
Using an iPad as the main display for a Mac Mini - tosh
https://lunadisplay.com/pages/headless-mode
======
0xPIT
Tried this for hours: won’t really work with Luna DisplayPort on 2014 MacMini
and iPad Pro. Also, does not support the keyboard on the iPad. Their support
was very slow and disappointing, quoting only what’s already on the website.
Luckily got the device for a few quod on eb*y.

Recommendation: Do not buy.

~~~
mronge
Hi! Luna team here.

I'm really sorry to hear you had a poor experience with Luna Display. We do
support both the iPad keyboard and Mini DisplayPort so I'd be happy to try to
get this figured out for you.

You can contact me directly matt@astropad.com and we'll get thing sorted!

~~~
mronge
Also for Windows users, we have Luna Display for Windows coming later this
year! Sign up to our waitlist if you're interested:
[https://astropad.com/windows](https://astropad.com/windows)

~~~
musicale
Cross-platform is the probably the best response to being Sherlocked.

------
auggierose
They must be scrambling for ways of applying their tech now that their main
cash cow has been subsumed by Catalina. But I don't think this is it ...

~~~
qubex
In my experience, SideCar provides a very poor experience. (I’ve never tried
their product, but at the moment I’m writing on an iPad Pro and I’m VNCing
into my Mac using Edovia Inc’s _Screens_ , which is an excellent iOS/iPadOS
VNC client).

~~~
ericlewis
I agree, SideCar is insanely bad. Trying to use it with new iPad + trackpad
and that doesn’t work at all.

------
jjp
It's solving a problem I currently have but am using VNC to solve. Are there
differentiations vs screen sharing in that way. Appreciate that it could be
usability and market positioning to mean that I'm not the target audience, but
is there some other functionality I've not seen in the demo video? And yes my
Mac Mini is currently headless with no display (using the paperclip hack to
improve performance) or keyboard.

~~~
tosh
do you have a pointer to the paperclip hack? difficult to google for

~~~
chedabob
[http://web.archive.org/web/20160513142051/https://macminicol...](http://web.archive.org/web/20160513142051/https://macminicolo.net/blog/files/build-
a-dummy-dongle-for-a-headless-mac-mini.html)

[http://web.archive.org/web/20200512113040/http://www.mactalk...](http://web.archive.org/web/20200512113040/http://www.mactalk.com.au/showthread.php?t=117783)

~~~
dijit
Seems like if it’s not loading the driver then it should be possible to just
load it with kextload? No? I can’t imagine that it’s not a module if it gets
activated later, but obviously I could be wrong. I’m not a MacOS kernel
hacker.

I guess that would be easy to check by running kextstat before and after
plugging in the DisplayPort.

Sadly I only have a 2013 Mac Pro (which has AMD graphics only) so it will
operate differently. :/

------
hawski
How about using iPad LCD panel as a display with eDP-DP adapter? Something
maybe like one of those:

\- [https://www.ebay.com/c/1874959655](https://www.ebay.com/c/1874959655)

\- [http://www.micro-coaxial.com/product-detail/edp-to-dp-
cable-...](http://www.micro-coaxial.com/product-detail/edp-to-dp-cable-
embedded-displayport/)

Has anyone have an experience with those?

~~~
paxswill
I have a panel set up with the appropriate adapters. I originally got the
Adafruit kit, which came with a nice frame. That board worked for a while, but
I would not recommend it for two reasons: something changed/broke after a year
and a high power AC adapter had to be used with it, and it's much more
expensive than the other boards out there.

My recommendation for these are the converter boards from AbuseMark [0]. In
addition to the basic DP-eDP adapters, he also has HDMI and miniDP versions of
the boards. Powering the boards for the backlight is also easier as it's just
USB. It seems that he's introduced a USB-C version recently as well. He also
has a number of very useful "accessories", like different cables for the
various kinds of LCD panels, or a specialized DP-HDMI adapter that handles the
odd resolution properly. It looks like shipping from Japan is on hold for the
time being, but I highly recommend them once shipping is back up.

0: [http://www.abusemark.com/store/](http://www.abusemark.com/store/)

