There were two primary functions I wanted to test this KVM for: 1. Using WOL to wake up a headless host and then be able to remotely connect to it both via LAN and WAN. Previously I had to use one utility to do the WOL and have a client loaded onto the host which meant that you couldn't remote to it until the OS had booted. The KVM allows me to use a single interface to WOL and then connect to the device. Having no client means you can also connect during POST if needed. 2. Connect to a Chromebook remotely Previously to connect to a Chromebook remotely you needed to have Chrome Remote Desktop installed and you had to enter a code to allow remote access at the host meaning someone had to be at the host Chromebook. The KVM allows full access to the Chromebook now but with the caveat that the Chromebook is turned on as Chromebooks don't support WOL. (You could do with a remote power switch if you need to as most Chromebook will boot on power up). The unit is well made with an aluminum body which does get a bit warm even when in standby. You can connect via the app but that's only available for Windows and Mac at the moment and as primarily a Chromebook user, I use a Wireguard VPN into my home Flint 2 and then just use the web interface direct to the KVM. I can't seem to see any major differences in performance using the different connection methods ( Windows app vs Chromebook VPN). For remote access this unit works wonders. There's no software client or subscription fees which is a huge bonus and initial capital cost is low. The ability to do whatever I need to on the remote host is great and I can even stream videos with audio. There's a heap of settings to play with to get the most optimal solution for your requirements so it's pretty flexible. At the moment I don't have any use for the more advance functions like ATX or Fingerbot control but nice to know they're there if I ever need it. Well worth the money if you need simple, clientless and easy remote access. Read more
I love this so far. We've dubbed our office one the 'gizmo' and I got one for home as well. If you built or used a pikvm, it's identical and I'm sure it's just a fork of that software. But for the cost and size, perfect. It's also been actively updated the last couple weeks, so support seems pretty good on it. The only thing I've noticed, is in Firefox, pressing the back button on the mouse will make Firefox itself go back which isn't a terrible deal but Chrome/Edge/Brave (likely any Chromium browser) all seem to pass that command through. But when this happens in Firefox, going back into the page is a little hit or miss on the video stream picking back up. A quick restart has always corrected this but I haven't seen this in Chromium browsers so they seem to work a little better between that and the back button on the mouse. Not a big deal, still 5 stars. This also works decently well through mobile browsers as well since it has a virtual keyboard option. Phenomenal item for the same price as the pikvm kit that doesn't include the pi itself. I've retired my pikvm for this already to use for other projects so that was another plus. The Tailscale support is also great. Quick update -- I've pretty much used this exclusively through Brave and Edge browser since they continue to work with the webrtc video and the back and forward mouse buttons as we all intend it to. Firefox works with webrtc but has the same behavior if you reload the page or go back and video has a hard time coming back. Firefox works okay with the direct h264 option but every couple minutes, the whole browser will freeze, including other open windows. The SIpeed nano kvm doesn't seem to do this when using their direct h264 option, so I can't put my finger on what the issue is with the Comet specifically. Using a Chromium based browser solves all of that for me at least. I want to add that text selection in Linux Mint specifically brings up an icon based menu first. Pressing right click again will bring up the normal menu but just something to be aware of. Lastly, I think the UI should be consolidated into a floating bar, like the sipeed nano. Not the biggest deal but when using these in the browser as a web-app, the top bar takes up a fair amount of space. Otherwise I'll continue to use this until the Pro version gets delivered with that sweet HDMI pass-through so I can stop using an HDMI splitter. ;) Read more
