
Travelling with 24” Monitors - polote
https://blog.luap.info/travelling-with-24-monitors.html
======
georgewsinger
Working in VR allows you to travel with an infinite number of monitors, of any
size you prefer. For example here is what it's like to work in a Linux VR
Desktop on the HTC Vive:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWLuwG91HnI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWLuwG91HnI)

The problem is that plug-in headsets like the Vive are not very portable. The
next evolution of something like this is to put the Linux VR Desktop on a
standalone headset.

If anyone is interested in something like this let me know, and I can fill in
more details on how to make it happen.

~~~
Razengan
As others have said, current tech isn't quite there yet to replace screens in
meatspace, but I think it's obvious to infer what general computing may be
like 10-20 years down the road, if progress continues at a steady pace:

Laptops and tablets would no longer be distinct factors for mobile, because
they'll be replaced by always-worn high quality AR glasses, which run off a
phone in your pocket (as Apple's glasses are rumored to be) and project
virtual screens into your view of the real world. The AR space may be shared
by multiple users for public signage, advertisements or virtual pets and
fashion, à la the anime Dennou Coil. [0]

Physical keyboards/mice/trackpads will probably still be around because I
haven't seen anything to fully replace the need for tactile feedback, unless
someone comes out with sensory gloves.

At home we would put our phones into a docking station for more processing
power and to connect to a giant physical screen and sound system.

[0]
[https://myanimelist.net/anime/2164/Dennou_Coil](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2164/Dennou_Coil)

~~~
stordoff
> At home we would put our phones into a docking station for more processing
> power and to connect to a giant physical screen and sound system.

I feel like we got so close to that with Continuum on Windows Phone, but it
was far enough away that it never took off. Drop your phone into a USB-C dock,
and you'd get 1080p/1200p video out with a Windows 10-esque UI (desktop, Start
menu), keyboard/mouse support, plus an additional USB-A. In practice though,
the limitations (range of available apps for WP was mediocre, you couldn't run
apps side-by-side on the monitor, some apps didn't implement a full screen UI)
made it frustrating.

~~~
Zenbit_UX
High-end Samsung phones do this with Dex, though I have only used it once. The
app limitations make it nearly useless and. novelty. If anyone can pull it off
it would be Apple with some sort of OSX VM.

------
FrankSansC
> For the powering one thing to take into account is that cable are somewhat
> heavy and if you have 3 screen + your laptop you will need 4 electrical
> sockets. You could use the same socket for the screens by doing something
> like that.

Please DON'T DO THAT! Shortcuts / fire start with things like this. You can
find C13 splitter power cords on the net for like 20~30 euros.

~~~
polote
Author here: there is a screw terminal
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw_terminal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw_terminal))
inside. Thats exactly what is used in every houses in the world also the
current is so low that there can't be any issue.

But I didn't know about C13 slitter, that sounds like a good improvement

~~~
kayfox
Theatre tech here, screw terminal blocks are not rated for being in any sort
of flexing situation nor are they very good at stranded cable. It would be a
better idea to get a cable specifically designed to break out to 3 IEC
connectors.

Or at least put the screw terminals into a housing designed for it.

------
benzesandbetter
I did about a decade as a digital nomad, spending a couple months in each
city. These days I'm still fairly nomadic, but stay longer (3-6mos) in each
place.

I've experimented with a couple different multi-monitor setups. Notably, dual
24" displays, and a single Thunderbolt 27". For a while I had Skyteam Platinum
and shipped my Thunderbolt display as my free extra checked bag on a couple
trips to Brazil and Holland. When the shipping was free and I was staying in
the same place for a while, it was marginally worth it bringing the second
monitor. When I was making more frequent jumps between cities it was
definitely not.

Personally, I find having additional monitors to not be a huge productivity
boost to my work (software engineering, team/account management, writing,
coaching, and managing an import/ecommerce business) relative to a good
virtual desktop setup, particularly when weighed against increased pack weight
and shipping costs. The place where it helps me the most is to be able to have
API docs open alongside my editor/IDE, but I can do the same on retina macbook
display, so having a lightweight and portable setup wins out for me.

~~~
samatman
When I occasionally want a second screen, the 13" iPad does the trick nicely.
If it's a PDF, I'll usually use an iOS reader, if it's a terminal or website
I'll usually treat it as a second monitor.

~~~
benzesandbetter
same :)

[https://tinyurl.com/qk6jlzg](https://tinyurl.com/qk6jlzg)

~~~
RMPR
Dead link

------
4cao
Well, congratulations on the whole setup. It seems you planned everything down
to the last detail and it worked out well.

However, if I were you, I would have asked myself: (1) do I really need 3
monitors, (2) if yes, can I just rent them wherever I'm headed, (3) if no, can
I just substitute them with a larger UHD TV, which seem to be quite cheap
these days (buy one and resell later).