~~~
hawski
Thanks for your input! Those from AbuseMark look great. The USB-C version
works if DisplayPort Alternate Mode is supported. It costs 30 USD, same as
regular DisplayPort one.

~~~
snalty
I have an AbuseMark board as well, despite not having used it yet as I don't
have the right display connector the service was excellent and can vouch for
them too. I had a cheap chinese board first which didn't support brightness
control, but the AbuseMark boards support brightness control over serial so
that's nice.

------
kevingadd
The Apple requirement to have a keyboard + mouse plugged in even if you're
doing remote desktop or using a remote display is really frustrating. It seems
like a few releases ago you could fix it with an app, but now you're stuck.
Even worse on the laptops where it seems like a monitor is required too...

I wonder if this app manages to get around that somewhat through trickery?

~~~
braythwayt
I have a mac mini I use as a media server. It has no keyboard, mouse, or
display. I VNC into it from my iPad or use Screen Sharing from my Macbook Air
just fine, although I have reached for a keyboard once to solve a problem.

But I do not doubt you are describing a real problem. Can you tell me under
what circumstances using a remote desktop requires a mouse and keyboard to be
physically plugged in?

~~~
paxswill
Not so much mouse and keyboard, but display. For at least a while (not sure if
it's still the case) graphics acceleration would be disabled if there wasn't a
display, leading to things like [0] and [1]

0: [https://macminicolo.net/blog/files/build-a-dummy-dongle-
for-...](https://macminicolo.net/blog/files/build-a-dummy-dongle-for-a-
headless-mac-mini.html)

1: [https://www.amazon.com/NewerTech-Headless-Video-
Accelerator-...](https://www.amazon.com/NewerTech-Headless-Video-Accelerator-
Dummy/dp/B01ASJCZFK)

~~~
braythwayt
Thank you.

I had no idea. That could explain why VNC is slow on my mini, but since I use
it primarily as a headless server, I can live with that.

------
Abishek_Muthian
I've been using duet display for using iPad as an external display for nearly
two years.

The main negative outcome of such setup is degrading the battery life of the
tablet/phone when used with the cable for better latency.

I think if people use sidecar with USB cable for charging all the time, soon
Apple might remove the feature due to battery replacement complaints.

~~~
marinhero
Can you elaborate on the topic of battery degradation? isn't this a scenario
that the iPad was built for? how would it be different from hours of watching
videos?

~~~
sbierwagen
If it lives on a cable, the battery will always be at 100%, which Apple says
reduces battery lifespan: [https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT210512](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210512)

~~~
NullPrefix
iPads don't support trickle charging?

------
mangecoeur
> Using an _$1200_ iPad as the main display for a _$700_ Mac Mini

Corrected that headline for you ;)

~~~
hrktb
To add to jmull's point, in this day and age there are very few things and
iPad 2 is the best tool for the job.

Panic's dashboard was one of these things, Luna Display would be another.

From the other side of the spectrum, if the Mac Mini is not a primary
computer, sticking it in some closet and using a VNC/Luna Display/Duet like
combination to use it from a modern iPad is pretty efficient. The rest of the
time you just keep using your iPad for any other intents or purpose.

------
betimsl
One expensive setup that is.

~~~
ChuckNorris89
Reminds me of the Futulele, a setup with an iPad and an iPhone to simulate an
$20 ukulele.

[https://www.theverge.com/2012/3/5/2848097/futulele-ipad-
ipho...](https://www.theverge.com/2012/3/5/2848097/futulele-ipad-iphone-
ukulele)

~~~
smitty1e
See your uke; raise you a retro iPad/mechanical typewriter rig =>
[https://www.qwerkywriter.com/](https://www.qwerkywriter.com/)

~~~
TomMarius
That actually looks like a nice thing to own if you have a storywriting hobby
and a pre-existing iPad.

------
adav
You can plug an iPad Pro into a Raspberry Pi 4 over USB-C for a bit of
occasional desktop oomph.

~~~
blunte
Which of those two devices do you think has more "oomph"?

~~~
bluegreyred
I know which one has more "oomph" when I need a CLI and package manager...

~~~
blunte
Ok. That is a less standard use of the term "oomph", but I would agree by that
definition that the Pi has more of it.

~~~
adav
Why do you think it's a less standard definition?

