Last Updated on September 11, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org
We previously saw that it is possible to remotely control a Pi 4 via an usb-c cable directly plugged in into an iPad Pro tablet. But do we need an iPad Pro for this? No. We can also use a direct ethernet connection instead and a Windows or Linux tablet instead. The Pi 4 has already an ethernet plug, and for the Pi zero w2 there is a hat available with ethernet connector. We only have to connect the two devices with an ethernet cable, and then we can remotely access the Pi by entering the ip adress of the Pi into PuTTY:
- So no router is needed with this configuration.
- We can use for instance a Microsoft Surface 4 Pro table for this purpose as described previously, which are available on eBay between 100 – 150 USD, but it has only a dual core processor and it is from 2015.
- The Microsoft Surface Pro 7 has a four core cpu, an easily from outside replaceable SSD and usb-c, and is available on eBay starting from 200 USD.
- For the Surface Pro 7 there usb-c to ethernet adapters available, we found one on Aliexress with says about the compatibility:
Surface Pro 7/7+/8/X, Surface Go 2/3, Surface Book, Surface Laptop, Surface Laptop Go, Surface Laptop Studio
- If ithis adapter works we don t nee the the Microsoft surface dock which is not optimized for mobile use.