Control any computer, ANYWHERE - PiKVM v4 is here!

[@RandomTechWZ]

You have no idea how lucky you are to have a dad like yours.

[@bin4ry93]

Yeah i was thinking the same thing! My dad dont even know what a hdmi cable is 😂

[@DanTDMJace]

@@bin4ry93H o w Ok I guess it makes sense because he has worked on A/V systems in his past

[@Sourcecodemastergoaheadcheater]

Dad? Aw I'ma give you the USA national debt back dad. I remember you asked if I give it to you what would you do? And will I give it back? Yes damn right I used to live in ur nuts I'ma go out my way for you father 😂😂❤

[@Sourcecodemastergoaheadcheater]

I would listen to this guy here or you want to see more GTA FLYING CAR AND EXPLOSION TYPE ISH 😂😂 7 FOR LUCK SINISTERLY GOOD MY POPS A G😂😂😂❤❤❤

[@Sourcecodemastergoaheadcheater]

Don't make me mad or I'll explode your computer 😂😂😂 telling you how corrupt and curious most are it will happen again if you play with my hustle and all gang gang gang gang on me double bladed tongue man 😂😂

[@gklinger]

Jeff is such a nice guy and the apple doesn't fall from the tree. Such likable people.

[@CandyGramForMongo_]

Yep. Makes me miss my Dad.

[@gowinfanless]

I can't agree more,Jeff is a nice guy for sure!

[@jonathanzj620]

How far does the android fall?

[@ivolol]

I think apples do fall from trees occasionally though

[@foureyedchick]

I like trees that keep their apples too.

[@CheesusCheesusChrist]

I only occasionally have to work with bare metal and it's always been an incredible PITA to setup with limited space. Get out the spare keyboard monitor and find somewhere to place them precariously. I thought a NexDock would work and it revealed itself to be too finicky. After watching LTT's review of PiKVM last fall I immediately bought it and it just works. Flawlessly. The 3-4 times I've needed to used it since have paid for it. It also works for serial connections.

[@ThomasGabrielsen]

"Geerling Engineering: 'Based On Luck' " made me laugh so hard I had to pause. What a great quote to have on merch.

[@thetechq]

I love these father and son videos! Such great teamwork!

[@OMM-bo9fr]

I like your videos! your dad seems to be a really nice guy. It's just great to watch the two of you doing stuff together!

[@TechnoTim]

HDMI spigot. Love it!

[@krusic22]

Nice to see the project getting bigger updates.

[@JamesHalfHorse]

It's nice to know that the underside of other station consoles are only somewhat cable managed. I finally got permission to rewire one studio to make it a bit neater. We use Simian here and kinda what brought me into the industry (automation in general) along with Opx in the WW1 equipment. Could really use the PiKVM for much the same reasons you do. About to head to a station in a few hours mostly to pick up my mentors old shop equipment.

[@pdelong42]

I had to look away when you were wiring-up the pass-thru jumpers to the motherboard. I was traumatized enough by doing it myself a few months ago. I'm still shocked I got it right on the first try. 😀

[@JeffGeerling]

Ha, it's extremely difficult in most cases. Wish they were laid out differently, or that motherboards came with little extension adapters.

[@pdelong42]

@@JeffGeerling Yes! We demand rigidly defined areas of motherboard header standardization! 😄

[@KaceyGreen]

My mini arrived end of last week, looking forward to this video, thanks

[@Antebios]

I have the PiKvm 3 with the same power pass through, and I love it!!! Every server needs the PiKvm.

[@martinboissonneault9819]

Hand-packed with love! I'm glad you enjoy the PiKVM v4 Plus!

[@judsonleach5248]

Yo Jeff! Just for the record? - Your Father is as big a hero to me as YOU! - I'm a 57 year old retired, Hollyweird Sound Engineer - "Super Nerd" - who designs, upgrades and builds FM transmitters in my garage, just for FUN! - I Keep them under One Watt! - Honest! - (I hear the FCC DOESN'T have a sense of humor! LOL) - Cheers! - Judson & Buddy! 🙂

[@GeerlingEngineering]

"FCC has entered the chat" :D

[@judsonleach5248]

Quick, Buddy! - Power it all down and set the garage on fire! - HAHAHA!! :-)

[@SamMingolelli]

You and your dad are awesome, love the bantering, terrific!

