Re:DIY IP-KVM Based on Raspberry Pi
by JonChesterfield on Monday October 30, 2023 @07:57AM
(#38068292)
It helps to remember that your own time has a cost associated with it. Standing one up from pieces is probably a couple of days of indecision over component selection and loss to misc software refusing to behave itself.
An arm soc is probably $100. So break even is maybe $200 per day getting the thing working. Thus should buy the thing, unless you particularly enjoy the construction process more than whatever else you could spend the weekend doing.
The posted profit over time figures suggests the above back of envelope is rather optimistic, so there's a non-zero risk that after the weekend the thing wouldn't work.
(and thus I've learned that the UK distributor is in Germany with possible brexit/VAT hazards, but hopefully it'll turn up at some point)
It may seem overpriced when compared to collecting all of the pieces and putting them together for yourself, but the person trying to do this as a business has to make a big investment in up front purchasing as well as labor to get them all together and shipped out. It quickly reaches a point where doing it for an “undercutting” level price doesn’t justify the risk and effort.