I've tried to use an old iPad as a wall-mounted control panel. The device has continuous power but will occasionally run down its battery anyway, especially when displaying the Home Assistant app. Not consistently reproducible and annoying, but makes the device a poor match for what I want to do with it. It's a shame because it could have had a good, long post-retirement career in this role if it could only run at peak use while charging without drawing down the battery.

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hn92726819 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Kind of a nasty solution, but if you have a smart plug, you could plug the iPad into it and have HAS toggle power for an hour a day (or whatever time). That way it's as if you unplugged the iPad yourself for a period.

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twinspop 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

This is exactly what i do with an older iPad. It’s running HASS. The smart switch* is turned off when charge is over 80%, and on when charge drops below 30%. It’s been like this for 4 years. No issues. And I’ve been logging every on/off cycle. Some day I’ll check to see how it’s changed over the years.

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SoftTalker 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

How does unplugging the charger for an hour improve the situation? Does it reset the charging logic back into "high charge" mode or something?

Would not even need a smart plug for that, just a simple mechanical timer would do it.

	▲	hn92726819 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I don't know if it will. I actually have never even heard of this bug before, but I would assume that it gets fixed somehow and I imagine it involves unplugging it and plugging it in again. I just suggested a smart plug because the original commenter said it was for HomeAssistant, which is really good at scripting stuff like this (if smart plug detects wattage below X, assume ipad is bugged and cut power and return it after n duration, for example). A mechanical timer might also work. Also, I just bought 11 smart plugs so everything is starting to look like a nail :)

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nopelynopington 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Sounds like you're using a low power adapter. I have a few ipad2 that the kids use for things. Even if they have 1% and we plug them in they can be used while they charge.

I'd also suggest lowering the brightness slightly, can make a huge difference to battery drain

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Tade0 3 days ago | parent [-]

Over a decade ago it was common for tablets of any kind to not be able to hold a charge while plugged in when pushed to their limits.

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spectre3d 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Perhaps with some tablets, but the iPad 2 and first gen shipped with an adapter (20W?) that didn’t allow that to happen, in my experience.

	▲	spectre3d 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		It was a 10W. I ran many system-intensive games and only remember battery drain when using a smaller power brick, but never ran Geekbench on loop to test that.

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nopelynopington 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

These iPads I'm using are ipad2, well over a decade at this point

	▲	dzhiurgis 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		HA on my MacBook occasionally pushes M1 to its limits. I suspect it's the dashboards with too many items.

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nickthegreek 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I use several for home assistant dashboards and haven’t run into this issue. Possibly an undersized power brick?

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kjkjadksj 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

This bug happens to the ipads we have set up as AV controls in conference rooms at work from time to time as well. I think I first noticed it 2 years ago and assumed it was an issue with the hub it was connected to.