How to repurpose your iPad as a HomeKit dashboard

If you have a spare iPad of almost any make or model, you can wall-mount it and use it to control your HomeKit devices. That's it.

Buying a 12.9-inch iPad Pro just to install a touchscreen light switch in your den would be an expensive undertaking. But if you already have a spare iPad, even one from a few years ago, it's probably best to make use of it.

You get great results by turning your iPad into a dashboard. Mount it somewhere convenient and have it always showing you useful information, from the clock to providing HomeKit buttons.

When you decide what information or controls you want to display, you can use many different applications, but no matter what you need, the hardware considerations are the same.

An iPad Isn't Enough

Indeed, you can keep your old iPad on your desk and it can be very useful. But to make a real dashboard, you need to mount the iPad on the wall.

This immediately means three things. You have to decide which wall it's best placed on, then physically attach it to it, and then power it up.

Obviously, where you mount the iPad dashboard is up to you, but you won't be popping it into the guest room. Put it by your front door, put it in your living room, or put it in your kitchen.

Select a point in your house or office and you will be able to see what it shows you. And select a point on which you can and will click the button.

If you had to get up and walk across the office to push a button to turn on the lights, you wouldn't do that. You just use Siri.

iPad Stands

There are countless stands to mount your iPad on the wall. Just as an example, check out the Dockem Koala Flat Panel Wall Mount , which sells for about $15 on Amazon .

This includes two small plastic tabs that you place on the wall and then slide the iPad into. You do have to position the iPad correctly to insert it neatly, but this mounting style also allows you to easily remove the iPad.

So if you suddenly need that iPad for work, that’s not a problem.

One problem is powering it. While iPad batteries can last a long time, you're talking hours, not days or years.

So, you must power your iPad. The neatest way is to attach the iPad to the wall.

This tends to make quick removal more difficult, but it also definitely requires a trained electrician. Don’t get electrocuted to have a HomeKit dashboard.

Alternatively, you can just use a Lightning cable (or USB-C cable for newer iPads). Get one with a right-angle connector so it fits snugly against the iPad rather than sticking out, and it looks neat enough.

Choosing Dashboard Software

Nine years ago, the answer would have been Panic Software’s status board, and there was no point in looking for anything else. But Panic shut down that app, and while there are plenty of dashboard apps out there, perhaps none are as versatile and attractive as Sound Board.

The apps are also fragmented. When we're looking at HomeKit, you can get a more general display of information, or you can get very deep into your company's business sales data.

Universal Dashboard

If you just need a clock, calendar, and maybe a Twitter feed, you can get Dashkit for iPad. This requires iOS 14.4 or higher and is free to download.

You can have a generic dashboard with basic information, here using Dashkit

This is also a generous download and most of its features are free to use forever. Its calendar has some bugs and for some reason doesn't refresh every day.

But there is also a Pro version that costs $8 per year and, among the very few extra features you subscribe to, can be integrated with AppFigures Business Services.

Business Data

Dashkit for iPad works with this AppFigures service, but Numerics is a more powerful all-around business dashboard. It's also a subscription and costs $99 per year.

Bringing you real-time updated business data, like how many YouTube subscribers you have, or total sales broken down by each dedicated sales team.

Similar information about your business and what your employees have on their plates is also available through Monday.com.

But the real purpose of the iPad dashboard is HomeKit.

HomeKit Dashboard

There are many options for HomeKit dashboard apps, but often the choices revolve around functionality or aesthetics. There are some terrible looking dashboards on the App Store.

Since this is something you'll be hanging on your wall all day, it better look good.

Home 5

Let’s take a look at Home 5 first. It's a $14.99 app for iPad and iPhone that's designed to replace Apple's Home app, and it's significantly easier and faster to navigate.

You can run Home 5 on its own, or use iPadOS's Split View, which puts it on one side of the screen and Apple's Home app on the other.

Home 5 is for when you're interacting a lot with HomeKit devices, working with scenes, or turning on lights manually. It's arguably the best, and definitely the most convenient, in its iPhone version.

You can use split view to have Apple's Home on one side and Home 5 on the other

But with it as a wall dashboard, you can quickly see which lights are on and which doors is locked, or you can see the view directly from the camera.

Home Dash

Home 5 is indeed a large enough and clear enough set of controls that they can serve as a dashboard. HomeDash is a $9.99 iPad app that puts presentation first.

It has so many controls and options that it can be your one-stop HomeKit control device, but it focuses on how it can present information and controls.

HomeDash doesn’t have the most obvious system for selecting elements like a light switch or camera, and learning how to reposition the elements you want takes time.

HomeDash is a beautiful, customizable HomeKit dashboard

But you can browse the dashboard and see the status of all your HomeKit devices and their batteries. You get a clock and calendar, and you can integrate views from any or all security cameras.

Visual Designer

At $25, this is the most expensive single-purchase dashboard, but it’s also by far the most customizable.

Viz Designer is a combined iPad and Mac application. You can have your iPad display any number of different dashboards—you can have different dashboards for every room in your home—but you can set it up using a Mac.

On Mac, Viz Designer is similar to an image editor in that you can drag different elements, resize them, and even overlay them.

Viz Designer is a Mac app that lets you design complex HomeKit dashboards and then display them on your iPad

Making dashboards takes time

When you have a spare iPad , it doesn’t take long to actually mount it on the wall. It doesn't take long to find the dashboard app, either.

It does take a while to find the right combination that shows you the information you need, the HomeKit controls you want, and doesn't look terrible on your wall.

Even if you find these perfect combinations for yourself, it can take weeks before you're completely satisfied. You'll be fiddling with the layout, and you'll be constantly changing the information there.

But you can.

What’s more, once you have your iPad dashboard mounted on your wall, you’ll start thinking about other things you can do with it—we’ll get to that later.

The above is the detailed content of How to repurpose your iPad as a HomeKit dashboard. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!