Midway

Persistent Bluetooth Connection Between Raspberry Pi and iPad

Overview

This guide walks you through the process of:

  1. One-time pairing of the Raspberry Pi with the iPad.
  2. Setting up a Bash script to maintain a persistent Bluetooth connection.
  3. Running the script automatically on boot using systemd.

With this setup, the Raspberry Pi will continuously monitor the Bluetooth connection and automatically reconnect to the iPad if disconnected.

1. One-Time Bluetooth Pairing

Before setting up the automatic connection, you need to pair your iPad with the Raspberry Pi manually.

Step 1: Enable Bluetooth on Both Devices

Ensure Bluetooth is enabled on both the Raspberry Pi and iPad.

Step 2: Start Bluetoothctl on Raspberry Pi

Run:

bluetoothctl

Step 3: Put Bluetooth in Pairing Mode

Inside bluetoothctl, enable scanning and make the Raspberry Pi discoverable:

power on
agent on
default-agent
scan on

Step 4: Find the iPad’s MAC Address

Look for a device named iPad in the scan results. It will have a MAC address like this:

[NEW] Device B8:49:6D:72:DA:44 iPad

Take note of the MAC address (B8:49:6D:72:DA:44 in this example).

Step 5: Pair with the iPad

pair B8:49:6D:72:DA:44
trust B8:49:6D:72:DA:44
connect B8:49:6D:72:DA:44

Replace B8:49:6D:72:DA:44 with your actual iPad MAC address.

Once the pairing is successful, the Raspberry Pi will remember the iPad for future connections.

Exit bluetoothctl:

exit

2. Persistent Bluetooth Connection Script

Once paired, we need to ensure that the Raspberry Pi automatically reconnects if the Bluetooth connection is lost.

Step 1: Create the Connection Script

Create a new script:

nano /home/pi/connect_bluetooth.sh

Paste the following script:

#!/bin/bash

IPAD_MAC="B8:49:6D:72:DA:44"  # Replace with your iPad's MAC Address

# Function to check if the iPad is connected
is_connected() {
    bluetoothctl info "$IPAD_MAC" | grep -q "Connected: yes"
}

echo "🔄 Monitoring Bluetooth connection to iPad ($IPAD_MAC)..."

while true; do
    if is_connected; then
        echo "✅ iPad is connected."
    else
        echo "⚠️ iPad is disconnected. Attempting to reconnect..."
        bluetoothctl connect "$IPAD_MAC"
    fi
    sleep 5  # Check every 5 seconds
done

Step 2: Make the Script Executable

chmod +x /home/pi/connect_bluetooth.sh

3. Running the Script on Boot with systemd

To ensure the Bluetooth connection script runs automatically at startup, we use systemd.

Step 1: Create a systemd Service File

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/ipad_bluetooth.service

Paste the following:

[Unit]
Description=Bluetooth Auto-Reconnect to iPad
After=bluetooth.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/bin/bash /home/pi/connect_bluetooth.sh
Restart=always
User=pi

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Step 2: Enable and Start the Service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable ipad_bluetooth.service
sudo systemctl start ipad_bluetooth.service

Step 3: Verify the Service

Check if the service is running:

sudo systemctl status ipad_bluetooth.service

You should see output confirming that the service is active and running.

4. Testing the Setup

  1. Restart the Raspberry Pi:
    sudo reboot
  2. Ensure the Bluetooth connection is active:
    sudo systemctl status ipad_bluetooth.service
  3. Turn the iPad’s Bluetooth off and back on.
    • The script should automatically reconnect when Bluetooth is turned back on.

5. Conclusion

With this setup, your Raspberry Pi will: ✅ Automatically reconnect to the iPad when Bluetooth is lost.
✅ Ensure the Bluetooth connection is persistent and stable.
✅ Run the connection script automatically on startup.

This ensures a hands-free and automated Bluetooth connection between your Raspberry Pi and iPad. 🚀

If you run into issues, check logs using:

journalctl -xeu ipad_bluetooth.service