In fact, if you are staying at a hotel or a serviced apartment, there would
usually be a TV you could repurpose for this.

I also wanted to point out you can travel with more luggage as long as a
single piece is under 32 kg, and stuff can be shipped internationally without
including an invoice.

As long as a single item is below 20 kg, you could also use EMS, which works
nearly as well, is cheaper, and, unlike parcel services, does not require you
to appoint a customs agent on your behalf.

I'm not writing all this to critize what you did but just wanted to let you
know alternate solutions should in fact be possible. As someone doing a lot of
travelling, I've come to the conclusion that travelling light is the best
thing one can do.

~~~
hardwaresofton
> (2) if yes, can I just rent them wherever I'm headed,

Sounds like there's a very boring but likely profitable business waiting to be
spawned here. The fact that there isn't an obvious choice for renting
electronic goods for digital nomads on the go is a pretty big flag.

~~~
dheera
They exist and they are horribly expensive. Last time I was setting up a
recruiting booth and it was cheaper to buy a display from Walmart than it was
to rent one. And I was able to return it to Walmart at the end, too.

~~~
Johnny555
My company needed a half dozen 32" monitors for a conference (to play videos,
so 1080p was fine). We had some in storage, but it was cheaper to buy some new
ones from Amazon (with free shipping) and dispose of them after the conference
than to pay to ship the existing ones back and forth to the conference. They
bought a spare one just in case one failed (they didn't)

One of the employees manning the booth went to high school nearby and had
arranged for someone from their AV department show up after the conference to
pick up the monitors as a donation.

~~~
dheera
The shipping companies need to hear this -- not only are they losing business,
but they are also encouraging people to buy unnecessary new stuff.

------
brian-armstrong
"I don't really need to be close to my friends or be in a place that I know
but I need ... three 24 inches monitors an external GPU and an ergonomic
keyboard."

Does anyone else have a hard time coming to grips with this prioritization?
Even looking at this objectively with something like Maslow's Hierarchy of
Needs, yes we do need friends, though 3 24" monitors don't seem to appear.

~~~
jasonkester
I can understand the motivation completely.

It's not about wanting to be away from your friends. It's about not wanting to
be stuck in your apartment in a city that's rainy and cold for six months
straight starting in late October when you're young and unencumbered and you
know that there's a sunny tropical paradise just a quick 16 hour flight away.

There's lots of other unencumbered young fun people there riding out the
winter season, working on their surfing skills while coding from their
laptops. Some of them you already know, others you'll meet when you get there,
and you'll keep in touch for years (even if you're no longer living near
them).

It's such a good way to do things that many people have arranged their lives
so that they can do it every year (I did it for maybe 15 years before finally
buying a couch in a place where there was something to do in the winter).

But I might point out to the author that 27 inch monitors cost $129.00 each.
Even in Krabi, Thailand. And they make good gifts to the locals when it's time
to move on.

Sorted.

~~~
cerberusss
> 27 inch monitors cost $129.00 each

Heh yes, that's what I thought as well. And what's more, he only needed 24".
Let's assume that 129 is the going rate for the author and he wanted 3
monitors to work on. Since he has undoubtedly spent more than three hours
building and schlepping around this setup, I don't think it was worth it.

But then again, that's probably not what this is about :)

------
leeoniya
[https://i.imgur.com/RUN11Hb.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/RUN11Hb.jpg)

~~~
jonathankoren
You laugh but, several years ago in the second floor of Red Rock in Mountain
View, I saw a guy do that very thing.

He brought in his laptop, and the box containing whatever giagantic Apple
monitor he had, and proceeded to hook it up.

When barista came by bussing the tables, she told him to put it away. He was
completely incredulous, but relented.

~~~
csours
I wonder what the most ridiculous thing a coffee shop employee has had to tell
someone to put away? Projector? Popcorn maker?

Hmm. I have a terrible idea.

~~~
jonathankoren
I bet more than one coffee shop in the Bay Area has had to deal with
projectors more than once.

------
Razengan
I've travelled with a single 27" iMac, which wasn't much of a problem, but
it's a shame that Apple removed the "Target Display" mode [0] from the newer
5K/Retina iMacs. What the hell?

That would have been perfect, to have a lighter MacBook or even the newer
USB-C iPad Pro for outdoors, with the 27" at the hotel, without having to sync
data before working on the bigger screen. Or to host a visitor's Mac. But no,
now you have to buy a separate 4K monitor if you want to view your Mac or iPad
on a big screen, even if you have a perfectly good (and expensive) 5K iMac.

On a side note, can somebody recommend a good way to output my Nintendo Switch
(or any other console) to a macOS window? I haven't owned a TV in ages, and
even if I did being able to play my Switch on my laptop screen would be great
while traveling.

[0] [https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204592](https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT204592)

