I am going to throw out this question here to see if anyone has some advice, but it is more hardware related...
Honestly I have been trying to access the MFi fourms, but they seem to have disapeared... and I can't seem to figure out where this topic should be posted, but I am assuming it can be moved later.
Here is what I am attempting to accomplish.
I am the process of developing a case for an iPhone that will keep track of usage of the iPhone (in hours) using an AVR microcontroller.
I make the assumption that if the screen is on (device unlocked) then it is in use.
Therefore there are several approaches I could take to this...
1. A light sensor looking at the screen to see if it is on or not
2. Look for some change on an external connector, like the lightning connector
The light sensor idea covers some of the screen and is not very reilable.
If I can find out if something on the lighting connector changes when the phone is in a locked state or sleeping...
I believe the correct method would to develop an accessory that can connect to the lightning connector.
I thought of this... what if I connected a Lightning Digital AV Adapter http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD826AM/A/lightning-digital-av-adapter and looked at the HDMI connector, after all, if the screen is not on there is no output from the HDMI, or I would think so. I don't currently have one of these connectors, and I ran across an interesting page while investigating this adapter h t t p s : / / panic.com/blog/the-lightning-digital-av-adapter-surprise/ showing that the adapter is not quite as simple as I thought inside! It is very impressive for such a small package, I have to admit!
Now, here comes the question...
Is there some way I can determine if the iPhone screen is on or not (device locked or not would work) using the Lightning connector?
I noticed a small voltage change on some of the Lightning connector pins (data pins according to connector pinouts found with Google searches) when the device goes to sleep, but this is not the proper way to do it and will very likely not work for long, I don't like this idea, but it was the first thing I noticed.
I believe a proper method would be interface to the Lightning connector and somehow determine the state of the device, but I have so far not been able to come up with a working solution.
We are currently enrolled in the MFi program and I have been digging through technical documents to find a solution, but some pointers from someone who has some experience would be appreciated.
Now, I realize this is not exactly the place to post hardware related topics, but the MFi fourms seem to be MIA, and I can't seem to access them or even find out if they exist anymore! If I could use the MFi fourms, I would very happily post this in there!
Any pointers or advice would be greatly appreciated from some people more experienced on the hardware end without getting too much into the technical details (safe to discuss here).
