15 ms·
Show HN: Use an old tablet as an extra monitor
but only for terminal and curses apps
- fudged71 3y agoAny options for an ancient iPad?
- ascagnel_ 3y agoIf you're on a recent macOS + iPad, there's Universal Control[0] (I use this as a way to have chat/mail on a second monitor). If you don't mind some noticeable latency, you can use it as a second display via Sidecar[1]. Finally, you can do the same thing described in the article with any terminal emulator app and SSHing into the remote system (I've had luck with Prompt[2], which is available as a one-time $15 purchase). [0]: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212757 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212757 [1]: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210380 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210380 [2]: https://panic.com/prompt/ https://panic.com/prompt/
- obmelvin 3y agoI've used duet display on a first gen ipad pro 9.7". can't speak to using in older iPads, but TBH I don't recall having a problem with it
- zyxin 3y agoFrom the Readme, their eventual plan for the project is to be able to serve the client through the web browser which would mean that almost all tablets would be supported.
- wkipling 3y agoDidn't Apple drop support for old iOS devices so they can't access the web anymore. Safari is useless even for local sites I believe.
- zyxin 3y agoIf you're referring to the outdated certificates, I installed Let's Encrypt's ISRG Root X1 Certificate onto my old iPad 4 and that seems to have taken care of it. Local sites served over HTTP never had any issues.
- omneity 3y agoThis is cool. Maybe for copying you could spawn a text editor in your main screen with the content of the terminal in it?
- jchanimal 3y agoI love the suggestion to rebuild it for the browser. A tool like that could be generally useful. Anyone know of one?
- roessland 3y agotmux + ttyd (or gotty) could be used in a similar way. But it's not like an extra screen, it's more like mirroring a terminal to another device.
- guraf 3y agoSomeone asks for a webpage and not only do you propose tmux, you also acknowledge it doesn't even do anything like what's asked. Typical Linux user.
- roessland 3y agoGotty serves a terminal window as a website. Tmux can be used to force the terminal size, so that you can a small window for typing, like OP does. The person on the other end does not have to learn either of them.
- williamstein 3y agoCocalc uses a websocket and xterm.js to implement terminals on a remote server. Each terminal session corresponds to a file (with extension .term), so multiple clients can open the same session by opening the same file. If you type in one session then all sessions will see the typing at the same time. (Disclaimer: I wrote this. It’s way too heavy for this use case, but might be an amusing demo or proof of concept for somebody to play with before writing something new.)
- thanatos519 3y agoGood idea. I did this with bash and awk and xev and xdotool instead of a custom program. You can always use screen's cut-and-paste for stuff within screen, and screen's copy buffer and xclipboard for the rest.
- Vinayakd 3y ago[flagged]
- aaron695 3y agoComputers still only have three mainstream input devices, keyboard, mouse and gamepad after 60-80 years I'd try and bring the addition inputs a smart phone has to computers, like touch. I know there are programable keyboards and many other things. But no one has cracked it yet. It's a cool project as is. Just an idea if you were thinking of iterating forward.
- ericrallen 3y agoThere are lots of computers with touch capabilities out there. From the gesture support on Apple’s trackpads to touch screens like the Surface (and plenty of other laptops with touch screens). There are also stylus inputs and things like Wacom tablets that have been around for many years now.
- kedean 3y agoThere's also microphones and cameras that can act as inputs, it just turns out they don't offer much power over kb/m. But really, the problem being solved by OP was not enough outputs, rather than not enough inputs.
- Kerrick 3y agoI collect and use as many input devices as I can, as a bit of a hobby. It all started when I was younger and got a CueCat. Now I’m up to webcams, microphones, fingerprint sensors, many keyboards, mice, trackpads, trackballs, many game pads, MakeyMakey, a VR system, CharaChorder, MIDI keyboard, floor dance pad, Wacom tablet, BlackMagic keyboard with jog shuttle, and HOTaS. I’ve still got my eye on a macro pad, MIDI Fighter, and a racing wheel.
- boredemployee 3y agoThats a cool idea, I have a Fire tablet (and a Kindle) that I still don't know why I bought it.