~~~
lonelappde
To me it seems easier to buy a monitor at my destination and give it away than
to deal with traveling with and risking damage to a 27" iMac.

~~~
Razengan
If you pack the iMac in its original boxes (there are 2, one inside the
other), with the wrappers and foam and all, with some extra padding (I threw
in a seat cushion in front of the covered screen), it should be fine..

You could also get a specialized carry/travel case.

------
sxp
There are many enthusiasts who have experimented with cramming multiple
monitors and desktop-class computers into a briefcase form factor. You can see
various triple monitor briefcase setups on reddit:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/b5z9g5/rate_m...](https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/b5z9g5/rate_my_setup/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/f1a1t5/was_told_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/f1a1t5/was_told_to_cross_post_this_here/)

The author had a preference for larger monitors over ease of transport, but if
you're willing to sacrifice screen size, you can cram desktop components into
a standard briefcase pretty easily.

~~~
andai
DIY dual screen laptop: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2aY6cvk-
WI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2aY6cvk-WI)

------
rsync
In mid-2001, notably _before_ 9/11, I had to quickly move a 4U Sun Netra
server from San Jose to Washington DC.

I just carried it on.

It was _enormous_ \- 4U and full length - and weighed a ton.

No packaging, no box - just carrying a huge server down the aisle of the plane
...

~~~
WalterBright
> before 9/11

At Aph where I worked in the 1970's, the airport people freaked out over my
colleagues carrying a briefcase filled with electronic circuitry on the plane.

Aph made the prototypes for Mattel's handheld LED games. The prototype was a
custom wirewrapped single board computer about 8*11 inches, with power supply
and a rigged up game keyboard. It was all conveniently mounted in a hard shell
briefcase. He'd have to power up the device and play the game to convince them
it was harmless.

Playing them in the airport would always draw a crowd. Nobody had seen
anything like that before.

I wonder what has happened to those machines. They were pretty cool.

~~~
ska
Taking 1 off prototype devices across borders, or worse parts of ones (so you
can't demonstrate even partial function) is sometimes fun. It can generate
some interesting conversations, especially RF gear.

------
dmos62
I've learned to enjoy working on small screens. I did it because I traveled
and didn't want anything I can't put in a backpack. For a long time I also
used old low-res netbooks, because I didn't want to worry about a pricier
laptop getting damaged (and because there was always one around). At one time
switching to 1280x800 was a step-up; can't remember what resolution I used
before then.

I know that there are way more people who are into large displays, and that's
perfectly understandable, but I'll mention what the advantages of small low-
res screens are for me:

\- cheap + small + light + energy efficient;

\- task focus: I'm looking at one thing at a time. I realise that a lot of
people want the opposite ability, but I cherish this constraint. If you have
problems with attention, you might want to consider this;

\- more structure and efficiency in how you switch tasks: switching tasks
takes more work than simply moving your eyes, so I quickly learned that
thinking about what the next step is not only helps me get to the necessary
window without any discomfort, but also helps with work efficiency and focus;

\- information efficiency: really most of these advantages are about focus:
with a small screen most of the information I have in front of me is relevant
to what I'm doing. If I had all my windows looking at me all the time, only
[100/number of windows]% of that information would be relevant at any point in
time.

Disadvantages: partner's laptop better for watching movies.

~~~
fluuuhi
There is for sure a sweetspot. I don't think 1280x800 is it.

When you have to scroll around on your screen to read text properly or
sourcecode etc. then the screen is just not big enough.

With the 13,X" Inch display from a macbook pro i don't have the feeling of
constraint. Its quite a nice size.

------
codingdave
I used to code with that type of setup, with multiple large monitors. But a
few months back, I switched to a single 43" UHD TV instead. I get more screen
real estate that I did before, have fewer cables to deal with, and have less
of a mental paradigm shift when I do travel and shrink down to just one laptop
screen.

As soon as someone invents a way to fold or roll up a 40+ inch screen, I'll
buy it.

~~~
codetrotter
Back in January of 2019 I bought a 55" UHD TV that I used as my main monitor
for a few months.

Ultimately, I found that 55" was too big for me relative to the distance that
I was sitting from the screen.

Currently I am back to using a 27" PC monitor with 2560x1440 resolution. I use
this same monitor both when I use my desktop computer and when I use my
laptop. In the latter case I have the additional monitor of the laptop itself,
a 13.3" Retina (2560x1600) MacBook Air 2018 model, but it is sitting at an
angle.

There were multiple issues with using a 55" UHD TV for me. A couple of the
main issues that I had with using that TV as my main computer monitor were:

1\. The pixels were a bit too visible at the distance I was sitting.

