Blog
all 34console 9hardware 8update 8network 7video 7security 6input 5display 4media 3mobile 3storage 3vpn 3diagnostics 2power 2screen-text 2api 1community 1demo 1home-assistant 1
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The demo is a whole fake computer now
The interactive demo moved to its own address and stopped being a screenshot: it is the real console, driving a machine that boots, crashes and lets you update its firmware.
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A case, printed by somebody else
Colin Hickey printed one for the ESP32-P4-ETH with the C790 inside, and published the model on Printables.
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0.38.0 - a mouse jiggler
A machine left alone locks its screen, and then what you were watching is behind a password. One pixel, there and back, as often as you like.
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0.37.0 - the screen as two kilobytes
Work a machine over a phone tether by sending the characters instead of the video, hand a dashboard a view-only token, and go back to any published release.
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0.36.0 - a panel that can stay open, and arrows on a phone
Pin a panel beside the picture instead of over it, and drive a boot menu from a phone that has no arrow keys.
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0.33.0 - rev 3.x images for the NANO and the Guition
The same board can arrive with either family of chip, and the wrong image simply refuses to flash. Both boards now publish both.
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0.32.0 - settings to a file, and back
Save the configuration before you change it, or bring a second device up like the first.
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0.31.0 - updates that take on the first try
A chip fault during its own restart made updates look like they reverted themselves. Fixed, along with uploads that died part-way over HTTPS.
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0.30.0 - any size of little OLED
Not every status panel is 128x64. Six SSD1306 sizes and four SH1106 ones now work, and a shorter panel drops the lines that matter least.
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0.29.0 - you can watch an update happen
The console takes over the screen during an update, names the step it is on, and afterwards says which version actually came back.
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0.28.0 - reading the screen as text, and watching it while you are away
Select and copy the words off a BIOS screen instead of typing them out, and let the device raise an alert when a phrase you care about appears.
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0.26.0 - one cable in a rack, and images for the other chip
A build for the PoE board, so a KVM in a rack needs one cable, plus images for rev 3.x silicon beside the existing ones.
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0.25.0 - the device keeps its own log
A log that survives a restart, so the boot that failed is still readable after the device has come back on something that works.
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0.24.0 - point a phone at the screen to get in
The round LCD shows the rescue hotspot as a QR code, the certificate finally names the address DHCP gave the device, and the reset button shows that it heard you.
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0.23.0 - IPv6
The device answers on IPv6 as well as IPv4, on Ethernet and WiFi, with a certificate that names the address and a network panel that hands it to you.
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0.22.0 - two firmware slots, and a way back
The firmware panel shows both slots and can boot the other one, so going back to a build that worked needs no cable.
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0.21.0 - a little screen on the box itself
Solder on a small OLED or a round colour LCD and the device shows its address, its link and its health without a browser at all.
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0.20.0 - virtual media grows up
An ISO is offered as a CD-ROM and everything else as a disk, and the whole microSD card can be handed to the target at once.
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0.19.0 - your own control server, and a card you can write
Point the device's Tailscale client at your own Headscale, and on rev 3.x boards upload images to the microSD card from the console.
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0.17.0 - WiFi, and a hotspot for when it fails
On boards with an ESP32-C6 the KVM can run over WiFi, put up its own hotspot when the network is gone, and open the console on your phone by itself.
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0.16.0 - Tailscale, right on the device
The KVM joins your tailnet by itself - no gateway, no VPS, no port forwarding - and the console installs to a phone's home screen.
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0.15.0 - bring your own certificate
Install a certificate from your own CA, or a real public one, so browsers trust the device with nothing to import.
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0.14.0 - WireGuard, and an API simple enough for a script
Reach the KVM over a WireGuard tunnel without opening a port, and drive the target with plain HTTP calls instead of a binary protocol.
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0.13.0 - the KVM shows up in Home Assistant
Turn on MQTT and the device is discovered as one Home Assistant device, with sensors for what it sees and buttons for what it can press.
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0.11.0 - the device becomes its own certificate authority
Import one small certificate once and the browser trusts the device for good - which is also what unlocks H.264 and the keyboard channel.
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0.9.0 - pressing the power button from a browser
Two cheap optocoupler modules let the device press the target's power and reset buttons and read its power LED back.
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0.10.0 - phones, and taking turns at the keyboard
The screen becomes a trackpad on a phone, and a second person opening the console can see who is driving and ask for the keyboard.
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0.7.0 - a second board, and a release for each
The Espressif ESP32-P4 Function EV board joins the Waveshare one, and CI now builds and publishes every board separately.
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0.6.0 - the console gets out of the way
The firmware version becomes a badge that shows updates and their progress, diagnostics and media move out of Settings, and the whole button rail can switch sides.
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0.5.0 - macros, for the sequence you type every time
Save a named script of key chords, text and delays, and replay it with one click.
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0.4.0 - Wake-on-LAN and a fixed address
Power a sleeping machine on without any wiring, and give the KVM a static IP that a typo cannot turn into a brick.
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0.3.0 - it knows what the target is running
The device guesses the target's operating system from how it plugs in, keeps a rescue image in its own flash, and stops undoing updates that were fine.
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0.2.0 - boot the target from an image on a card
A disk image on the microSD card is handed to the target as a USB drive it can boot from - a rescue system, an installer, a live image.
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0.1.2 - the first working KVM
The first tagged builds. HDMI capture, a keyboard and mouse the target cannot tell from real ones, a web console over HTTPS, and updates over the network.
