PiKVM v3.3 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

kit includes

• The PiKVM v3 HAT board 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 Pi-KVM v2. Not everything is perfect, but if you have already used Pi-KVM 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

• PiKVM v3 HAT user guide
• PiKVM on GitHub