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Apple TV

Put a Dashboard on a television and leave it there. LogRaker on your Mac sends the cards to the LogRaker app on your Apple TV, which shows them full screen and nothing else.

Your Mac does all the work. The Apple TV never connects to your servers, never opens an SSH connection, and never holds a password or a key - it only draws what your Mac sends it. That also means your Mac has to be awake and on the same network for the television to show anything.

Turning it on

Open Settings ▸ Apple TV and switch on Enable Apple TV. The status line tells you what is happening: whether LogRaker is ready, and how many Apple TVs are watching.

The Port is the network port your Mac listens on. Leave it alone unless something else on your Mac already uses that number, in which case the status line says so and you can pick another.

The first time you switch it on, macOS asks for permission to find devices on your local network. Approve it - without that, your Apple TV cannot find your Mac.

Pairing an Apple TV

Install LogRaker on your Apple TV and open it.

If the Apple TV is signed in to the same iCloud account as your Mac, it finds your Mac by itself and starts showing your Dashboards. There is nothing to type.

Otherwise the Apple TV shows a six-digit code. On your Mac, choose 'Pair Apple TV…' in Settings ▸ Apple TV and type those six digits. You always type on the Mac, never on the remote. Within a few seconds the Apple TV lists your Dashboards. If it still shows the code, choose 'Pair Apple TV…' again and check the digits.

Pairing an Apple TV that was paired before, for example after you reinstall LogRaker on it, replaces its earlier entry in the list.

Choosing what to show

Once paired, the Apple TV lists your Dashboards, and keeps the list up to date within 15 seconds when you add, rename, or delete one on your Mac. Above the list is the Mac they come from, with its network name and address after it - "Studio (studio.local · 192.168.1.5)" - so two Macs with similar names are easy to tell apart. Pick one and it fills the screen, with the same cards, colours, and arrangement as the Dashboard on your Mac - the card scale is chosen to fit the television. To show the Dashboard's name above its cards, turn on 'Show on Apple TV' in its 'Edit Style…' sheet on your Mac. Press Back on the remote (Menu on older remotes) to go back to the list and pick a different one.

Counts, sparklines, and the live activity pulse update as they do on your Mac. If the Mac goes to sleep, leaves the network, or stops sharing (Enable Apple TV switched off), the Apple TV keeps the last cards on screen, dimmed and without activity pulses, with "Not connected" and your Mac's name across the top - so a dark screen never gets mistaken for a quiet system. It reconnects on its own when the Mac comes back. Back still returns to the list; while the Mac is away, the Apple TV says it is looking for it instead.

Removing an Apple TV

Every paired Apple TV is listed in Settings ▸ Apple TV under the name you gave it in the Apple TV's own settings, with the Dashboard it is showing right now and the date it was paired. Select one and click 'Remove…' to cut it off. An Apple TV that is showing a Dashboard stops within a few seconds; one on its list of Dashboards stops within 15 seconds. Either way it goes back to its pairing screen. It stays unpaired, even on the same iCloud account, until you pair it again with a code.

If the Mac an Apple TV was paired with is gone for good, choose 'Forget This Mac' on the Apple TV while it is looking for that Mac.

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