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I want to create an iPad app that connects to another machine, laptop or otherwise, via USB and communicates to some other application I develop running there.

I know that this is easy to achieve via Bluetooth or WiFi but this particular set of solutions must be done via a USB cable.

Is it possible to do so without access to the Apple MFi program? (I am about 5 weeks in and the response is not looking good).

iOS App --> USB Cable --> Mac OSX --> Desktop App (without MFi access)


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3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

To use serial communication, you need MFI as you may have discovered. However, there is a poor man's way of achieving this. I have done so during development.

Enable "Internet sharing" on your device and connect to it. Use "ifconfig" on your Mac to find out the interface to use. You do not need to use this as the default connection, but it needs to be active. If I remember correctly, only one end can initiate connections (it was a while so I am sorry that I don't remember the details).

EDIT: I would also like to point out that I did this on an iPhone, not an iPad.

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To use USB communication Apple does not provide any API within IOS SDK. The only option right now is MFI. I don't think Apple will allow this in near future.

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Not over USB but over RS232 (serial port)

Look here: http://www.redpark.com/c2db9.html


  1. The cable uses the old 30 pin connector, but according to them it's compatible with the Lightning adapter
  2. The application won't be accepted on the AppStore, it's for internal use only.
  3. There is a (small) book that explains how to use this cable to connect an iPhone directly to an Arduino, it's been published in late 2011. "iOS Sensor Apps with Arduino Wiring the iPhone and iPad into the Internet of Things" http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920021179.do
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