~~~
blunte
Common English uses oomph to express power, speed, acceleration, strength,
etc. Flexibility or broad capability is not the usual meaning.

A simple dictionary search (multiple dictionaries) backs this up.

~~~
adav
Replace your assumption I was referring to processor performance with actual
work completed instead :)

------
sida
What I honestly would like is to use the ipad as a display for the switch when
I am on the road.

Of course, what would be even better is if ipad had games selection like the
switch

~~~
anoraca
Apple Arcade has some really good options these days, esp considering it's
only $5/mo [https://www.apple.com/apple-arcade/](https://www.apple.com/apple-
arcade/)

~~~
sida
But what I would like is to couch coop games, like switch.

Many games on ipad are not built with couch coops with controllers as first
class citizens

------
kbouck
Isnt this now possible using Sidecar? Perhaps with an HDMI dummy plugged into
the mini if a primary is needed?

~~~
null_object
Sidecar only allows for the iPad to be the _second_ or auxiliary display -
making it effectively useless for this purpose.

I'm actually gonna implement this setup (I'm looking out for used Mac minis on
my local equivalent to eBay this week), for when my iPad Pro and Magic
Keyboard get delivered over the next couple weeks.

This means I'll be able to use the setup for sketching and illustration,
video-editing, note-taking and other typical iPad tasks, but then also be able
to hook it up to the headless Mac mini (which I plan to stash in a cupboard)
and use Xcode and other MacOS-only applications.

No idea how well this is gonna work, but I'm certainly looking forward to
illustrating again - something I've barely done for the last few years, and
which used to be a large and very satisfying part of my work (in the days
before narrow specialization was such a thing).

~~~
hmwhy
I did a bit of research a couple of months ago when I wanted to set up Sidecar
for illustration (but couldn't because my Macbook is slightly too old); it
seems that, whether with Sidecar or other paid Apps, the iPad as a drawing
tablet may not be ideal if you need fine control.

Just thought I'd note that in case this setup is very important to you before
you buy your Mac Mini. I don't do any sort of graphics design and video
editing, but people seem to be generally pretty happy with it for those
purposes.

Also, many of the free drawing Apps in the App Store are actually very full-
featured and feel fantastic to draw with (please support them if you like
them), which is what I settled on in the end. The only thing that I miss about
my Wacom Intuos is the textured surface.

Edit: removed repeated "a couple of months ago" and "in case", moved things
around a little.

~~~
null_object
Sorry for being unclear: I’m intending to use the iPad for drawing with
Procreate. At least as far as all the commercial illustrators that I
personally know (which is quite a few) this is now their standard production
setup.

For video I’m gonna try the iOS application LumaFusion - this is new to me, so
I have no idea how it compares to apps like Final Cut Pro or Premiere, that
I’ve used in the past - but I’ve seen some encouraging YouTube videos showing
editors using it, at what seems to me blinding speed.

The Mac mini would only be used for Xcode and other stuff that isn’t available
on iOS (or iPadOS).

~~~
hmwhy
Upon reading again I think it is clear what you meant, and I should apologise
for jumping in to comment a bit too quickly!

------
villgax
Why is this hardware even needed when you can use open-source VNC apps to do
just this on your local WiFi?

~~~
snazz
VNC latency is not wonderful.

------
5etho
this is like worst idea ever

~~~
ARandomerDude
As a goal, sure there are cheaper and more powerful alternatives.

But if you have a mac mini sitting around, and you also have an iPad, it's an
innovative way to reuse the hardware you've got for only $50 -- especially if
you're space- or cash-constrained.

~~~
5etho
If you are cash costrained sell this devices and buy normal pc with monitor

------
pibefision
Having a conversation about why using a mouse today is great, in 2020, is
something that only Apple can create context to happend.

~~~
blunte
It's not an Apple thing, this conversation - it's about devices suited for
different (but overlapping) purposes, and how to handle when you reach the
intended suitability boundary for the device you're on.

For much of what a tablet is intended for, a mouse makes no sense (or rather,
touch makes most sense). But for operating a desktop GUI which was designed
for a mouse, then obviously a mouse is at an advantage.

