I had an old iPad lying around, but I couldn’t find a suitable enclosure for turning it into an external display for my Air. So I decided to build one myself.

Custom enclosure for iPad Air as a portable display; custom enclosure for iPad 5 as a portable display – upgrading the old to bring new life to it, with an external display for iPad 5. To connect the board, simply search for “iPad 5 Type-C port” on any platform—no touch functionality is required, and I even removed the power switch; the screen lights up as soon as power is applied. The motherboard shown in the image below works perfectly fine; even after removing the thin wire that once served as the switch, the device still functions without issue. You can add a 160mm x 217mm, 1mm‑thick acrylic panel behind the screen to protect the internal display from damage—it’s actually quite practical and works great.