ZeroTier...
And what's about watchdog functions? Would it be possible to monitor BSOD or kernel panic and reset the PC by BliKVM?
Keep going!!!!!!!
What's the propagation delay? ie. Mouse move to cursor move? Fair lag? I need a 12 channel! I like wire!,😇,jpk
Did you have to reseat the HDMI every time? Also, did you get to the login screen OK? It looked blacked out much like you get on an additional display.
Does the PC have dual HDMI out built in (on the motherboard), or is there a video card in there? At first I thought maybe there was some kind of split or pass-through, but the video makes clear it's detecting 2 separate displays. I keep thinking about older computers (running older OSs) that this would be great for, but the dual (or single headless) HDMI sort of restricts that use. I guess the way to deal with that is to buy a newer computer, convert the older computers into virtual machines, and then run the virtual machine(s) on the newer computer with the right hardware to work seamlessly with the BliKVM.
This PC had two display outputs; I believe DVI and HDMI. The DVI went into a splitter that sends that display's output to the HDMI monitor on the desk, and another monitor via Cat5e some distance away.
So in effect, this computer has three displays driven by two ports, and since mirroring was turned on, all three displays show the same thing.
I'm planning on using an off the shelf HDMI splitter for this reason.. I still want a local display too, but coming off of a single HDMI on the server.
Would it be practical to make a KVM board for the compute module that could connect to 2 computers?
This unit (and other setups using PiKVM) can work with many KVM switchers, so you could have multiple computers behind one connection-but those switchers don't pass through ATX signals, so only one computer's power/activity/status/reset signals could be controlled directly.
True, i have the officially supported one, it’s a 4 pc version, works well. Wondering where to buy CM4 2GB or 4GB modules, seems no one has any in stock.
Is there any way to add a heatsink to the Pi? Maybe have the CM4 heatsink touching the metal case?
Will it control, the army of Terminators, is the next question?
One question: do I have to disconnect the computer power and reset buttons from the desktop to connect the cable from blikvm and control the power cycles? It has a derivative cable so I can use original power controls and also blikvm?
Should also clone that mechanical drive on to an SSD while you’re in there
That is one of my upcoming challenges. The software company considers the audio system at risk of intermittent audio drops if an SSD is used. Red shirt Jeff said he would take his best shot at the drive so we will see...
@@GeerlingEngineering I find that extremely hard to believe, especially if you use a nice SSD with a good controller, but I guess we will find out when you take a swing at it! My first thought when your pops said the machine locks up was that the mechanical drive is starting to fail.
@@GeerlingEngineering That sounds like "We've always done it this way and are scared of new tech"idis to me.
@@SirFrag32 It definitely could be that-a lot of these vendors basically validate their system one way, then don't give full support on "untested" systems. Even if those systems might perform much better.
Also (not sure if it's the case here), some kinds of AV latency issues can be well understood on certain media, but could actually perform worse if you use a device with way faster access speeds, especially depending on the types of caching that might throw off the software's timings.
But it's probably mostly the case that the software company doesn't want to expand the supported/certified hardware range for this particular product.
Is this only local? How would you connect from home?
Would the KVM fit in a 5.25 bay?
does the managed system (the system to which the KVM is connected) see the USB as Keyboard and Mouse? My corp system locks down (blocks) external drives and encrypts etc. if this KVM is simply read by the managed system as mouse/KB then it would work but if its detected as an external drive it wont work for me. just curious. great video BTW. TY
The USB keyboard and mouse appear as normal USB HID devices (like any generic keyboard and mouse you'd plug in).
The only thing that would show up as mass storage is if you attach an image file to the computer, but you don't need to use that functionality to use the KVM for anything.
Does this version support mount iso as CD / USB drives to boot from it ?
It boggles my mind they can't come up with a version that is a PCI Express card, just plug it into the computer and it can do its magic over the bus. Just needs an ethernet and external power connectors to the outside). Basically a universal IPMI or DRAC card.
The one downside is you can't rely on the PCIe slot power since that goes away if the PC shuts down or reboots ;)
However, they might make a card that physically slots in and has an external power connection or PoE support. Would be very cool.
umm what difference does this make compared to anydesk ?
What dust fan/blower is your dad talking about that costs $300?
Something like the MetroVac/DataVac ESD-safe duster.
What's the difference in sending a Wake on WAN package to your PC and then using remote desktop with this KVM switch?
Wake on WAN assumes the PC isn't locked up ;)
so only one pc at a time or any as long as on the LAN?
No heatsink thermal compound between the Pi Compute Module and the case ?
No, the air alone keeps it from throttling. Though a thermal pad there would probably help even more (and might be able to keep the pi cool even without the fan).
Can't wait to meet Red Shirt Dad.
Lmao i was thinking no way they're running a KVM on a raspi, i was thinking of a different KVM 💀
you can hear the RFI (?? is it?) at the start of the video... and at the end
Yes; this was the first time using some Rode Wireless Go II mics at this location, and unfortunately I (Jeff) had forgotten to monitor the audio for a bit. With all the RF equipment in the station, those little mics were picking up some interference.
And the Wireless Go II can record a separate track on the transmitters for backup audio-but I didn't know how to set that up at the time. Oops! This problem was resolved now, so future videos shouldn't have that problem. Hopefully ;)
Hey chat, where I can buy pikvm v3 or v4 in Spain?
Are there any cheap premade cable that would allow you to still plug the buttons and activity leds on the local computer(Y cables of some sort)?
We considered making some custom dupont cables for it, but didn't do it this time. The PCI Express bracket / breakout kit does have splitters built-in though. I think that's an extra $30.
@@GeerlingEngineering Nice to hear, I plan to install a piKVM at my parents place, but they still need to operate the power button as normal :)
Why would you use a kvm over remote desktop/VNC for this kinda stuff? I can get for datacenter stuff like entering bios's and such, but I dont know why this
Mostly because these computers lock up / freeze from time to time, and this box allows remote hardware-level resets as well. It's also one less application that needs to be run on the host itself (which in this case isn't the fastest computer in the world).
gaming KVM vs Thin Client?
Say the system you're trying to access has 3 monitors. Would you still be able to use a normal (Pi)KVM with it?
It would only work with one display output. Usually in the case of multiple displays, you'd attach the KVM on the main display or one mirrored to the main display.