- Netcob 3y ago> I have a couple old kindle fire tablets lying around. One of them has a battery that lasts about ten minutes. You might want to check if the battery is going "spicy pillow".
- seanthemon 3y agoLithium hotpocket
- wkat4242 3y agoYeah for this reason I replace the battery of old tablets that I use as control panels, with a DC-DC converter. Simply removing the battery isn't enough because most tablets refuse to run on usb power alone.
- danielvf 3y agoURL to an example of what you use?
- cheeko1234 3y agohttps://www.instructables.com/Powering-a-Android-Device-From-Wall-Adapter-And-Ma/ https://www.instructables.com/Powering-a-Android-Device-From... https://old.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/13ovuqn/ive_created_a_guide_on_how_to_replace_your/ https://old.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/13ovuqn/ive_... You can use an LM2596 to step down the voltage.
- wkat4242 3y agoI use cheap ones from Amazon (link below). I power them with 12V adapters which I "shucked". 5V is not enough to provide enough voltage because you lose some in the conversion. https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B07PBCYTFW https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B07PBCYTFW These adapters seem similar to what's used in that instructibles link. I didn't pick these for any specific reason other than they were available on Amazon. It uses the same LM2596.
- londons_explore 3y ago
- seizethegdgap 3y agoFor Windows, the paid program SuperDisplay will also allow you to use an Android device as a second screen, works wireless or over USB. My Galaxy Tab S7+ is great as a second monitor. https://superdisplay.app/ https://superdisplay.app/
- lkois 3y agoOr the free Spacedesk, does the same.
- lvncelot 3y agoA good SuperDisplay alternative is something I really miss on Linux. Even over wifi, the latency is imperceptible to me, and being able to use the pen input (with pressure and tilt) is the cherry on top.
- stonecharioteer 3y agoI also have an S7+, and I've been very happy with the device. How do you feel about it in 2023? I'm tempted to get the S9 Ultra as an upgrade but I'm on the fence right now.
- Iulioh 3y agoS7+ is still cutting-edge as far as tablets goes. No significant improvements were made in the last 2 gen
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mavhc 3y agoI'd just run screen on both computers in multisession mode, and make the PC version tiny
- jrm4 3y agoLove this sort of hackery, but also -- it just kind of shows how very goofy all the limitations we have on this are. If you go with the idea that a computer should be a general purpose machine -- we have so many things that aren't computers. "Wireless external monitor" should be a trivially easy built-in to all operating systems, and that it isn't is kind of ridiculous.
- throwaway167 3y agoI was thinking exactly the same when reading this, but wireless programmable led display keyboard buttons. I think these should exist, but don't know of any easy implementations.
- lexlash 3y agoRIP to FireWire target disk mode for Apple laptops and target display mode for iMacs. The new docs promote AirPlay screen mirroring and networked shares over usb-c but it’s nowhere near the same. :/
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- joombaga 3y agoYou can still do target disk mode over usb-c. I used it when I switched from Intel to M1.
- hiccuphippo 3y agoMy phone can easily mirror the screen to my TV but my PC can't, not with the built-in software, not with 3rd party apps. It's all so tiresome.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- butz 3y agoGot to mention that you can use your tablet on Linux GNOME DE not only for terminal: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/06/use-ipad-as-second-monitor-ubuntu-22-04 https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/06/use-ipad-as-second-monit... . Still waiting for even better solution, like streaming games to such second tablet "monitor".
- elkos 3y agodoes this work in KDE too or is there a similar solution?
- bogdart 3y agoIt doesn’t work on X11, and the cursor is not showing. But if don’t need it, works pretty well.
- seiferteric 3y agoJust tried this but got "this device needs iOS 15 or later" when trying to install Microsoft rdp client, which isn't available for my old iPad. So I guess you can't actually use an old iPad for this. But maybe I can find another rdp client that will work.
- bluearchon 3y agoDo you have the RD Client app installed on an iOS 15+ device? If you ‘own’ the app (and the developer allows it, I think) the App Store will let you install the latest supported version on an older iOS. I was able to install RD Client on my iOS 10 iPad that way a little while ago, but maybe something’s changed in the meantime.
