Apple keeps its iOS and iPadOS device USB connections fairly restricted. For example, while basic connections and file transfers with MFi-compatible dongles are a given, you can’t just attach any USB-based device if your choosing and start tinkering with it like you can with a full blown computer.
It was this reason that drove hobbyist badger200 to make PicoTTY, an exciting endeavor that resulted in being able to program a Raspberry Pi Pico board directly from an iPad without a computer.
Citing a post shared to r/jailbreak over the weekend, the hobbyist managed to get their jailbroken 11-inch 2018 iPad Pro to communicate with their Raspberry Pi Pico board over a USB connection using basic hardware, which they refer to as a “game-changer” with respect to iPad capabilities.
The hobbyist noted that they successfully forced iOS to communicate with a USB Serial device by utilizing usbselfserial, libusb, and some IOKit entitlements, which bypass the regular requirement for MFi certification and allow general USB Serial devices to communicate directly with the operating system.
Since iPhones and iPads lack the drivers necessary to make stuff like this work out of the box, it required a bit of legwork on the hobbyist’s part, and is deserving of some attention to the subject.
The hobbyist notes that they’re unaware of any other instances where this particular fest had been achieved previously, and therefore they’ve made their work available on GitHub for anyone that might be interested in learning more or trying it out for themselves.
Since there’s no shortage of USB Serial devices out there, we’re excited to see if this helps anyone else with their niche use cases. For example, the hobbyist notes how they used this method to change programming in a DJI drone flight battery as well.
What are your thoughts on this achievement, let us know in the comments section down below.