Remote-Kit: Pocket Router for Remote Hardware Bring-up

A compact “lab-in-a-box” that turns a $30 GL-MT300N-V2 pocket router into a remote hardware bring-up station. You get serial console, PoE power control, SD card image swapping, USB power cycling, PiKVM video/keyboard, and a camera feed over a single box.

What Remote-Kit does

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• Serial terminal to the DUT over SSH (screen)
• Virtual SD card image loading via SDWire (no physical card swaps)
• Remote USB power cycle (Tasmota-based XY-WSUSB)
• PoE power on/off and power measurements (Netgear GS308EP)
• PiKVM remote display + USB keyboard/mouse emulation
• Optional USB webcam stream for bench visibility
• FTP/TFTP for bootloader RAM loading

System overview

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Hardware (Bill of Materials)

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Below is a reference setup for a Raspberry Pi 4 as DUT. Prices are from the time of writing and will vary.

Firmware and services

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• Custom OpenWrt image for GL-MT300N-V2
• Port forwarding for PiKVM, PoE switch, camera, and smart plugs
• SSH access for scripted automation
• Utilities: screen, ntgrrc, SDWire scripts

Setup steps

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1. Flash the Remote-Kit firmware to the GL-MT300N-V2 (source on GitHub).
2. Connect your PC to the LAN side and log in to http://192.168.20.1.
3. Connect WiFi accessories (smart socket, XY-WSUSB) to SSID remote-kit-000 (key: remote-kit-000).
4. Wire PoE switch, PiKVM, SDWire, and camera to the LAN ports.
5. Change the default GS308EP password from password to something secure.
6. Update port-forwards in OpenWrt to match your device IPs.

The firmware ships with these default port-forward rules (all via the router’s LAN IP):

Common remote workflows

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1) Load a new SD image onto the DUT

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ssh root@remote-kit-000  #pw: remote-kit-000
root@remote-kit-000:~# wget -O /mnt/sda1/libreelec-image.img.gz https://releases.libreelec.tv/LibreELEC-RPi4.aarch64-11.95.1.img.gz
root@remote-kit-000:~# ntgrrc login --password Remotekit000 --address GS308EP
root@remote-kit-000:~# ntgrrc poe set -p 1 --power disable --address GS308EP
root@remote-kit-000:~# sd-wire-load-image.sh /mnt/sda1/libreelec-image.img.gz
root@remote-kit-000:~# ntgrrc login --password Remotekit000 --address GS308EP
root@remote-kit-000:~# ntgrrc poe set -p 1 --power enable --address GS308EP
root@remote-kit-000:~# #LibreElec will now boot on Pi-4-DUT - you can see this booting from a remote location using PiKVM's WebUI.

2) Power cycle the DUT (PoE)

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ssh root@remote-kit-000  #pw: remote-kit-000
ntgrrc login --password Remotekit000 --address GS308EP
ntgrrc poe set -p 1 --power disable --address GS308EP
ntgrrc poe set -p 1 --power enable --address GS308EP

3) Open serial console

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ssh root@remote-kit-000  #pw: remote-kit-000
screen -R serial /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

4) Simulate Ethernet cable unplug

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ssh root@remote-kit-000  #pw: remote-kit-000
ntgrrc login --password Remotekit000 --address GS308EP
ntgrrc port set -p 1 -s 'Disable' --address GS308EP  #unplug
ntgrrc port set -p 1 -s 'Auto' --address GS308EP     #plug

5) Measure PoE power draw

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ssh root@remote-kit-000  #pw: remote-kit-000
ntgrrc login --password Remotekit000 --address GS308EP
ntgrrc poe status --address GS308EP       #print status in table format
ntgrrc poe status --address GS308EP -f json  #print in json format

Use cases

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• Remote OS image testing for embedded boards
• Regression testing of bootloaders and kernels
• Remote lab access for distributed teams
• Automated power and peripheral cycling in CI pipelines

hackboxguy/remote-kit

Remote HW bringup, testing and debugging toolkit

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Remote-Kit firmware (.bin)