- CYR1X 3y agoWould be better if the LVDS ribbon cable connectors for all of these devices was more standardized, and you could just buy an adapter to HDMI/Display Port. These actually exist but AFAIK there isn't just one LVDS ribbon cable standard or even close to one.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cracauer 3y agoTablets should have a HDMI/Displayport in so that you can directly use them as displays.
- zackmorris 3y agoI'd even go one step further: we should have had a standard communications protocol like TCP for all devices. So a display would show up as just another device that we could use to read/write bytes. All devices would have a standard queryable HTTP/HATEOAS self-documenting interface. And HDMI/DisplayPort or USB A/B/C/.../Z would all use the same protocol as gigabit ethernet or Thunderbolt or anything else, so the bandwidth would determine maximum frame rate at an arbitrary resolution. We could query a device's interface metadata and get/send an array of bytes to a display or a printer or a storage device, the only difference would be the header's front matter. And we could download image and video files directly from cameras and scanners as if they were a folder of documents on a web server, no vendor drivers needed. There was never a technical reason why we couldn't have this. Mostly Microsoft and Apple blocked this sort of generalization at every turn. And web standards fell to design-by-committee so there was never any hope of unifying these things. Is it a conspiracy theory when we live under these unfortunate eventualities? I don't know, but I see it everywhere. Nearly every device in existence irks the engineer in me. Smartphones and tablets are just the ultimate expression of commodified proprietary consumerist thinking.
- takluyver 3y agoIn fairness, there are standardised protocols for a lot of these things already, even if they're not all part of one giant meta-protocol. Cameras in particular have mostly appeared as a folder full of files, with no need for special drivers, for something like 20 years. There's definitely no need to invoke a conspiracy for the lack of 'one protocol to rule them all'. It's often hard agreeing on a standard even for a relatively limited topic - trying to agree on one for all electronic communications for all devices is probably impossible.
- lexlash 3y ago
- momirlan 3y agoi use TeamViewer to log remotely into my working laptop from an Android device
- nunez 3y agoI don't know how folks can use a ton of screens like this. I had four 32" monitors at one place and it was incredibly overwhelming. I've been rocking a single 27" screen for years. Even that's too big. I prefer 24" screens but it's difficult to get a good one. I can hold context in multiple virtual spaces, and key bindings make switching between them super quick. I guess this is in the same camp as "I don't understand people who leave 75,000 tabs open."
- brettermeier 3y agoI'm more of the 75,000 tabs faction, which is probably why I use 3 monitors. I prefer to have all the windows I'm actively working in open in parallel. With one monitor, the handling is too fiddly for me and the windows are much too small. If only one thing is in the foreground, I sometimes lose the context or the constant jumping back and forth annoys me. Edit: Just looked it up, there were like 30 tabs ;) But also more browsers, because it gets too much in only one.
- microtonal 3y agoSame, one 5k 27” screen and I’m completely happy. I might consider 6k screen, but definitely not multiple screens.
- nunez 3y agoIf it's the Studio Display that you got, I got that same monitor a month ago and I absolutely love it.
- hotnfresh 3y agoI rarely feel a need for even two monitors unless I'm doing GUI development. Much of the time I just work off my laptop directly, not plugged in to anything (probably should knock it off for ergonomics reasons, though....)
- RealStickman_ 3y agoI've had a single monitor for a long time, but I've recently come around to dual monitors. It just makes working with additional information on the second screen so much easier. Indo spend more time shuffling windows around now though
- Beijinger 3y agoWhen I had to work on my desktop but had to watch some educational videos on the side I just used https://remotedesktop.google.com/ https://remotedesktop.google.com/ Since the videos were web based it worked quite well.
