Using the iPad as a monitor for a Raspberry Pi
An external monitor has always been my go to choice to work with a Raspberry Pi. When I looked for a more portable solution, the iPad came to mind. It seemed like a better alternative than a huge monitor that always sat at my desk. The process was very easy to set up and the iPad worked as a nice substitute.
Setting up the Raspberry Pi
The first step would be to install Raspberry Pi OS. The official website would be an ideal starting point on figuring out how to download images onto a micro SD card and then to install it.
If it has already been installed previously, connect the device to a power outlet and an ethernet cable.
The IP address of the device is necessary to connect it to a remote desktop. There are a few ways to grab the IP address. One of it is to use the WiFi Router’s IP address.
- Open the browser and type in the IP address of your router.
- Login with your credentials. The username and password should be in the router sticker if you haven’t changed it.
- The LAN port should display the Raspberry Pi’s IP address.
If you do not know or have the router IP address or the login credentials at your disposal, the other option would be to type in the following command in the terminal.
ping raspberrypi.local
In my case, the IP addresses from the router and the terminal look different because while using ping, I connected my device to the wifi.
Setting up the iPad
For the Raspberry Pi to be able to remotely connect to the iPad, two apps have to be downloaded from the App Store.
- PiHelper
- VNC Viewer
PiHelper
PiHelper is a nifty tool to connect to your Raspberry Pi device. There are a lot of useful functionalities that helps us monitor the device.
- Tap + Add Connection.
- Enter in the data in the following screen.
CONNECTION NAME: can be anything of your choice
HOST: the IP address for the device from the previous steps. (It was 192.168.0.70 for me)
PORT: 22 (by default)
USERNAME and PASSWORD: these were setup while installing the Raspberry Pi OS.
After everything has been filled up, tap on Test Connection. If it worked, there should be a green status bar at the bottom saying that the app successfully connected with the device.
- Tap Save.
- Tap on the raspberrypi connection. The dashboard screen will show up with three menu tabs at the top for GPIO, Term for terminal and SFTP.
- Tap on Term. A terminal screen will open up.
- Install tightvncserver. TightVNC will let the Raspberry Pi connect with a remote desktop, in our case the iPad. Type the following commands in the terminal.
sudo apt install tightvncserver
vncserver
When vncserver command is run for the first time, it will ask you to type a password twice. Don’t forget the password.
There is information about the new desktop at the bottom followed by a number. The number is very important.
VNC Viewer
This app lets us remotely control the iPad. It is password protected and this is where the password you entered in the previous step comes in handy.
- Tap + icon.
- Enter in the Raspberry Pi’s IP address and any name of your choice.
Address: The IP address has to be followed by a colon and the desktop number that was shown in the PiHelper’s terminal window. It was 192.168.0.70:1 for me.
- Tap Save.
- The ‘Interaction’ setting has a ‘Touch Panel’ option, if preferred.
- Tap Connect.
- The app will ask for a password. This is the password from the PiHelper’s terminal. Tap Continue.
A connection has been established and the Raspberry Pi is now remotely connected to an iPad.
If the article helped you, I would appreciate a cup of coffee.
