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Is it possible to connect my iOS devices to RPi using console cable? For example, I want to access my RPi on the go without internet connection and I don't want to carry my laptop with me (to use the USB serial console cable).
I saw this Redpark console cable (links below). They're not mention about RPi but Aduino. http://blog.makezine.com/2011/07/18/59-cable-lets-you-connect-iphone-to-arduino-no-jailbreaking/ http://www.prweb.com/releases/Arduino_iPhone/TTL_serial/prweb9502467.htm
You should be able to use one of these cables but I believe that in either case you will need to convert the voltages the cable uses to the 3.3 Volts that the GPIO use. If you don't you may damage your Raspberry Pi.
RS-232 uses +/-12Volts the TTL cable uses 5Volts.
This page has details about the serial ports including some information about level shifting.
I recommend that you check out SSH for the iPhone. Currently, I use the Server Auditor
application which has been extremely helpful in connecting to my Pi. To set up a wireless hotspot using your pi follow this tutorial. As Nathan noted, this will help you to avoid the cables
I do not believe that there is a way to control the Pi through USB, at least while using an iPhone. I suppose that you could learn more about OBJ-C and create your own solution, but that is probably more trouble than it is worth.
One alternative option could be to set your Pi up as a WiFi hotspot and to connect your iOS device over the air (Using an app on the iPad such as Remote File Browser for example). Removes the need for those pesky cables!
You could communicate over serial directly. You can build your own serial cable with a breakout board, like the PodBreakout. On the breakout board, Tx is 12 and Rx is 13. I can confirm serial works with iOS 7.0.4 on an iPhone 4, but it must be jailbroken to be able to do anything with serial. On the Raspberry Pi, Tx and Rx are to be pins 8 and 10, respectively, on the Model B Rev. 2.
I've only used the iPhone and serial with an Arduino Uno, but there's no reason it wouldn't work with the Raspberry Pi. The Pi's GPIO pins are 3.3v, so you should be able to directly connect the Pi's serial pins to the iPhone without any voltage issue.
Check out this article for a bit about using the iPhone and serial communication. It talks about Arduino and some other things, but the same essentials apply to the Pi. I know you can access the Pi's console over serial, but I'm not sure how you could do that with an iPhone. You might be able to do it with minicom, if you can get it set up.