- thesnide 3y agoI would really be interested for a X11 server on that tablet. So I can do a simple DISPLAY=tablet:0 to send the window to and enjoy output
- bdcravens 3y agoI never keep tablets around long - I usually sell them (and all electronics) once they're no longer useful. eBay is my Marie Kondo :-)
- bazmattaz 3y agoSame. I’m a big believer of one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I hate having gathering dust in my drawer if I can sell it for $50 on eBay and make someone happy in the process
- momentary 3y agoI should really get on board with this. Instead I have GPUs, laptops and tablets just gathering dust because "one day I might need it"! Unfortunately my family motto appears to be buy high sell never.
- Havoc 3y agoCan also be used as a janky screen pikvm style with the right adapters
- rasz 3y agoIts one of those 'because I can' hacks. Perfectly fine old 15-19 LCD monitors are ~$10 at goodwill type stores, and free if you ask around relatives/friends for old gear.
- citiguy 3y agoI've used Duet for this in the past. Works great by allowing me to extend my laptop screen with my ipad screen. https://www.duetdisplay.com/ https://www.duetdisplay.com/
- seltzered_ 3y agoWorth mentioning this discussion that honed on latency specific when using Linux (Wayland) as a host os : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31409010 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31409010 -> https://tuxphones.com/howto-linux-as-second-wireless-display-for-linux/ https://tuxphones.com/howto-linux-as-second-wireless-display... (2022)
- salawat 3y ago-HTOP/Nethogs for system in question -Same for any intervening boxes -logs for middle boxes -web browser for reference lookups -window for manpages script noodling -window for debugging -vim -throw in some VM's and those hosts may need to be factored in -frigging email/chat/calendar clients if working with other people. Yes, I can technically do all of those with one screen, and some screen/tmux magic. Fuck no, I do not want to. KVM can get you some ergo for mux'ing multiple boxes to a single screen. However, I'd much rather have multiple screens to partition my working set across.
- angra_mainyu 3y agoI've done this with RDP + Android tablet on Linux. Performance depends heavily on your tablet's hardware, enormously so.
- folmar 3y agoRDP is client-heavy, some flavor of VNC should do fine even on the most underpowered hardware (provided you are not watching videos).
- sigio 3y agoI prefer a single display and use virtual desktops to seperate tasks/apps which each fill most/all of the screen realestate
- dheera 3y agoA long time ago I used to use Synergy and someone had written a Synergy client or Cyanogenmod variant of Android. I don't know where all that is now after Synergy imploded and Cyanogenmod imploded.
- gourneau 3y agoIf you are on Windows and have extra laptops of devices hanging around SpaceDesk https://www.spacedesk.net/ https://www.spacedesk.net/ to a great free app (not open source). I use it with on my Windows Dev machine (WSL2 FTW) and use old laptops as external displays. It works well even on WiFI.
- duffyjp 3y agoI was excited seeing iOS 9.3+ on their requirements listing, but after digging my useless but 100% functional iPad 2 out of storage it won't install the app. :( I do use the built-in iPad as a second screen thing in MacOS with a still supported iPad on occasion and that works quite well.
- PickledJesus 3y agoThanks, I just got SpaceDesk working on a cheap Amazon tablet over USB-C (after realising I had to set PTP mode on the tablet...) Should work really nicely as a second monitor when travelling, I have it on 60fps and high settings and the latency is barely perceptible.
- mixmastamyk 3y agoUnfortunately, I find systemctl hard to type. If you start/stop services somewhat frequently, I recommend this alias: alias sc='sudo systemctl' This has the nice property in that it mirrors the "service control" (sc) utility in later versions of Windows NT that I grew up on. Should work in bash/fish. I have these others also when doing service development, because many of the subcommands start with 'st*' and also having to change the second parameter each time is annoying. These work in fish, but are easily ported: function sce --description 'systemctl stop # end' sc stop $argv; end function sci --description 'systemctl status # info' sc status $argv; end function scs --description 'systemctl start # start' sc start $argv; end
- sfink 3y agoI agree, though I find journalctl to be even worse to type.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 3y agoNice. I just dusted off wife's kindle in an attempt to repurpose it into a weird 'i m in a meeting' sign and I may end up looking at your project more closely now. Much obliged! <3
- trevcanhuman 3y agoI've used Weylus [0]. It works over LAN, lets you control the mouse from your tablet. Sometimes it's laggy, but you can configure the resolution so it's not using too much bandwidth. I'm not sure if it's stable at all. Haven't used it on a regular basis. [0] https://github.com/H-M-H/Weylus https://github.com/H-M-H/Weylus
- DakotaR 3y agoIn the same vein, Remote Touchpad [0] is fantastic if you don't need an extra screen. [0] https://flathub.org/apps/com.github.unrud.RemoteTouchpad https://flathub.org/apps/com.github.unrud.RemoteTouchpad
- FrustratedPers 3y agoTried doing this for years, only got more and more frustrated with whatever wacky software I had to install to make this work.