[@OrcsBR]

Good to see the silvery strands of Mr. Geerling. You're very similar on the way you behave. Thanks for the content.

[@shawnbergin8479]

hard work always pays off. Well done on the teamwork!

[@floydmorgan7739]

So cool! I love projects like this!

[@Moonraker11]

This back-and-forth between father and son is priceless!

[@Zomgwtfbbq1228]

thanks for sharing this time with your dad, i wish mine were still around.

[@izzieb]

Putting in the front panel connectors is easily the more frustrating part of building/working on PCs. Nobody is immune to the frustration, evidently.

[@GeerlingEngineering]

And in this case, especially, the connectors are within a couple mm of the edge of the case! There's really no easy way to get at them.

[@efad3215]

Agreed. That is absolutely the worst part of building a computer.

[@Mr.Leeroy]

just have a 2.54mm pitch male to female header to plug all you cables in it first, then plug the whole thing in motherboard.

[@eDoc2020]

@@Mr.Leeroy Motherboards often come with an adapter block to do exactly this. They're even labelled so.

[@SB-qm5wg]

Yep.

[@markv1027]

Very nice! I'll wait until the price comes down some before getting one or two.

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Also hopefully as the Pi shortages ease up (supposedly later this year), it will be easier to buy or build *any* version of PiKVM.

[@DrDingus]

@@GeerlingEngineering seriously, at current prices, I could use that money to just get a server grade motherboard with IPMI..

[@hellcoreproductions]

Loving the Tech Tech 'tato shirt!

[@TheMoonWatcher]

I'm late to the party, but PiKVM's documentation says: "Do not block the ventilation holes on the sides of the device. This is especially important for the V4 Plus, which has an active cooling." It might be fine on its side, but just to bring this up to your attention 🙂 I just got a PiKVM V4 Plus myself and I'm looking forward to using it 😁

[@nezbro2011]

I'm very late to this video but this looks very promising and I might purchase one for myself because I could see many use cases for it.

[@Nobe_Oddy]

I WANT ONE!!! ( I have zero use for it, but I still want one lol)

[@michaelamos75]

I can't wait for mine to show up.

[@MikeHarris1984]

That computer looks like its about 15 years old... lol. That's a cool idea they came up with to use a board to terminate the front connectors and then also T in the actual front panel wires. And use a Cat6 to run to the PiKVM. Really cleaned up that install and makes it look more complete. I've been looking at building the open source project they have too. This is like adding full IPMI to a normal computer!

[@TechTechPotato]

Potato shirt!

[@moogs]

So cool watching two generations of nerds work on stuff together.

[@KameraShy]

Very interesting and informative.

[@nunopereira7585]

hello! Any alternative to control power of mini-pc or laptops that don't have an ATX port?

[@Moonraker11]

I'd be curious how you would harden this device if you are using the LTE modem? Would it obtain an external IP? What if it were CGNAT'd? So many questions on this setup...

[@TheArtofEngineering]

Hey that blue shirt...love it! Do you guys do ham radio?

[@kaihatkeinenaccount]

In the video it looks like that the latency huge is. What is your opinion on that?

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Latency for PiKVM is about on par with other IP KVM solutions; it's no substitute for on-device screen sharing solutions (which can be much faster, like Parsec, or even RDC or Apple's Screen Sharing), but it's adequate for most remote control tasks. Latency feels slightly better on this newer box, but we didn't do any scientific measurements; just watching some KZbin videos and clicking around a bit.

[@kaihatkeinenaccount]

@@GeerlingEngineering Thank you

[@cbeomjun]

​@Geerling Engineering also look into sunshine + moonlight as a foss replacement

[@judenihal]

@@GeerlingEngineering Then how is RealVNC so much more responsive? VNC is essentially transferring video over IP, just like PiKVM is doing.

