Hi Everyone,
Following my 2014 JNUC session, there were several questions about one item in my presentation... Using a camera kit, USB-to-ethernet adapter and a USB hub to get your iPad online when it falls off wireless... This really helps for pushing 'clear passcode' commands or resetting the iPad and inserting a activation lock code, etc.
Here are the required items:
-powered USB hub (the ethernet takes too much power for the iPad to directly handle most of the time)
-Camera kit (lightning or 30-pin to USB plug)
-Apple USB to Ethernet adapter
-iPad
Take the powered USB hub and plug the USB to ethernet adapter into the hub and plug it into an ethernet cord. Then, take the end that you'd normally plug into your computer and plug that into the camera kit adapter. Then, plug the camera kit adapter into the iPad. You'll get an alert on the iPad that it isn't a supported USB peripheral. This is a good thing! It means it was detected. If you don't get this warning, check all your connections as something isn't right.
Give the iPad 30 seconds or so and you should be online. Push notifications wills tart flowing but sending an empty push might get things moving more quickly. Then, send whatever command you need to send and you should be set! I've had to sometimes reboot the iPad with everything connected to see it and if you disconnect it, it almost always needs a reboot to see it again a second time.
So, this isn't bullet-proof but works awesome to get a clear passcode or reset command to an iPad that is locked out. It works about 80-80% of the time for me.
My school is affiliated with a iPad/Laptop manufacturer here in NJ that is working on a USB-over-Ethernet controller that will work with iPad carts. It's a really intriguing idea, providing a "bridge" between Configurator on your workstation that points to a Ethernet-to-USB device that then is plugged into your sync/charge cart. So you're basically plugging your iPad cart into your LAN and then you can manage the cart full of iPad from anywhere and don't have be physically connected to it.
Their device is undergoing final testing from UL and FCC, but should be on the market in a few months. They've promised me an early prototype to play with, which I should have soon. If anyone is interested in learning more about this, let me know, and I can update this thread. They are currently building out the website for the product or I'd link to it, but it's mostly blank now.
Hi @john_wetter][/url][/url][/url
After receiving the link to this from a co-worker, I have tried this and it seems to work like a charm for disabled iPads.
As all our iPad fleet is supervised by a dedicated management laptop, I already have the established trust to be able to unlock the iPad.
So when one of our students disables their iPad for entering the passcode too many times and permanently disables it, we can use this method to unlock it again. After being able to send the clear passcode command, it needs to be plugged into iTunes on the management laptop and synced, which then unlocks the iPad.
I have since purposely disabled my dev iPad twice and unlocked it both times because of this.
Cheers!
- Sean
Sorry to bump old posts, but...
Is there a hardware adapter/splitter solution out there that will provide Lightning to USB and also provide a second Lightning port for A/C power, too?
I manage a lot of wall-mounted iPad conference room kiosks (running Roomr). Wi-Fi is fairly flakey here due to lots of concrete as well as interference from scientific equipment.
Apple released a new Lightning to USB 3 adapter in March 2016. It provides both USB data and A/C power in a single Y-style adapter. No USB hubs or thrid-party drivers/frameworks.
Bye-bye, Wi-Fi.
I'm so excited that I made a pretty diagram.
@dstranathan
Apple released a new Lightning to USB 3 adapter in March 2016. It provides both USB data and A/C power in a single Y-style adapter. No USB hubs or thrid-party drivers/frameworks.
Have you tried this method yet for connecting an iPad (not necessarily a Pro) to ethernet? I'm thinking of purchasing, but wondering what your experience may have been?
Yes, I have 10 iPad mini 2 (Retina) running both iOS 9.2.1 and 9.3. They are used as conference room kiosks running Roomr. All of them work great in the configuration that I illustrated above.
My biggest complaint is iOS doesn't reflect the lightning Ethernet interface in the iOS GUI (that I am aware of), so you can't see relevant IP information, etc.
@dstranathan NICE! Thanks for sharing!
I have an ethernet rig with the powered USB hub but did not realize that I could skip the hub now! I was just about to purchase a couple of more sets, so good timing.
chris :)
thanks for reminding me about the adapter set up @dstranathan - going to place an order
@dstranathan (or anyone for that matter), what cases/mounts are you using? I can't currently hide all those dongles in the wall so I need a mount that will neatly hide them.