- sakopov 3y agoOn a similar note, you can use your old phone as a Streamdeck alternative using TouchPortal [1]. It's not free, but it won't cost you much and it works surprisingly well. [1] https://www.touch-portal.com/ https://www.touch-portal.com/
- cgriswald 3y agoThis seems to be a free, open source software that does something similar: https://stream-pi.com/ https://stream-pi.com/ According to the video I'm currently listening to, it only has a Linux client currently, but has Windows and Linux hosts. Edit: I've played with this a bit with a surface pro running Linux as a client and Windows as host and the thing holding it back at this moment is lack of plugins. I use Stream Deck to manage my gaming sessions (Steam, Discord, Voicemod soundboard and voices, occassionally OBS, game launches, etc.) and as-is for my purposes this can really only manage OBS and things that have configured hotkeys.
- cramjabsyn 3y agoMacos has the built in with sidecar. Just attach an ipad and select it as the external display
- gomox 3y agoSidecar is very glitchy for anything but casual use.
- james33 3y agoIt seems to be pretty stable now. I've been using an iPad Pro as a 2nd monitor for a MBP while working remotely over the last year without any issues (8+ hours of daily use).
- gomox 3y agoI frequently use it on an Ipad non-pro, with 3 different macbooks over the last few years, both over wireless or cable and it doesn't reliably stay on for more than an hour at a time.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- squarefoot 3y agoIf manufacturers released enough details about their devices and drivers, then unlocked the bootloaders, we could do a lot more things than a 2nd monitor with old tablets. There are piles of them taking dust in drawers, or worse in landfills because of forced obsolescence.
- mekster 3y agoGenuinely curious but why would people put 2 displays side by side so that your neck would always be bent to a side? That totally looks like a tiring solution. I never do that but put the main display (which is an external monitor of my laptop) parallel to the keyboard and my laptop to the side so I will be facing forward naturally.
- eastbound 3y agoIn France, my OSHA auditor actually requests that if there are two screens, they be put with the centerline in the middle (I bet it’s a clerical error, but it’s funny to see clerical errors that recommends the opposite of the healthy solution).
- SkyPuncher 3y agoI had side-by-sides at an old job. I found I switched back and forth often enough that I wasn't really hurting my neck.
- kristopolous 3y agoI put multiple displays in portrait mode maybe 10 years ago and have never looked back.
- da39a3ee 3y agovery cool! > I also never have enough screens and never know where to put my terminal when I need to tail a log or something What I do is just don't think of the terminal as competing for screen space. My terminal is always full screen, and a single "hotkey" toggles between the world of GUI apps, and the terminal world. Then, you can divide up the terminal however you want; I use tmux. I've been trying this for more than 10 years. initially with iterm2, which has a built in "hotkey", and now with Alacritty, using hammerspoon for the hotkey. (the hotkey is sometimes called a "visor" key in this context, I think to do with first-person shooter games).
- cainxinth 3y agoWindows needs to vastly improve its multi monitor support. I have a 3070 which supports up to four monitors, but getting them to play nicely in Win11 is a pain. So much so that I just use DisplayFusion instead.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- momentary 3y agoHuh, I've had just about the opposite experience. Windows 11 is when I finally stopped using DisplayFusion. What is the problem you're running in to?
- RecycledEle 3y agoI appreciate the effort developers put into writing these apps. On a side note, I wonder how much damage a back door in one of these "harmless" apps could do. It would have control of the tablet and of every computer the tablet was connected to.