TinyPilot: KVM over IP Control any computer remotely | Hacker News Reader

TinyPilot: KVM over IP Control any computer remotely

tinypilotkvm.com

58 pointsO__________O24 comments

See also https://pikvm.org/ which is open-source (but not open-hardware) :(

TinyPilot is open-nothing. Good head-to-head review here: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2021/raspberry-pi-kvms-com...

Yeah tinypilot looks nice but they want money for every little thing even when you self-build. Seriously who doesn't want password authentication on their KVM? This is just a base requirement IMO.

For an out of the box product maybe but when I chose to self build its at least in part to avoid costs. And for €350 a port you can buy a real AAA-brand KVM not to mention the yearly charge ($80) that most KVMs don't have.

I wonder how many people spend this much money on it. But perhaps I'm not the target audience. I want KVMs for my home lab and $350 is something I'd spend on a full server, not a peripheral. But perhaps this is also a sign of standards of living in the US and Europe diverging. When I hear of senior devs making $250k per year when here they would make $50k, it's a big difference that will obviously make $350 a lot less expensive.

But I would imagine that once you get into real businesses with money they would prefer real AAA-brand boxes and not a raspberry pi with a custom HAT in a 3D printed box :)

I did buy a CSI board to try out pikvm. Hope it works well.

>> TinyPilot is open-nothing.

What am I missing?

https://github.com/tiny-pilot/tinypilot

https://mtlynch.io/tinypilot/#how-to-build-your-own-tinypilo...

You're not missing anything :).

I've got two TinyPilots - one I built using the linked instructions and I bought a TinyPilot Pro because, while pricey, I wanted to support a project that has made my life a lot easier.

It's still lower priced than a Lantronix Spider, too.

Good lord the PRICE difference alone

I had once misconfigured the network adapter of a dedicated server and it lost internet connection.

VKVM came to the rescue, it's an ISO file that has Linux based OS. It automaticaly boots your primary OS in a VM and has a web dashboard where you can see the screen and control the server.

It saved me.

This reminds me of VKVM but better.

> Ultraquiet 13,200 RPM fan

Does not compute.

Spec is from this page, right?

https://tinypilotkvm.com/product/tinypilot-voyager2

What is confusing? Quick Google shows similar specs for Pi fans at 18 decibels.

Are you saying that’s to loud? RPM must be a typo? Something else?

A faster fan makes more noise. A 1400 rpm fan is a quiet fan. A 13k rpm fan would scream.

Wouldn't this all depend on fan size, blade count, blade design, etc...?

The details, yes, but overall, no 13k rpm small fan is going to be quiet if it is spinning at anything near that speed.

Doesn't matter. 13200RPM is 220 revolutions per second. It can't be quiet at all.

I’ve never quite understood the advantage of this over a server bmc(unless it’s not server hardware).

For one thing a lot of BMCs are not the easiest to secure and at least KVM devices like a Spider or PiKVM can be patched so that these network accessible devices aren’t so easy to own remotely. A number of BMCs can start advertising and routing to itself across different PHY so even not hooking up the management NIC to a separate LAN won’t be enough then (you’d need to have the right settings and hope you can disable this behavior to avoid such a broadcast across other NICs). I have this issue with my ASRock ASpeed BMC and never got around to fixing it but it bothers me a bit every time I see the IP pop up in my DHCP list and ARP tables.

BMCs can also be patched. HP updates iLO regularly. I even got a major update on my servers adding things like HTML5 consoles (previously it only had .NET and Java which is a pain in this day and age)

And this is for a server I paid $150 for after cashback from HP.

Oh yes, BMCs can certainly be patched but I had the security issue long after the last patch for the motherboard was released so it really comes down to the manufacturer support level as usual. HP likely does better than Supermicro which likely does better than ASRock

Non-server hardware is precisely why I would use this. I'm currently using pikvm on my desktop-class home servers.

Intel AMT is another option assuming you have an Intel CPU SKU and a motherboard that supports it.

Nice website, must’ve cost a lot to make

The site is nice but I think it could use a new logo

I think the owner should delegate this task to someone else.

Yup. About $46k [0]

[0]https://mtlynch.io/tinypilot-redesign/

That's the joke

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