Pairing, widgets & feeds
How your iPhone, display, and iPad feed host work together.
Your devices each have a place
Your iPhone is the companion: it discovers a display, pairs with it, and manages its dashboard and settings. Ink and Frame are display endpoints.
An iPad running Hearthboard can supply Apple-side feeds such as calendar, reminders, chores, and photos. Installing Frame does not turn an Android device into an Apple data source.
Pair on your home network
Pairing creates a saved trust relationship. You should not need to pair again after every restart. If codes differ, cancel and retry rather than accepting.
- Connect the display and your iPhone to the same home network. Ink must finish its temporary setup Wi-Fi process first.
- Open Hearthboard and select the display in Nearby.
- Compare the six digits on both devices. Accept on the display only when they match.
- If needed, use the QR or typed-code fallback while the pairing screen is open.
Start small, then add your day
Clock and weather make a useful first check. Add them, change their size, and confirm the display responds before setting up additional services.
The companion shows widget types and controls reported by the display. A setting or widget available on an iPad may not be available on every Ink board or Android frame.
Why a widget says Syncing
The display may be waiting for its first data from a feed host. Pair your iPad with the display from Settings → Other Displays, and confirm the relevant source is enabled and accessible on the iPad.
Photos and larger feeds may take longer than a clock change. On a sleeping battery-powered Ink board, data waits until the next wake window. A live clock does not establish that the iPad feed host is connected.
Start locally before connecting remotely
Establish and verify pairing on the home network first. The companion can use an address for supported remote routes, but local discovery does not automatically browse a VPN or another subnet.
Remote access requires a configured private route to the display. Keep that setup separate from the public website; neither this site nor its GitHub repository is a relay for your dashboard data.