2\. The upper 1/3 portion of the monitor or so was basically outside of my
field of view, and as were the left and right 1/4 portions of the monitor.
Turning my head, the fact that the display itself was flat still made it
uncomfortable to use these areas of the screen.

3\. In the RGB components of each individual pixels, there was one of them
that dominated too much. I think it was the red component but I don't quite
remember. To combat this I adjusted the settings quite a bit, and even reduced
the saturation heavily. Still it felt sort of strange.

But even with the better experience of going back to my 27" monitor and
sometimes additionally using laptop display on the side, I often feel
restricted in terms of screen real estate.

Lately I have been feeling a lot like it is an impossible battle.

On top of that I am beginning to feel more and more tired from looking at my
monitors, and I also find sitting down in front of my computers both
restricting in how I am postured and in the poor quality of the chair that I
am sitting on. I am turning 30 years old later this year.

I feel that more and more that for me the joy of computing is becoming
overshadowed by tiresomeness and feelings of being restricted, both physically
in how I am sitting and moving and in terms of screen real-estate and in
interacting with code and data in general.

I feel like I used to be able to marvel at things on the screen when I was
much younger and to not be so bothered about the restrictions of posture and
of what could be displayed at once and how I could interact with them.

I am left thinking that perhaps my mental capacity is starting to shrink as
part of the ageing process of my body, but then I also think that perhaps it
is not so much this as it is simply that the things I am working on now
requires keeping track of a lot more things at once than the number of things
I had to keep track of when I was young and still learning and working on
simpler things.

In the beginning of my twenties I was concerned with optimizing my desktop
environment for productivity. This was largely a time sink, and not something
that I have desired to do anymore for several years now. But at the same time,
I feel that I am wearing myself out sitting in front of the computer. And I
feel that it shouldn't be this way.

For a while, when VR was new, I was intrigued by the idea of using VR as a
working environment. Never went as far as to buy a VR headset but I've since
lost a lot of the faith in VR as a magical silver bullet. Perhaps in the
future sometime VR will be a solution to some of the problems I am
experiencing, but I don't think the tools exist today to really take advantage
of VR for coding and for working with data. Furthermore, having those displays
on your head for hours on end is sure to be even more physically exhausting
than looking at the monitors on my desk which themselves are already wearing
me down.

I guess at this point I am basically rambling. But the point that I want to
get to is that I believe that the way we work with code and data today is
really really far from what would be the best for us. And I don't feel like I
have the time nor the energy to tackle that problem either.

~~~
Andrew_nenakhov
For me, even 27" is too much. My favourite size is 24" display with 16:10
aspect ratio.

Also, I long for the day when humanity will retire the imperial measurements
system.

~~~
snazz
Me too. I love my Dell U2415, which is not only a really well-made product but
also that same 1920x1200 16:10 24" shape that seems perfect. When I have it
vertical, I can fit one huge window of code or two browser windows.
Horizontally, a browser window and a few smaller terminals fit nicely.

~~~
Andrew_nenakhov
Actually, I'm using Dell UP2413, it's really great. Despite being older, it
has somewhat better color resolution than U2415.

------
andybak
Because of my weird comfort and focus habits I've forced myself to get used to
small screens. I hate having more than one task visible at any one moment so
all my apps are running full-screen anyway. I've got very used to the various
short-cuts for switching apps. I use Windows and MacOS and avoid all the full-
screen functionality in MacOS (never managed to really get my head round it).
I've got a 13" Macbook Air (2015 - before they ruined them) and a 15" Windows
Laptop (Gaming GPU so I couldn't dual boot the Mac)

My IDEs are all Jetbrains (PyCharm, Rider). A console is no issue. The biggest
challenge is probably Unity but having good workspace presets for various
tasks helps.

Another factor - I'm pushing 50 and my eyesight is getting worse so I want
less going on at once so I can make stuff bigger...

~~~
gertlex
Does the difference in alt-tab behavior between Windows and MacOS (with alt-`
too) slow you down at all? I might venture to guess no, since your workflow
sounds like largely single-window-per-program.

~~~
russellendicott
Not OP but in a similar position. I find that since I don't use the desktop
switching features on MacOS I dont have a problem with the alt tab situation.
I only use one desktop and just alt tab for everything. Its just a minor
annoyance on Windows when alt+` doesn't respond.

The worst part for me about switching back and forth between MacOS and
Windows/Nix is the muscle memory around applekey+c/v vs ctrl+c/v. There isn't
a way to remap keys to recreate that muscle memory on Windows/nix and keep the
muscle memory for alt tab.

~~~
samatman
Surely Windows has a comparable window-switching behavior which could be
mapped to alt-` with AutoHotKey or similar? I'm not familiar with Windows
post-95, but I'd do this in a heartbeat, since the change app and window
shortcuts are deep in my muscle memory after all these years.