[@MikkoRantalainen]

@@judenihal What do you mean by "responsive"? If you mean mouse movement, the default setup might not show real remote mouse cursor but emulate it locally instead, which would make the mouse cursor appear highly responsive at the cost of potential mismatch between the mouse cursor you see and the mouse cursor the actual server is using.

[@SiD3WiNDR]

Over The Ground :D You have an awesome dad!

[@SxC97]

Hey Jeff, do you know if you can control multiple machines with one PiKVM? I have a couple servers in my rack hooked up to a KVM, ideally I would be able to just drop in one PiKVM and not have to shell out for 3 separate ones.

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Yes! (Sort-of). You can control multiple machines behind another traditional KVM, if the KVM supports remote keyboard commands for switching sources. You won't get ATX control over all the computers though. I know some people have hacked together solutions for that, but out of the box it can only control one set of front panel connections.

[@SxC97]

@@GeerlingEngineering ah, using keyboard commands for switching would probably work! Thanks for the tip 👍

[@eDoc2020]

@@GeerlingEngineering A watched a video (by Apalrd's Adventures) where the software has built-in integration with a traditional KVM's remote control port. So you can switch machines through a drop-down menu.

[@riddlediddleriddle]

Hey, just letting you know, I might need a guide video soon :) about using this PiKVM v4 with a rack-mounted HDMI-KVM switch to "scale" the PiKVM to multiple computers.

[@Spee2k12]

IPV6 Address... "You're typing that in." 🤣

[@JeffGeerling]

Haha

[@photonthief]

Great review guys! Do you have any experiance with the PiKVM V4 Mini? It would be great to see a comparison between it and the PiKVM V4 Plus in this video.

[@Felix.8581]

Great video Jeff! Is there any way that with the PiKVM and a PELOTE Hard Drive Power Switch Module, the drives can be turned on and off remotely? My knowledge of electronics is basic, but the idea would be to connect the PiKVM to the Switches of the HDD Power Switch and simulate that they are activated/deactivated. (If you know of another way, I'd be happy to hear about it.) Thank you!!!!!!

[@BlubBlob]

Can audio also be sent (microphone?)

[@DrDingus]

If I could control more than just one 'server' with this it would be great. But at it's current price, I could spend that money instead on a server grade motherboard and just have IPMI access to the server anyway and also a better motherboard.

[@annakissed3226]

What 360 camera were you shooting in? My guess would be would be an Insta360 RS One Inch because your inside, if your were outside an X3 would have given similar results

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Good guess! But in this case, I shot the a6600 facing forward, with a GoPro Hero 10 in the hotshoe facing backward.

[@annakissed3226]

@@GeerlingEngineering oh clever, very clever! If you do decide to go down the 360 route can I recommend looking at Phillip Blooms reviews. There are lots of other great reviews but Phillip's are delightful inventive & he has had years of working in Film as a DOP but it may be worth waiting as Insta360 may be replacing their RS1 camera with the RS2, which should have similar recording capabilities to the X3. The other possibility we are hoping for is the release of the X4 with 2× Sony 1" sensors later this year.

[@krugtech]

Back when the developer was eating from the same can as his cat, I sent him money. That was a good investment. I have my own Pi xero 2 based dongles that run off a usb port, I use them to access machine HMI from my cell phone when I'm working on a machine away from the controls.

[@Antebios]

You have a flashlight right there in the frame and IT'S ON! Use it!!

[@danmur15]

I wonder if you'd be able to build that device onto a PCIE expansion card. I love using PCIE slots for different things, I was trying to find a SDR card for a while but was disappointed that they don't really seem to exist

[@fabricio4794]

is it Possible to build a "Shortwave Transmitter"Telephone?like some"old Mil "Field Phones"?or a Walkie Talkie that transmits by shortwave?

[@saj1981]

I’m considering using this setup as a remote worker. Has anyone tried joining a Teams audio meeting by logging into their home laptop via KVM while abroad? How is the audio quality? Additionally, is it possible to run Microsoft Teams on the home laptop and connect it to the webcam on the remote laptop while abroad, so it appears as though you’re sitting behind your home laptop?

