Thread: How to automatically turn off your ipad?

I've been looking for a better solution myself. As of right now, it will power on because it will see the charge, but to turn it off, the easiest way I've seen so far is to set up a gesture with the Cydia activator plugin to turn it off when I slide my finger down from the status bar. But I also need to pause the music before doing so or it will keep playing the music... The best solution, and one that's out of my expertise, is to write a program for it to where whenever it shows the charging status as off, it will kill any running application and go into sleep mode. That would be ideal. There is a guy on here creating a front end where he might be looking into this solution. It is Bluehawk solutions. I'm curious to see what other ideas come up.

Here's a vid of my setup with said solution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msPvI...e_gdata_player

Hi

I have installed my IPad as my head unit in my 04 M3. Like you I have been searching for an app that can

1. Keep iPad on when it is being charged
2. Pause music player (this will apply to all music apps in IOS 4 that can keep playing music in background) when I turn engine off
3. Put iPad in Sleep mode when iPad go from Charging to Uncharging. This will allow our iPad to sleep immediately when aux power is off.

I have found an app called ScreenDimmer on Cydia store ($3) that will allow me to keep screen on when it is being charged. I am very happy with the app. I contacted the developer recently. He has agreed to add #3 feature to the ScreenDimmer app. He is going to send me a beta app soon. I will keep you informed on it.

As for #2 The developer is looking at it now. However in the mean time I was able to mod my connection to the dock connector with a relay circuit to accomplish the same thing. Once I get the beta app I will report back to everyone about it.

I think if I can get the ScreenDimmer developer to add feature #2, it will be the must have app for your iPad Car setup.

Just what I've been looking for! And with #2, it would be perfect. I'll definitely give it a try and if he needs another Beta tester, let me know. Keep us posted...

Out of curiosity, how did you rig it to work on #2?

I will draw it out tomorrow. But it took a bit of trial and error to finally getting it to work. It is a bit involved. I had to build two circuits to accomplish this.

Background: the dock connector's audio output can sense if the audio connector is insert. If the jack is inserted, the tip of the jack is contacting +5v. With that in mind I cut open the audio cable and the USB cable connecting the dock connector. I use a relay circuit to contact the audio tip (red wire) to the +5v wire in the USB cable when I get aux power. The second circuit is required to keep th aux power on for a few second longer after I switch engine off to allow the above circuit to work reliably. I use a PAX-TR7 to do that. I will put everything on a diagram tomorrow.

Since I am still on IOS 3.2 the only apps that will pause the music are iTunes and Pandora. However I have tried the above circuit with my iPhone 4.1 and it works with all the apps that have been optimized for IOS4 (multitask aware). Apps I tried and worked are Pandora, iTunes, Pocket Tunes, NPR, etc. Basically once ios4 is out in November, the able circuit will pause all the background music when you switch the engine off.

I hope you don't have to go through all the trouble.. I am trying to get the developer to add feature #2. I just donated $25 to the developer. I will let you know once I get the beta software. I might be able to add you to the beta testing.

I would really appreciate it in case the developer doesn't add this to his software package. Another thing I'm trying to tackle since I have 2 headrest monitors is getting tvout to those monitors while keeping video on the iPad at the same time instead of just a screenshot. The option I'm looking at is getting an iPod breakout connector where I can solder the video output and add a switch to the positive end of its contact so I can turn it on and off. This way when I want to play a video I can either play it on the iPad or the headrests. There are cydia apps to mirror the iPad, but that only takes care of the springboard and it's a bit laggy. Not to mention that when I play video it will only do tvout to headrests with no option to display on iPad. Maybe you have heard of a better solution. It would be ideal if there was a way to get everything to mirror including videos.

Hi torres1708

Check your PM.

Just want to follow up.

I got a beta copy of ScreenDimmer that will lock/Sleep iPad when power is disconnected. There is now a setting called Lock at AC-Disconnection. It will immediately lock the Ipad when aux power is switched off. We will have to wait about 10 sec for iPad to dim the screen after that.

The developer is looking into Pause music before locking iPad. Will keep everyone updated. I am testing the software now. It is working great so far.

This is very interesting, thanks for the updates! Keep them coming!