------
christkv
For travel I always brought one of these as us zenscreen
[https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-ZenScreen-MB16AC-Portable-
Monito...](https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-ZenScreen-MB16AC-Portable-
Monitor/dp/B071S84ZW7/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=displaylink+screen+full+hd&qid=1583103200&sr=8-3)
they are powered off the USB.

~~~
woutr_be
I bought one of those as well, although it was a knockoff brand, it's great
when travelling since it's about the same size as my MacBook. I wish I
invested slightly more, the brightness on mine is terrible.

~~~
virtualwhys
Not sure if this will help, but with my USB-C monitor the default
brightness/contrast is poor, and requires manually fiddling with the settings
on _every_ boot/resume from sleep, so I found a Linux utility that does the
fiddling for me:

    
    
        cat ~/bin/brightness 
        #!/bin/bash
        #
        echo "increasing brightness/contrast of external monitor"
        /usr/local/bin/ddcutil --display 1 setvcp 10 40
        /usr/local/bin/ddcutil --display 1 setvcp 12 10
    

Tie the above in with your init/resume scripts and you're good to go (assumes
that your issue isn't limited by the hardware itself).

~~~
woutr_be
I'll give that a try later, although I think mine is hardware limited. It's
probably because it's a cheap knockoff one tho, but it works for terminal use,
or anything that has a high contrast.

------
Uptrenda
I'd personally ditch the monitors and go with (however many) "pocket
projectors" then just project them onto a wall or something. Some of these
projectors screw into light bulb sockets so you don't even need to worry about
a mounting system. There's also a company that was trying to make monitors
that could be folded and that was all just based on fabric that expanded as a
projection surface. If they ever shipped - that may be a more ergonomic option
since you can line that up easier with your eye level in the same way as a
regular monitor.

~~~
lvturner
That's actually a really good idea, you could couple them with some frosted
(plexi?) glass to get a "screen"

I think this warrants more investigation!!

------
virtualwhys
Creative solution, nicely done.

For 15 years I traveled with some flavor of 23"/24" monitor, putting it into
my checked bag, and paying that checked bag fee over and over and over
(probably $5K USD over the years).

This year I scrapped the big monitor setup and got an ultra lightweight 16"
USB-C powered monitor along with a Dell Precision 5540.

Now I just stuff everything into an REI Trail pack (40L) and walk on the
plane, it's beautiful. Pack weight is around 7KG, which works for most
airlines in the world.

No longer muling around tons of gear is wonderful. Not sure what I was
thinking, the extra screen real estate isn't _that_ important to my work, two
screens about 16" is enough.

Here's the 16" external monitor [1], out of stock presently, but can vouch for
it, great addition to the toolbox.

[1]
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WJJMV48/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WJJMV48/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

~~~
savrajsingh
What is your job where you travel with an external monitor?

~~~
virtualwhys
These days mostly work in Scala and TypeScript. Just another web developer
that works on the road, basically.

------
MuffinFlavored
I would have thought TSA would "x-ray" (or whatever it is they do) through
your bag and pull you off to the side for further investigation super quickly.

~~~
BooneJS
Nothing quite like partially disassembled, partially glued electronics to tick
the box on a security checklist.

~~~
nickjj
It's surprising at how little this matters.

I came back from a tech event once with a build a robot kit, except I'm a very
light packer and the box was huge so I had to take everything out and fit it
into a backpack along with everything else I had.

I had a compartment that had an assortment of circuit boards, screws, wires,
plastic pieces, etc..

No one even batted an eye and the bag went straight through the carry on x-ray
machine. This was in San Jose, California while preparing for a cross country
flight. I was surprised too.

~~~
eliasbagley
They aren't looking for electronics - they are looking for large masses that
could be fuel for the explosives. Big blocks of clay, liquids, etc. A jumble
of electronics alone with nothing that can actually explode is common and
doesn't ring any alarm bells. I discovered this after talking to a TSA agent
after flying a few times with my modular synthesizer, where I was surprised
that it was never pulled for extra screening.