[@mikechien8287]

I would also like to know, as well as if it's possible to set up multiple monitors

[@itstheweirdguy]

Daddy's got onelaunch and wavebrowser! LOL

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

He's going to eventually end up controlling all of our computers.

[@joshua_lee732]

You know I never considered taking a picture of the front panel connections and using the zoom feature on my phone....

[@auto117666]

I would like a version of this which can run multiple computers which would rival Raritan KVM.

[@repairman2be250]

Thanks for the video. Have no use for such a thing. That Windows boot seems very slow at around minute 10:40. Are you still booting of a spinning disk?

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Haha, yes indeed-that PC is still booting off an old spinning drive! Thus the comments about dropping the PC earlier in the video.

[@CrkdLtrN]

HDMI spigot. Hilarious.

[@shahinnk]

for typing in remote system do i have to use virtual keyboard ? or i can use my keyboard ? you did not type something in remote system that i can see

[@sparky7635]

It is a super piece of hardware but WAAAAAAY too expensive. I would really like to see something like this with POE and so on on a x86 hardware like the refurbished mini pcs all over ebay available. As long as the raspberry pi is so expensive it makes no sense to go for this solution at all

[@MikkoRantalainen]

Do you have some other KVM IP switch in mind that can do 1920x1080 @60Hz? I'm considering getting a KVM IP switch and this seems to be the cheapest option that would actually have security updates in the future (that is, real support).

[@ScottPlude]

So how much for the old pikvm, autographed? I just need SOMETHING autographed by Jeff to hang on my wall!

[@cciemike]

Does this KVM only connect to one server? Thanks for the video. I checked out the kickstarter and couldn't find that information.

[@MikkoRantalainen]

Yes. The idea is to get standalone non-IP KVM switch with ability to switch inputs with keyboard shortcuts and then this + dumb standalone KVM switch are suddenly much cheaper than getting dedicated hardware for every server when you have multiple in rack.

[@tombibla7516]

How many engineers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? (or in this case, how many Geerlings does it take to plug some header pins) --- JK Guys, your channel is the best. Thankfully Red Shirt Jeff wasn't there to sabotage the project.

[@computersales]

It's a cool idea just still too unaffordable. For that kind of money I'd probably either upgrade my setup to a server or use a server board.

[@JaeTLDR1]

Especially if you have multiple servers you want connected

[@MikkoRantalainen]

The whole point of this thing is to be able to use cheap KVM switch with multiple servers that allows switching between clients with a keyboard shortcut. That way you can buy one PiKVM and one e.g. 16 port KVM switch (non-IP variant) and use the PiKVM to control the 16 port switch to control up to 16 servers remotely. In addition, the server board typically requires trusted LAN so you would still need to arrange a secure connection to that network whereas PiKVM can run sshd on public IP.

[@computersales]

@@MikkoRantalainen I've never had good luck with KVMs. They always seem to flake out.

[@MikkoRantalainen]

@@computersales You should get a high quality KVM that can keep up the USB connection even for "not connected" displays. Not all KVMs can do that. If you don't have such KVM, each client operating system may see disconnected USB devices possibly also screens, too, whenever you switch the source. With a well made KVM each client system/OS will see keyboard, mouse and display connected at all times.

[@PatFarrellKTM]

One question: do you need 1 plus PiKVM, one for each computer that you want to remotely control, plus one for your controlling computer?

[@omerfsen]

Hey Jeff just curious how you activated Mouse and Keyboard. On this video it is all Orange and suddenly it becomes green. Have you done anything? Mine is exactly like that. Not sure if it has anything to do with OTG. Or what should i plug into OTG port to have Keyboard&Mouse activated (Green)

[@bartoszbratkowski3078]

Hmm I have both pikvm v3 and blikvm cm4 and both support 60hz (with sound) no issues, even over hdmi kvm with shortcuts over pikvm os. What am I missing here?

