MFi - Does our accessory need to have a male lightning port?

[ArtOfWarfare]

Hi,

The company I'm working at has made an accessory that we've gotten to work pretty well with Android tablets. I've been tasked with making it work with iOS devices now.

We've sent Apple the paperwork to join the MFi program, but it hasn't been approved yet so I'm still a bit in the dark and I'm wondering:

Do we need to build any additional ports on our accessory? Right now it just has a female USB 2.0 port... Android devices can be connected via USB to mini-USB or to micro-USB or Samsung's goofy propertary port or whatever. Will will be able to similarly use a USB to lightning cable or is there some reason we'll need to acquire male lightning jacks (not sure if I'm using the correct terms - I'm much more a software member of the team than a hardware person.)

[Comeagain?]

Depends on the hardware you make.

[phr0ze]

Originally Posted by ArtOfWarfare

Hi,

The company I'm working at has made an accessory that we've gotten to work pretty well with Android tablets. I've been tasked with making it work with iOS devices now.

We've sent Apple the paperwork to join the MFi program, but it hasn't been approved yet so I'm still a bit in the dark and I'm wondering:

Do we need to build any additional ports on our accessory? Right now it just has a female USB 2.0 port... Android devices can be connected via USB to mini-USB or to micro-USB or Samsung's goofy propertary port or whatever. Will will be able to similarly use a USB to lightning cable or is there some reason we'll need to acquire male lightning jacks (not sure if I'm using the correct terms - I'm much more a software member of the team than a hardware person.)

Depends on what you're doing. My car stereo reads the music from my iphone via lightning cable just the same as the old 30pin cable. So the interface must be similar on the USB side of things.

[xArtx]

Same here, my car stereo only has USB and has the "Made for iPod" approval.
It works with both lightning and 30 pin data cables to both deliver music,
and allow control of the iDevice via the head unit, and it's remote.

I'm wondering what the deal is with video out of the lightning connector.
Apple's 30 pin -> lightning adapter doesn't support video out,
and I have all 30 pin VGA, HDMI, and composite cables

[ArtOfWarfare]

Originally Posted by xArtx

Same here, my car stereo only has USB and has the "Made for iPod" approval.
It works with both lightning and 30 pin data cables to both deliver music,
and allow control of the iDevice via the head unit, and it's remote.

I'm wondering what the deal is with video out of the lightning connector.
Apple's 30 pin -> lightning adapter doesn't support video out,
and I have all 30 pin VGA, HDMI, and composite cables

Great news about the car stereo receiving MFi approval with just a USB port. We're hoping to hear back from Apple sometime between January 7th and 14th... From what I've read they should then give us some super secret documents on how to have our device perform a handshake with an iOS device... something I'm wondering is how our device is supposed to know whether its connecting to an Android or an iOS... Oh well, we'll figure that out once we know what the handshake procedure is for iOS...

[xArtx]

I suppose that if the connected device fails to respond to iDevice control protocol,
You could disqualify it, and your software then tests for the next thing.
My stereo must do that because it can also use a USB stick in the same port.

The iDevice also knows when the control connection is authenticated.
If it is just a simple line out connection (lacking digital external control protocol),
then the "Accessory Connected" splash screen doesn't appear,
and you are still able control the iDevice normally.

https://courses.cit.cornell.edu/ee47...l45/index.html