~~~
_jal
My mother makes soap and tends to give me a few bars when I visit. I have
learned to mail it back to myself; taking a few 2"x3"x5"-ish blocks of a
uniform-density material through the airport is a guaranteed close look.

~~~
Drakar1903
What I'm reading is that it's possible to sneak a bomb through as long as the
bomb smells like lavender.

------
sbr464
I’ve used a Tumi aluminum suitcase, ultralight, no flex. A Dell 24” 4K monitor
and other dev gear fits perfectly. Since it doesn’t flex you don’t need to
pack very well, just a few clothes to stop movement. Example photos:

[https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jjxctk02nvb5wmy/AADnscpr1HQCFZeiO...](https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jjxctk02nvb5wmy/AADnscpr1HQCFZeiOrzWmuMla?dl=0)

~~~
blinkingled
What about the weight? For flight travel to work it needs to be way under
23kg.

~~~
sbr464
The suitcase is only 6.4 kilos, it's really light for what it does. It's just
a thin shell basically. Monitor is 4 kilos. That leaves a bunch of room for
other stuff. You don't have to use any of the packing material since it's so
stiff, that helps a lot.

------
ajiang
Plugging a friend's super cool product: a pop-up 24" monitor with full HDMI
support and a long lasting battery that uses short throw projection.

[https://www.arovia.com/](https://www.arovia.com/)

~~~
detaro
The few reviews of the actual product (vs gushes about the Kickstarter 4 years
ago) I can find seem pretty "meh" on it though. 1280x720, bad contrast, ...

~~~
awes0310
Hi Detaro, I'm Alex one of the creators. Resolution and contrast are
definitely areas to attack/improve. The resolution is good enough for a lot of
work. I’m using my SPUD now to type this from my self-quarantined Shenzhen
apartment...Here are some pictures taken with my Oneplus 7t of my current
setup with my SPUD. This SPUD was a reject from our assembly factory for
failing brightness spec by 20%, e.g. the ones we shipped to customers were at
least 20% brighter and usually much more (CEO gets the rejects...), with and
without the overhead lights on:
[https://photos.app.goo.gl/7j5jx8th6kDDgMtZA](https://photos.app.goo.gl/7j5jx8th6kDDgMtZA)

The contrast is good for indoor use/shaded cafe (unless your shining light
directly at it, like photography lights, when filming a video, for
example...).

Directly regarding the Linus video: I do not think it was fair for a number of
reasons (this is just copy/pasted response to a Kickstarter backer who asked
about it):

(1) He filmed it with studio light shining directly on the screen. This caused
the image to appear much more washed out than how your eye would see it under
normal (e.g. indirect) room light. Other videos and our social
([https://www.instagram.com/realarovia/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/realarovia/?hl=en))
more accurately show how SPUD will appear. Even when SPUD was on the Today
Show, when we had a white glossy screen (e.g. before we developed the grey
matte screen that further improves contrast), the contrast appeared
significantly better. That was under normal lighting (all they did is turn off
the very bright studio lights directly over SPUD):
[https://youtu.be/9aFmoA6xFC0](https://youtu.be/9aFmoA6xFC0) I am not sure if
he read the manual or any of other FAQs because, we clearly say to avoid
direct light on SPUD for best performance. That said, if you ever tried to
take a picture of a movie screen or a projected slide in a lecture, you know
it is not trivial to take a good picture of a projected image! (2) He folded
it in a way to maximize size. The manual and our online tutorials can help a
lot in knowing how to fold SPUD to the smallest size:
[https://bit.ly/357PjkA](https://bit.ly/357PjkA) (3) He didn’t follow the
steps on how to optimize image quality. The manual and our online tutorials
can help a lot with optimizing image quality:
[https://bit.ly/2MMXMTR](https://bit.ly/2MMXMTR) I am not sure if he read or
tried any of other online resources. He definitely did not contact me directly
to try to get any assistance…He did contact me to ask how SPUD compares to USB
monitors and I sent him an accurate, detailed answer and he did not include
any of the points in his video: [https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XC-
XvNITvGqkj32zrAfSp91jlb...](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XC-
XvNITvGqkj32zrAfSp91jlbfObxg6) It was very frustrating because all of our
backers, if they have a problem, message us and we solve (worst case by RMA).
He did not even make the effort to ask us before posting a video that some
people may take as gospel. That said, this is part of the deal of doing
something that people find interesting. I also understand that he has a huge
incentive to be negative to drive clicks and there is no consequence for him
doing it with a small, 3-person startup. All said, I am still grateful for him
backing our project and am very grateful for all of our backers help in
bringing the first collapsible display to life! Please let me know if there
are any questions I can answer! -Thanks, Alex -sent from my SPUD

------
jotm
Hell of a setup!

I settled on 4x 17" laptops, much easier to carry and you get extra storage
and bonus processing power.

Wasn't my plan, really, but I can't sell old laptops (too cheap, no one wants
them anyway, plus I always think maybe I'll use this one for smth).

So one old laptop became a second display. Then a second. But that's three and
looks stupid and asymmetrical, so I added a 4th...

Traveled once with them, barely takes up half a bag. Think I'll stick with it.

------
Johnny555
A couple years ago I relocated and wanted to keep my monitors with me until
the last minute so I didn't send them with the movers and packed them in my
big suitcase to take on the plane.

While waiting the gate, they called my name and asked me to see the gate
agent. When I went up, I saw a concerned looking gate agent on the phone who
said "Are you Mr Smith?", I confirmed and said "Tell them it's a couple
computer monitors and coiled cables". She did, then looked at me and said they
couldn't get the lock off the bag and wanted to check with me before they cut
the lock (I was surprised about that), so I told them to feel free to clip it
off. They didn't, I guess my explanation was good enough.

------
markogresak
I always wonder how much of a productivity impact does a complex setup like
this have over a single screen with multiple desktops.

A few years ago, I have bought LG 34UC98, a 34" 21:9 ultra-widescreen monitor.
I thought "Look at all that screen space, it will be great for my
performance". I've used it maybe a few weeks, and now it's almost exclusive to
gaming and movies. My girlfriend likes to use it for large research tasks, to
open 3 documents side by side. So at least someone is using the monitor for
productivity improvement.

Now I'm back to a 15" macbook and I use 3 desktop setup, with apps assigned to
a specific desktop, so they always open in the same space. I also disabled the
feature where macOS tries to be smart and arranges the desktops based on
frequency, which makes the position unpredictable. From left to right: 1\.
Mainly terminal, with an occasional GUI for git or database. 2\. Editor (VS
Code), using the native tabs feature so different projects are grouped under
one app. 3\. Browser, slack, mail, spotify, and other currently open apps
(notes, iMessages, etc.).

Note: I changed the display setting to "More space", which increases the
resolution from the default 1680x1050 to 1920x1200 to have some more space.
But I had a 13" macbook before, which was 1680x1050 at "More Space" setup, and
it worked well too.

------
ebeip90
Give Sidecar with a 13” iPad Pro a go. It’s been life-changing for me and my
mobile workflow!