[@martinboissonneault9819]

PiKVM v3 doesn't support 1920x1080p at 60Hz, only 50Hz. Bandwidth limitation of the bus on Pi4

[@bartoszbratkowski3078]

@@martinboissonneault9819 well here is my screenshot drive.google.com/file/d/14b62rnXbe3_rDlakFVkdnOCYhYN7iOQU/view?usp=sharing and pikvm v4 also runs pi4 (cm4) ;)

[@KarlvonNotify]

Could this be used with a laptop? i.e. without connecting the power and reset button features to the motherboard?

[@eIektrinis]

are there any non-pi, cheap commercial options that just works?

[@brianmartin7632]

I backed the v3 and bought 6 or 8 of them if memory serves. Had planned on buying another 2 dozen or so for client sites. Could never get video to work correctly on Dell Servers with VGA. My lead tech could not get it working so I took over. Same problem. Discord support was.... frustrating. The KVMD EDID files are somehow related but got nowhere trying to get it working. Not a super great experience.

[@incandescentwithrage]

Dell servers have iDRAC for IPMI. Why would you even consider something like this instead of a VPN to the iDRAC vlan/subnet?

[@KarlvonNotify]

Could this be used with a laptop? E.i. without connecting the ATX front panel connections? I understand that I would not be able to remotely power up the system but it would be useful anyways.

[@JeffGeerling]

Yep! Would work for that too.

[@KarlvonNotify]

@@JeffGeerling amazing, thank you! Could you please give an advice which model to select? I'm choosing between PiKVM V3 and PiKVM V4 Mini. Do I understand correctly that the only difference between V4 Mini and V4 Plus is cooling and thus performance? Also, how important is the 60 FPS support of V4? I understood that the point is that some bioses don't support 50 FPS which is needed in order for the PC to work properly with PiKVM V3. But how common these are?

[@GrayRaceCat]

Can you tell us what radio station this is? AM, FM, call sign, genre, etc?

[@christopherjohnmortal2816]

so aside from accessing BIOS.... whats the difference between PI KVM and any remote control software? just wondering though...

[@keyboard_g]

The mouse movement looks a bit jumpy in the camera.

[@GeerlingEngineering]

The mouse control is on par with most other IP KVM solutions - you don't have the latency you'd need for things like remote gaming or editing; but these solutions aren't meant to replace something like Microsoft RDC, Parsec, or Apple's Screen Sharing, which require something to be running within the booted OS.

[@boubpopsyteam]

This PC is more in need of a nvme ssd than a new pivkm ^^

[@Fifury161]

Spook - I was googling solutions to my RDP issues yesterday - I really need to block Windows updates as I got that latest one that rebooted my remote PC and it was stuck at the "make selections for your new Windows experience" screen. Which meant no RDP or Teamviewer options. Physically had to visit the PC and click through the options - ugg

[@radijoe]

I feel your pain!

[@mousam.mondal]

I want to know, i have Pi micro HDMI to HDMI cable, usb male to male and power cable. Is those fine to run a basic pi KVM ? i want to knoe here in my case if i plug My Pi 4B's micro HDMI to My Main CPU's HDMI input will it work ? and Pi's USB out to CPU's USB in will it work as keyboard and mouse. I need the very basic KVM.

[@stealthkills749]

on the headless computer could you test if valorant runs on it or not. for this you just have to install it and run it for like 20 seconds or so . i dont have a pikvm and dont want to potentially waste money buying it for something i want to do.

[@soporte440]

where do I buy it? I can't find it available anywhere

[@arlobennett8504]

What difference does it make, when it is impossible to buy RasPis?

[@AKChannel_lol]

SAGE DIGITAL ENDEC IN DA BACKGROUNDDDDDD!!! (edit: correction: its a sage digital endec)

[@DaveMenkehorst]

It's really laggy. The h264 stream is in 30fps?

[@JeffGeerling]

The stream is, yes - but the input-to-http-to-HID-to-render for the mouse itself does have some inherent lag.

[@sethalton205]

Lol... post beep... haven't heard that in a while :D

[@1PlacidPig]

Where's your grounding straps? 😅

[@sergeyp2263]

Is it possible to control windows from macbook through it?

