PiKVM v3 HAT for Raspberry Pi 4

The PiKVM v3 HAT Board is designed to work with the Raspberry Pi 4 and provides the following features:

• HDMI capture device with max resolution 1080p 50Hz and audio support
• Keyboard & mouse emulation
• Mass storage emulation (i.e., virtual flash drive or CD drive provided by image file saved on PiKVM)
• Ability to simulate “removal and insertion” for USB for above mentioned devices
• ATX controller (allowing to switch power even if target device is off or operating system hangs)
• Onboard real-time clock
• 5v PWM fan controller
• USB & RJ-45 serial console

In the box:

• The PiKVM v3 HAT for Raspberry Pi 4
• USB-C bridge board
• ATX adapter board
• Flat CSI-2 cable
• 7x colorful jumpers
• 4x brass standoffs
• 8x screws
• Wires for connecting the ATX interface to the motherboard

Requirements

To use PiKVM v3, you will need the following things, which are NOT included in the kit:

• Raspberry Pi 4 (any amount of RAM is OK)
• 5.1v 3A power supply with USB-C
• A regular HDMI cable
• USB-C to USB-A cable with DATA lines (for keyboard and mouse emulation)
• Straight Ethernet cable (NOT crossover, to connect the HAT board and ATX board)
• Micro-SD card at least 16 Gb and class 10 is strongly recommended

Known issues & limitations

• The actual frame rate of the image received via HDMI will depend on the network bandwidth, resolution and the load on the Raspberry Pi. This is usually ~20-24 FPS for 1080p over LAN.
• AIMOS switches are not fully compatible with the video capture device (as with regular HDMI CSI bridge).
• There may be compatibility issues with some motherboards (such as HP or DELL) which are the same as those that exist with PiKVM v2. Not everything is perfect, but if you have already used PiKVM v2 – our new v3 will work perfectly and please you. If there is no image from the BIOS, you can fine-tune the HDMI settings, but it is possible that the USB keyboard or Mass Storage devices will not be available in the BIOS.

Upcoming software features

• The audio capture device via HDMI works, but is not currently supported by PiKVM software.
• The fan controller operates at a constant speed, but will learn to adjust the speed smoothly in the future.
• Currently, MJPEG is used for video transmission, but you will soon get H.264 support.
• All of these features will be available in one of the future free updates of the operating system.

Resources

Read the user guide and full technical description on GitHub.