I know Apple's answer - 'our cable works, there is no problem'.
IN SUMMARY - you either need to use Apple's own cables or the decent quality PC World versions or Asda or something, that are not really cheap but are two thirds the price of Apple, or half or something.
Really cheap clone cables will NOT work. Can't explain it, but know it is fact. My guess, they are not soldered properly inside the lightning end, and ipad depends on quality of connection being really good, maybe? Any money, not all the connector bits on the lightning are connected physically to the other end. ie it gets complicated.
Explanation follows:
I have found that Apples' own cable supplied (lightning) tends to kink near the ipad end, and horribly shorts out resulting in two main issues: a - ipad reboots or similar alarming thing b - it doesn't charge c- the charger that is on the plug gets very hot indeed, but the give-away is that unlike when charging the ipad properly, the back of the ipad where the battery/charging components are, remains completely cool to the touch.
So, it's the difference with your 3m cable to Apple's one. I have bought several 'clone' cables AND NONE OF THEM WORK. Short or long, makes no difference. I keep them in a bag marked 'cheap useless aftermarket cables'. If you go to PC World or somewhere similar that sells cables for over a tenner apiece, they'll probably work.
If the cable costs 2.50 gbp ir probably WON't work, that's my experience.
You don't reveal where you bought the non-apple cable? ASDA and places like PC World, their cables will work even non-apple ones. Others might not.
Last, the earthing (ground) thing. Generally, for signal-level power, only one end of the ground cable is earthed. I know the house-wiring norm is for all of them to be tied together - so I guess it depends which way Apple leaned on this one. Lightning adaptor of course, reconfigures uses of each contact, so which one is ground may not even stay the same?
Yes, there are drivers in iOS. iOS is based on Darwin, the same as macOS. It is the exact same type of drivers.
No, these drivers are not baked into the firmware of the camera adapter. The camera adapter itself does not have specific support for storage devices, keyboards, cameras, ethernet adapters, MIDI keyboards or anything else that you would like to plug in. Those types of drivers run in the operating system on the iOS device itself.
A place to start looking for more runtime information about connected USB units is to run the command "dmesg" after plugging in the device. You can also look for and/or install custom kernel extensions supporting specific types of USB devices.
One common cause of problems with USB devices on iOS devices is that the USB port only delivers a very small amount of power. Many USB devices require more power than this port can provide. You'll then need to plug the USB device into a powered USB hub, and then connect the hub with the camera adapter to the iOS device.
Best Answer
You cannot directly interface with generic USB devices from a stock OS iPad unless you are a manufacturer in Apple's MFi (http://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi/) program. There appears to be a ton of paperwork involved to just apply. The external accessories API is of no help on stock OS devices, unless you are manufacturing your own custom MFi-compliant device.
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