Wall Mounts:
Wedge Tablet Wall Mount
Link: http://armoractive.com
Weight 1 lbs
Length 2.75 in
Width 4.75 in
Height 5.50 in
Color: Black
Note: Drill (4) 5/16" holes for wall mounting.
Enclosures:
Full Metal Jacket Enclosure 2.0 - iPad mini enclosure
Link: http://armoractive.com
Weight 2 lbs
Length 10.625"
Width 6.625"
Height 1"
Color: Black
Cables:
iXCC 
Apple Certified 10ft 8 pin Lightning Cable Black EXTRA LONG USB SYNC Cable Charger Cord MFI Certified]
(Amazon)
Lightning Extension Cable (6 foot Black) dockXtender for Lightning by CableJive.
(Amazon)
Dang it!!
I finally got my new USB 3 Camera adapters and am not able to get it to work to wipe passcode from an iPad Air that has dropped off wifi.
Using the diagram above from @dstranathan and making sure I had the iPad charger 10w, no connection. Switched back to the old 30 pin and powered USB hub, worked right away....
@Sandy
Are your iPads running iOS 9.2.x+. As I'm pretty sure it needs that version of iOS or greater to work.
Ooo, good call!
That one is done and gone so i cannot verify, but could very well be as it was a resigned staff member ipad...i'll put this to the test today
Correct - I think iOS 9.2.x+ is required for Lighting to work as a network interface.
News flash: iOS 10 (beta 1) now shows Ethernet/Lightning interfaces in the Settings app.
The Ethernet pane itself is blank (at least on my test iPad Pro 2), but this is certainly good news for IT going forward..
Ethernet in 'da house, yo.
Any luck with non-Apple USB ethernet adapters?
I havent tried. I'm using 100% Apple-branded adapters here.
I keep getting "Accessory Unavailable - The attached accessory uses too much power"... and this is going thru a powered usb hub (Amazon Basics USB3). Anybody have any ideas for getting around this? I'm using Apple USB to Ethernet adapter and the older Lightning to USB camera adapter (not the newer USB3 camera adapter). I've also tried a Linksys USB3 ethernet adapter and a Plugable USB2 ethernet adapter.
@Owley
You need the newer Lightning to USB 3 camera adapter, since that provides power at the "iOS End" so to speak. I have gotten something to work with the non powered camera adapter in the past with a hodgepodge of powered hubs and such, but it sort of just works with the new adapter. Plus you'd want to have your iOS device continue to charge anyway while feeding the additional "network card".
@brookstravis
Non-Apple USB adapters work as long as they have the right chipset. I've gotten a "Woopower" 3 port USB 3 plus gigabit ethernet device to work as well as an Anker USB to Ethernet dongle. I guess anything with the Realtek RTL8153 chipset will work (which also work in OS X without additional drivers).
I'm having a problem with JSS commands to iPad . I have an iPad in "Lost Mode", wifi is not up, so JSS can't connect to the iPad. I've connected the Ethernet setup from the iPad to the network. I have an IP Address, but none to the commands to the device are reaching the iPad. Any ideas or suggestions?
Tom
@Olson , I've got the same issue. Let me know if you find a solution.
Just checking it with the same issue. We recently ordered a Lightning Camera adapter (not sure of the specifics, just got brought into this one and landed here after some quick research) to try connecting an iPad mini that dropped wifi. I plugged the Apple ethernet to USB adapter into the camera port and tried a power cable plugged into both my 10w adapter and a smaller one that I'm not sure of the wattage but both were giving the "device requires too much power" message on the mini. I tried through a powered USB hub as well but no go. I tried doing the same on an iPad Air and was able to get the "unsupported device" message but the command I sent didn't go through even after a few minutes. The Air was on 7.1 last time it checked in so I'm not sure what it's at now. Hopefully someone will have a surefire solution they could share.
On a related note...
Just saw this article on 9to5 Mac: https://9to5mac.com/2017/03/01/ios-10-2-ethernet-adapter-ui-settings-app/
https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/23838/ios-10-3-1-and-clear-passcode-command
There is a firmware update for the USB 3 Camera adapter that fixed this
We bought a bunch of these and they work great
