Pi-Cast is an IP KVM that allows you to connect keyboards, displays, and mouses over the network. It supports all features of the PiKVM platform, including USB simulation and HDMI streaming. Pi-Cast also provides the ability to cast any HDMI source to your iPad, iPhone, Mac, Android device, or any other platform with support for USB Ethernet. It does so at full bandwidth, using a single USB Type-C cable, and without the need for networking equipment of any kind. And it’s tiny. Thanks to its Raspberry Pi 4B form factor, it measures just 85 x 56 x 15 mm. That gives it a footprint smaller than that of a credit card and makes it the most compact PiKVM device on the market.

Pi-Cast Demo

A Better Way to Connect

The traditional way of connecting directly to a CM4, without a network router or switch, would be to turn the CM4’s OTG-enabled USB port into an RNDIS-compatible network card and connect it to your computer directly. Unfortunately, that solution prevents you from taking advantage of one of the device’s most useful features, USB-device simulation, which allows you to emulate keyboards, CD-Rom drives, mass-storage devices, etc.

The other solution would be turn your CM4 into a hotspot, but that only works for Wi-Fi-enabled models and is vulnerable to network instability and other such issues. Using Pi-Cast’s onboard USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet, you can avoid these compromises by connecting directly to your CM4 through a simple USB Type-C cable.

Features & Specifications

• HDMI input (implemented by TC358743XBG)
• HDMI output
• Onboard, USB-3.0 Gigabit Ethernet
• USB 2.0 Type-C（client & host)
• SD card slot (for CM4 versions without eMMC support)
• 40-pin Raspberry-Pi-compatible pin header
• Support for 1920x1080 resolution at 60Hz for improved UEFI and BIOS compatibility
• Support for USB device simulation, including emulated keyboard, mouses, mass-storage devices, etc.
• Support for simulating USB insertion and removal events
• Size: 86 x 56 x 15 mm

Pi-Cast HAT Features

• An RJ45 ethernet port with PoE support
• A real-time clock (RTC) with a battery holder
• ATX control through RJ45 (compatible with the official PiKVM HAT)
• A USB serial port to access PiKVM
• A Cisco-style console port (to access PiKVM or servers)
• A fan with speed control
• A PoE module
• An OLED screen
• A 40-pin Raspberry Pi header

Pi-Cast KVM Switch Features

• Multiport switching with ATX support
• USB HUB
• Manual switching button
• LEDs for indicating active connecting computer
• A fan with speed control
• A PoE module
• USB Type-C power port
• USB-Serial control port
• GPIO control header

PCIe-to-USB-3.0 Baseboard Features

• Three USB 3.0 Type-A ports
• M.2 B Key interface for an LTE/5G roaming card

Board Layout

Pi-Cast in a Server Room? Gigabit Ethernet to the Rescue!

If you want to deploy Pi-Cast in a data center, server room, or rack, you might want to connect it to a regular RJ45 port. Thanks to the onboard signal-multiplexer chipset, all you have to do is flip a DIP switch to route the CM4’s Gigabit Ethernet signal between the onboard USB 3.0 Ethernet chipset and the external pin header used to connect to the Pi-Cast HAT.

Want to develop your own HAT? No problem! We will release the symbols and footprint of our Pi-Cast HAT design.

Multiport Switching with ATX support

Many of you have asked, in the PiKVM Reddit forum, if there is a way of multiport switching ATX control signals when using a KVM switch. Historically, the answer has been no, but Pi-Cast makes this possible. It is a two-port KVM switch capable of handling ATX signals as well as those for HDMI and USB. You can control the switch in either of two ways: through GPIO or using an EZCOO-compatible USB serial-port control protocol.

USB 3.0 Type-A Ports & Support for LTE/5G WWAN

To make Pi-Cast even more flexible, we have also manufactured a USB 3.0 expansion board with an M.2 B Key as one of the USB 3.0 interfaces. By inserting an LTE/5G card into that M.2 interface, you can give your Pi-Cast access to mobile data! This expansion board also provides three USB 3.0 Type-A ports for connecting USB thumb drives and other such devices.

Comparisons

Pi-Cast Configurations With Enclosures

We have designed enclosures for six different Pi-Cast configurations:

1. Pi-Cast only
2. Pi-Cast with our USB-3.0 Baseboard
3. Pi-Cast with our Hat
4. Pi-Cast with our KVM Switcher
5. Pi-Cast with our USB-3.0 Baseboard & our Hat
6. Pi-Cast with our USB-3.0 Baseboard & our KVM Switcher

Open Source

While the PiKVM software is open source, most available hardware for it is not. We would like to contribute to PiKVM maintainability, hackability, and transparency. Once our campaign has reached its funding goal, we will publish our schematics for Pi-Cast and for both of our expansion boards. We will also publish the firmware for our KVM switch.

Interested in This Project?

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