Using an iPad as a wall mounted Loxone controller - power supply

[Simon Still]

Is anyone else doing this?  Have you had any reliability issues with the iPad?

I've been using an iPad mini like this for the last c2 years.   Over the weekend I noticed that the battery is swollen and popping the screen and case.  it's been like it for some time as it has distorted the display (I'd thought it was the LCD backlight failing)

It's an iPad mini retina and I've been using it with an iPhone 5W power supply rather than the iPad 10W supply.  It's *possible* this may be caused the problem  as when in use the iPad probably draws a bit more power than the P/S can give so it will have been discharging and recharging slightly. 

Anyone have a view?  The iPhone power supply was a lot smaller to hide away than the iPad supply (which is also more useful elsewhere.

[Duncan]

mines been in the wall for 2 years without any problems - its a standard ipad

[Simon Still]

On Monday, 5 March 2018 11:13:11 UTC, Duncan wrote:

mines been in the wall for 2 years without any problems - its a standard ipad

what power supply are you using? (ie how many watts...) 

[Duncan]

mines a 50w psu - ive got a 24v poe adapter at the remote end and a passive poe splitter with 24v to 5v buck converter at the ipad end

i cant see how the power of the adapter could have caused the problem though given that the ipad regulator is between the supply and the ipad battery.

repeat cycling is likely to reduce battery life but not cause battery swelling

a failure of the ipads internal battery system to switch over to trickle charge is more likely to be the cause of swelling.

[Simon Still]

On Monday, 5 March 2018 12:19:50 UTC, Duncan wrote:

mines a 50w psu - ive got a 24v poe adapter at the remote end and a passive poe splitter with 24v to 5v buck converter at the ipad end

Looked at all those solutions and ended up with a duct from behind the wall mounted TV in the same room to behind the ipad, Usb cable through duct, power supply plugged in behind the TV (next to the TV power)!

 

i cant see how the power of the adapter could have caused the problem though given that the ipad regulator is between the supply and the ipad battery.

repeat cycling is likely to reduce battery life but not cause battery swelling

a failure of the ipads internal battery system to switch over to trickle charge is more likely to be the cause of swelling.

There seems to be very contradictory advice all over the place on this. As you say, all the regulation is done at the device end - plug an iPhone into a 15W iPad power supply and it will still only draw 1A and won't charge any faster than with the supplied 5W supply.  An iPad will charge slowly off a low powered USB socket but I think in use it will use more power than the power supply can give so battery level will fall. 

I'm wondering if that would mean I am actually using more battery cycles than I would be if I swapped to a 15W power supply (or if it's such a minor effect as to make no difference).  

i've had weird results when using underpowered USB supplies on other things - a cheap chinese HDMI doubler ran super hot when plugged into a 1A supply but on a 2A supply it ran cool.  

 

[Simon Still]

but reminded again today why i stick with Apple products.  5 Year Old ipad needs new battery, £95 gets you a "reconditioned" unit from the Apple store = indistinguishable from new.

[Zathras]

I've been doing this with a product called LaunchPort by iPort, recommended by my installers and been pleased with the results.

https://iportproducts.com/launchport

We had the advantage of making sure there was CAT7 to where I wanted the tablet mounts as it was a full renovation, so the power adaptors themselves are next to the loxone cabinet in the loft.   

What I like about the LaunchPort is that you can easily rotate or remove from the wall to use, and the connection is very robust.

I'll attach some pictures here to see my installation.