~~~
snazz
It’s fun and sort of useful with my 6th gen regular iPad and my otherwise
horribly underpowered (I’m pretending to be a 4K iMac and apparently that’s
powerful enough for Sidecar, but the actual processor and its iGPU are slower
than a 2015 Mac Mini). I can see how it would be super useful with the 13”
model and an Apple Pencil, neither of which I own.

------
villgax
Pelican case for author & foldable laptop displays as the next innovation for
the rest. Nothing like just unfolding additional 7" on both sides of your
laptop

~~~
toomuchtodo
+1 for a pelican case. I use one to lug around a 38” monitor when traveling.
They are indestructible.

------
archi42
Hm, I'd try 2x27" instead. My 27" UHD is 4.6kg without mount and power brick.
Feels pretty light, but there seem to be lighter (found a 3.2kg AOC, but
that's only FullHD). Packaging two of these only requires four 3d printed
parts for the corners, and the displays can face each other (not touch each
other!). A dual VESA arm on Amazon should come at 3.5kg (maybe less because
the number might include packaging).

Still funny though.

------
ajnin
You could probably go even lighter by removing the power/control box entirely
from each panel, and replacing it with an after-market board and a common
supply for everything. It's easy to find control boards with HDMI inputs for
your LCD panels on eBay, simply search for "<panel reference> control board".
The control boards alone are very light, and low-voltage so safe. Presumably
your panels are LED-backlit so safe, low-voltage too. You can then use a
single external power supply to power the whole thing, easy to find on
ebay/aliexpress too. It would also avoid the safety issue of stitching
together the 3 power cables, and reduce the weight of cables as well. Then
package everything in a nice box with hinges and some padding and you have a
nice multimonitor transportable PC ;)

------
robomartin
Back in the early '90's I was travelling all over the American Continent and
Europe with loads of equipment. I remember a notable last-minute trip to
Amsterdam where I had no choice but to take about 600 lbs (272 kg). I had to
design a custom 8020-based dolly to be able to move this pile-of-technology
around on my own at the airports. The idea was to take it apart, store it in
one of the cases and re-assemble on arrival.

For the most part this worked out OK, except for one memorable trip to Munich.
All of my equipment cases came out of the plane coated in what I can only
describe as some kind of yellow grease. I was literally coated with this stuff
after pulling all my equipment off the carousel. I won't bore you with the
entire story of what happened at the airport after that. In retrospect it was
very funny, not at the time, of course, it was very far from that.

------
w0mbat
Nice article. Logical next step is to drive all 3 screens from a single power
supply (as these use LED backlighting, they do not require much power each). I
would build the AC transformer into the middle screen and have it output DC to
the ones on either side.

~~~
polote
Yes, exactly what I wanted to do initially, but the issue is that the power
block also contains the video card of the screen and needs power too, so that
wouldn't be so easy to do, but feasible

------
aetherspawn
Not to be that guy, but be careful you don’t burn anything down with that
electrical work.

------
sbr464
In regards to powering a bunch of gear traveling, I'll share my secret tip for
international travel: Bring a surge protector/power strip, then you only need
one actual adapter. I've found a few that support varying standards.