[@OffGridAussiePrepper]

Fail - How do dial into the unit when outside the network when some internet connections EG: Celldata will not allow incoming connections due to blocking the Public IP address?

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Typically for any critical installations relying on cellular data (even as a backup), you'd have a data plan that includes a public IP. The radio station here has a few of these plans on SIM cards they use in portable cellular routers (Cradlepoints) for remote broadcasts, site Internet backups, etc.

[@eDoc2020]

You could also use a VPN.

[@OffGridAussiePrepper]

@@eDoc2020 What t f r u talking about??? a VPN stops incoming traffic.

[@eDoc2020]

​@@OffGridAussiePrepper A retail VPN service like advertised on every other KZbin video may block incoming connections but this is not the general case. A VPN is just like a long network cable. If you roll your own you can easily handle incoming traffic.

[@OffGridAussiePrepper]

@@eDoc2020 Ohhhh the corporate vpn which is old school.

[@ricardomartinez1871]

2:16 ¡¡¡La Morenita!!!

[@Vynncent]

The one computer over to the right of the mixer has Wave Browser installed, you should REALLY consider removing it as it's malware and does some really messy things to Windows.

[@alch3myau]

too bad they dont supply a block adaptor for the front panel pins

[@DaveyBlade13]

Get that onelauch shit off his computer if you really love him 😂 great video

[@gunjja13]

"Geerling Engineering Based on Luck" 😃🤍 Future shirts coming up?

[@cordlesswire]

is this thing that much laggy? mouse cursor looks pretty darn laggy. video, on the other hand, looks fine.

[@Pabula]

Can anyone tell me what would be the benefit over having something like team viewer?

[@nathanielhill8156]

Bios control and it is OS independent. An app like TeamViewer has to be built for the operating system it is running on. This does not care what operating system it runs on and will work on any proprietary or locked down computer

[@Pabula]

@@nathanielhill8156 Thank you for the reply. I understand the bios level control and powering up, os independent, among other things that teamviewer would be limited. But wondering from a remote connection pov, like another network in another country? like teamviewer i dont need to do port fowarding or use a vpn, wondering how it connects remotly? is there any advantage in terms of more secure?

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Additionally, if the OS is completely locked up or broken, you can still access the computer using this. Many servers have IPMI, iDRAC, etc. but many computers that need to be remotely accessed (especially when there are major problems and RDC and software solutions won't work) do not.

[@Thewickedjon]

i wish they'd make a pci-e bracker that I could install the pikvm INSIDE my desktop

[@JeffGeerling]

Right now the best option for that is the BliKVM PCIe, and I actually tested that on my own channel here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mYe6d2arYt5gkMk

[@shephusted2714]

red shirt jeff probably taught him the drop to fix technique #coan - of or relating to the island of Kos #koan -a paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment.

[@SB-qm5wg]

I want one.

[@wskinnyodden]

Just waiting for this to wipe your arse with baby towels, then I will get me one :P (hehehehe, just because this thing can actually do WAYYY more than advertised, which is a nice change of pace specially when compared to what Apple does...)

[@alch3myau]

Shoulda chucked a SSD in while ya had 'er open

[@haplopeart]

Can't buy it anymore from Kick starter have to wait at least until July (Q3...but who knows what that actually means)

[@mjmeans7983]

Way too expensive for me. Adding it to a used server or simple mini-pc more than doubles the total spend. Needs to be more like $150 for me to consider it. Cheaper to buy a used HP gen8 for $300 and add a $20 iLO license.

[@wxfield]

Oh good. Another Pi based product I can't get.

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Luckily this one can be gotten! Well, could if you participated in the Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/mdevaev/pikvm-v4 - a number of these CM4-using projects lined up CM4 stock prior to shipping. And hopefully by Q3/Q4, when the PiKVM v4 is available through 3rd party resellers, CM4 stock will finally be back again.

[@mwolrich]

I have a V4 mini for sale, if you’re interested.

[@delsorou]

I heard it.

[@dempseydiscus]

What's wrong with good old fashioned ILO?

[@MarcelRobitaille]

Can I have the old one?