iPad / camera connection kit problem

So, I hope you guys can help out, because I'm a little lost...

My son has an iPad 9th gen. He really wants to make music, so my dad gave him a MPD 218. Men, really great looking controller. Love the pads, even tho I'm used to the 2000XL/2500. Anyway, he uses Beatmaker 2 and I've installed iMPC Pro 2 (looking great!).

Now comes the problem. I've bought a camera connection kit, to connect the MPD to the iPad. It lights up, but nothing works. Did a lot of troubleshooting:

- MPD works fine on my computer
- MPD with camera connection kit works fine on my iPhone, even without holding the note repeat button when connecting, as recommended for iOS usage
- MPD with camera connection kit doesn't work on the iPads of my other children (all 9th gen)
- Camera connection kit works on my iPhone to load battery when power cable plugged in, but doesn't load the iPad
- Updated the iPad to iOS 17

So, the bank leds light up, but the pads don't work neither they light up. When I connect to my iPhone, everything works instant. I've got an iPhone SE2. Tested it with my wives iPhone 12 pro max, same problem as with the iPads. On my own iPhone, I can even plug in and then open the MPC app, although they recommend to first open the app. So everything is really plug-and-play and easy to connect, as I'm used to.

Anyone a suggestion what to do so my son can use the MPD with his own iPad? This is the camera connection kit I've used: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B09YQF43Q9?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Thanks in advance!

Are you also providing power over the extra lightning port? It's possible that the MPD is drawing too much power and the iPhones are essentially refusing to work until you provide more power.

As to the specific camera connection kit, I don't know, it looks fine, but Apple certainly does all kinds of fun things with the lightning port to make it operate in a not fully consistent or non standard way.

Thanks for the quick reply!

The problem is with the iPads, not the (old) iPhone. Tried adding a powercable, but didn't do anything. Not even loading the battery. When I plug it in to my (old) iPhone, it starts loading immediately...

So, since the cable was 3rd party, I ordered the expensive one from Apple. Hope to receive it this week, so we can check some out... I guess it's a strange Apple issue again, like always. When everything works: great! When you have a problem, you have little to no control over it...

I'll keep you posted!

Good luck... I've found the 3rd party cables to be hit or miss for things that ought to *just work*. The annoying part is that it is hard to determine if it is an Apple problem or a 3rd party manufacturer problem. Apple certainly doesn't make it any more clear with their own certification programs, MFi and whatever... using odd naming conventions... like "camera kit" for what is effectively a lightning to USB adaptor... and all that... and Apple doesn't help any because it doesn't consistently tell you or give you a message if/why a cable or accessory isn't compatible. "Consuming Too Much Power" can help, or "Incompatible Device" or something... but yeah... who knows why it works on one device, but not your others.

I'll be frustrated with you

NearTao wrote:Good luck... I've found the 3rd party cables to be hit or miss for things that ought to *just work*. The annoying part is that it is hard to determine if it is an Apple problem or a 3rd party manufacturer problem. Apple certainly doesn't make it any more clear with their own certification programs, MFi and whatever... using odd naming conventions... like "camera kit" for what is effectively a lightning to USB adaptor... and all that... and Apple doesn't help any because it doesn't consistently tell you or give you a message if/why a cable or accessory isn't compatible. "Consuming Too Much Power" can help, or "Incompatible Device" or something... but yeah... who knows why it works on one device, but not your others.

I'll be frustrated with you

Haha, yeah men. It's so strange with Apple. It's hit or miss. You don't have control on anything. On the other side, coming from years of DOS and Windows (DOS was really good tho) at first I thought 'it can't be this simple?'. The UX is great, when there are no bugs, updates and errors haha,

Thanks mate, I'll let you know!