DIY Monitor from iPad?

[EnglishBloke]

So I recently watched LTT's video on a DIY Monitor. And he mentioned about needing a special connection if you wanted to do it with an iPad screen, etc. And that got me thinking.

I recently got into sim racing and noticed quite quickly that I'm going to need some kind of button box or at least extra screen to monitor everything I'm doing more efficiently.

I conveniently have an old ass iPad, like version 5.1.1 old, and thought "hmm, secondary screen?". But none of the screensharing apps work, none of the apps designed specifically for sim racing work, and none of the programs that run off your pc to send the sim data through a browser work on it either, it's just too old to be supported. It works on my iPhone 6, so I can have a little screen in-front of me for lap times and a leaderboard, but my plan was to have a nice sized display with some buttons for navigation/adjusting fuel for pit stops.

So does anyone know if there are connectors available to wire the iPad screen up as a monitor? And if I did that, would the touch still work to make it a button box or would I need all kinds of custom hardware for that? If I could at least use it as a display that would be great, because I know I can make the iPhone a button box.

 

[Woxolifo]

There is programs to use like a laptop as a screen. maybe they have apps that can be used too? but I have not heard of them personally 

[RobV1306]

I'm not aware of any apps etc for Apple products to do that. I'm not saying they don't exist, I just don't know them.

 

BUT, for like £100 you can make a pretty good second screen with touch by using an arduino. Check out somewhere like adafruit - they sell loads of stuff like that. You could simply buy an iPad sized touch screen and rig it up to your PC through an arduino. Stick some simple graphics on the screen and it should work just like you're looking for.

 

Either that, or you could physically build a button box using an arduino for even less. You can buy carbon fiber boxes from ebay pretty cheap, cut some holes (making sure you're wearing a mask - you don't want that stuff in your lungs!), mount some buttons, rig up the arduino code (v easy) and then either hook it up to a PC using processing or change the arduino registry to make your PC think it's a keyboard (google how to do this - not hard).

 

Happy to give more advice if you want.

[EnglishBloke]

2 hours ago, RobV1306 said:

I'm not aware of any apps etc for Apple products to do that. I'm not saying they don't exist, I just don't know them.

 

BUT, for like £100 you can make a pretty good second screen with touch by using an arduino. Check out somewhere like adafruit - they sell loads of stuff like that. You could simply buy an iPad sized touch screen and rig it up to your PC through an arduino. Stick some simple graphics on the screen and it should work just like you're looking for.

 

Either that, or you could physically build a button box using an arduino for even less. You can buy carbon fiber boxes from ebay pretty cheap, cut some holes (making sure you're wearing a mask - you don't want that stuff in your lungs!), mount some buttons, rig up the arduino code (v easy) and then either hook it up to a PC using processing or change the arduino registry to make your PC think it's a keyboard (google how to do this - not hard).

 

Happy to give more advice if you want.

Yeah that's fair enough. I was trying to use what I've got first before I try buying even more. I was hoping there was a way to pull the screen out of the iPad and use it. I suspect the problem is that it's an iPad and not an android.

[RobV1306]

If you're willing to take it apart, there's likely something you can do with it.

 

I know Apple products can be torturous for using weird standards and stuff, but I can't imagine they've gone to the extreme of making a whole new display driver protocol. It's likely that the screen itself is attached to the body of the iPad with a standard ribbon cable that a simple driver board could run. Someone may correct me on that fact though since I don't know for sure.

 

If you pulled it apart, you could give that a go? Getting the touch to work may be more tricky but I'd imagine there are boards out there that will do it. Maybe worth a look?