Using a Kindle Fire As a Monitor for Your Raspberry Pi

In this intractable i will show you how to use a kindle fire as a monitor for a raspberry pi. I had an old kindle fire that i got a few years back that i no longer use and i thought, why not use it as a monitor for my raspberry pi? Thus this instructable was born.

Step 1: Connect Your Raspberry Pi to the Internet

This step is pretty self explanatory. Ether use a ethernet cable to connect your raspberry pi or use a wifi antenna.

Step 2: Install Xrdp on Your Raspberry Pi

Go in lx terminal and type in the command Sudo apt-get install xrdp. This will download and xrdp, which is a Remote Desktop service.

Step 3: Install Microsoft Remote Desktop on Your Kindle

Unfortunately you can't download the Microsoft Remote Desktop app through the kindle App Store. Instead we will have to download an android apk for the Remote Desktop. To do this you need to Open your browser(I'm using the default silk) and go to

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g7esrp5d11idm48/com.micr...

and then download the apk. Next open your settings and open the download and give it permission to run.

Step 4: Test

Type hostname -I into lx terminal to find your raspberry pi's IP address. Then in the Remote Desktop fill in your details(Ip address for pi, password for pi,etc) then click connect. It should connect. If not make sure you put in your info right and that the raspberry pi and the kindle are on the same wifi network. You can leave at this but you won't be able to use your kindle+pi anywhere you don't have them on the same network (or offline). If you would like to be able to use it offline continue on with the instructable.

Step 5: Setting Up a Isc-dhcp-server and Hostapd on Your Raspberry Pi

To learn how to set up a server visit: http://raspberrypihq.com/how-to-turn-a-raspberry-... because I

find it hard to explain how to set up the server. To install hostapd go to lx terminal and type in sudo apt get install hostapd.

Step 6: Connect Your Kindle to the Raspberry Pi Server

Go into your kindle's settings and go to wifi. You should see what ever you named your raspberry pi's server. I just named mine RaspberryPi. Click on it and type in your password, then wait for it to connect.

Step 7: Use the Remote Desktop

Go into your Remote Desktop app on your kindle and connect to your raspberry pi. If it doesn't work go into lx terminal on your raspberry pi and type in hostname -I again to see if your ip has changed. If so reinsert the ip address in the Remote Desktop and try again.

Step 8: Side Note

Right now I'm working on a script to turn off/on the isc dhcp server so I can connect my pi to the internet. I will update this instructable when I have done the script. Also i forgot to mention this earlier in the instructable, but you can use this same concept with any device that you can microsoft remote desktop on. If you liked this instructable please favorite,vote, & subscribe thank you :)

Step 9:

Comments

[PhilC43]

I was Super Impressed at how well RDP works on my Old Amazon Fire Tablet 7 and the host being my Raspberry Pi.
The old Amazon Tablet 7 is so slow I long ago gave it up for anything serious, but as an RDP client it works perfectly, and has the speed of the Raspberry 3B+ speed on it now.
I use this as a Now as a Touch Screen Home Panel to control my home.
I checked the CPU usage on the Host Pi, and almost nothing needed to run RDP in the background.
I run PiCorePlayer, as well as PIHole on the same Pi, and I can equally access my Home Assistant running on another Pi. Great Idea and application. I can now save the cost of using a newer Tablet. The old Fire 7 Tablet Live Again..

[iamkevinbacon10]

Will you be able to keep the pi connected to the internet and use the server, or are the mutually exclusive?

[3_14159man]

is there anyway to use a keyboard and mouse with the kindle? i cant get them to work, im using wirless keyboard and mouse... anyway to solve this? cheers

[bap1968]

i think this site may save me from going craqzy im working on 5 to 10 totaly different projects at 1 time all the time if i can spread out my ideas and may get some feed back on anything would help ,,,,,i also try to spend the least amount of cash as possible, for real
0 cash ill barter recycle or trade before spending a dollar,,

[bap1968]

awsome truely i was thinking of connecting just the touch screen through the GPIO pins i think it would be more direct and also my tablet fosent take a charge anymore so knowing the screen is fine and that its easy enough to unassemble why not use it i also have another touch screen from a printer i would like to try also through the GPIO pins i am new to this and i havent done any codeing since the logo progam from the mid to late 80s

[IamsavedRU]

Could you post the code for your raspberry pi? I have the pi zero and I would have to buy a ton of extra dongles to get it running and I am thinking that it would be better just to buy a screen.

[Shiseiji]

Question for anyone: What are you using for a Pi screen so you can "Go in lx terminal and type in the command Sudo apt-get install xrdp"?

[luckygrace1]

The screen that came with the kano tablet.....but it says unable to locate package xdrp

[RupeB]

Use your regular HDMI screen, if you have one.

[grantd30]

remember why i dont post reading these comments,, if i use my kindel as a monitor will the easter bunny stay away bcuz he doesn't wanna be cooked on the fire ?

[ChrisF294]

This looks like a great thing, however I am having the same problem as others. When I hit "connect" on my Kindle Fire I get the error message "Your session ended because of protocol error." I have confirmed that xrdp is running on my Pi3. I'm hoping you have further insight.

[mrblank5]

sorry for the "REALLY" lat reply, the only thing i can think of is maybe you arent connected to the raspberry pi server. make sure you go to wifi and connect to raspberry pi

[MichaelK219]

Every time I trey to connect with the Remote Desktop, I get an error message saying "Your session ended because of a protocol error." Is there any way to fix this?

[mrblank5]

i'm not really sure because I never came across this error, sorry. you might want to just look around online see if you can figure it out. Good Luck

[jimmy_baloney]

hi me again. Remote desktop is saying it is not found. Any ideas?

[mrblank5]

i feel like an idiot, and i know this is a really late reply but i made a mistake that someone pointed out, i put that the command to install xrdp was"sudo apt-get xdrp" when it is actually "sudo apt-get xrdp".

[mrblank5]

There is a command to get it to start when it boots up, but with the link that I put on this instructable it doesn't show how to do it correctly. I will replay later(hopefully) on how to properly do it

[mrblank5]

Are you doing this with the retro pi? One thing I might suggest is you have to Manuely start the dhcp server. It's been a while since I have done it. I can get back to you on this later

[Rockhead02]

My xdrp cannot be found any ideas?

[mrblank5]

wyattS9 is right, i made a mistake in the instructions, the correct command should be "sudo apt-get xrdp" not "sudo apt-get xdrp" sorry about that