------
NicoJuicy
Coïncidence ? I came across this today:

[https://www.mediaworkstations.net/systems/portable-intel-
wor...](https://www.mediaworkstations.net/systems/portable-intel-
workstations/i-x2p/)

------
giorgioz
For 3 years I've been a digital nomad travelling (slowly every 6 months) with
a mac mini and a 24 inches monitor and then even a 30inches monitor.

The 24 inches monitor from Samsung would fit easily in the any luggage. The 30
inches monitor was a stretch and fit with only a margin of 1cm left in each
corner.

Later on I switched from a Mac Mini + Samsung 24inches monitor to simply a
MacBook Pro 15inches. Even though the 24inches Samsung monitor is much larger
than the MacBookPro's 15 inches, the MacBookPro 15inches is very easy on eye
given both the Retina resolution and the amazing font anti-aliasing.

------
nullsmack
You could buy monitors meant to be used as external monitors for laptops. I
think most are 15.6" but there's some available at 17". I know that's nowhere
near the 24" you use but you could probably carry an additional one. Plus
those can be USB powered so you don't have the big hacked together dangerous
AC power cable. They'd be lighter weight and thinner than a desktop monitor
too. So you wouldn't have some Frankenstein thing that's missing the back of
the monitor just to shave off some weight.

------
ris
RFI. RFI Everywhere.

------
bretthopper
I'm working remotely for a month right now and needed a monitor there to work.
I had two ideas:

1\. bring one in a suitcase on my flight

2\. just buy one locally once I got there

I decided to just bring my existing 27" monitor and wait until the day of my
flight to try and pack it... Of course it was about 2 inches too long for a
standard large suitcase.

I quickly found a (physical) store which sold a cheap 23" Dell monitor and
bought it. It easily fit into the suitcase and I've been happily using it for
3 weeks now. Only downside was going back to 1080p :(

------
sailfast
Too many places to move my neck for my preferences, but this did get me
looking at something like the Samsung Space 27” for this use case - seems like
it would work well and weighs in at 12 pounds each so two of them would hit
the 12 kilo requirement without the hacks, and probably shield the RF a bit
more. Also does multi-source PIP if you wanted to create a third “virtual”
monitor but I’m not sure why you’d bother when one could arrange windows
instead.

------
WalterBright
I have no idea how people manage to do work with small screens.

~~~
zerr
and laptop keyboards.

~~~
WalterBright
Yes. I have a full size bluetooth kbd for my laptop. They're hard to find.

~~~
zerr
Yes. I connect mine with PS/2 to USB adapter.

------
ryan-allen
I understand the sentiment. I can't work on laptops (for days at a time)
either.

Though I'd be hard pressed to take my chair with me. I can't work without
that, either!

------
mc3
Isn't this an airport (or any port) security headache?

What about buying the monitors on a local board when you arrive somewhere,
then sell them on that same board when you leave? I think this would work well
in most cities, in that you'd find one pretty quick.

I mean you could probably find a company that'll lend you some of their
dustier monitors. Most software companies seem to have a problem that they
have ones they need to get rid of.

------
Rebelgecko
I've traveled with smaller monitors before (Asus Zenscreen) and that might be
a better compromise. Theyre basically the size of my MBP but thinner, so
they're easy to stuff in a backpack. Only cables you need are one USB-C each.
It's heavier than traveling with jib a laptop, but probably not much heavier
than my MBP was by itself 10 years ago. And you can triple your screen real
estate

------
deckar01
You just need one suitcase per monitor. The yoga mat isn't going to keep blunt
pressure off the screen though. You need to attach something structural to the
front to distribute load to the bezel. The corrigated plastic used for yard
signs is light, cheap, and surprisingly strong. Bubble wrap that and wrap it
in your clothes.

That said, nothing beats the custom molded styrofoam it came in. Keep these if
you can.

------
tomduncalf
Not on the scale of 24” monitors but I’ve been really impressed by the
performance of Sidecar on the new MacOS/iOS and currently use it with my 10”
iPad as a second monitor solution on the go.

I’ve used similar apps (eg Duet Display) before but found the lag and
compression bothersome, but Sidecar seems perfect, even over WiFi. With a
12.9” iPad it would be even better!

------
davidbanham
I also used to take a massive efficiency hit when I had to move away from my
multi-monitor setup. I wanted to be more flexible so I invested some time in
getting comfortable with a tiling window manager.

My weapon of choice is Xmonad on Linux but I've also used i3 and awesomewm and
they've been good. I hear good things about Amethyst on OSX these days too.

------
issa
Fun project! My solution was to just buy a hardshell suitcase and throw a 27"
monitor in it. That, a 15" laptop screen, and a hotel TV if I'm so inclined
does the trick for me. I'm willing to give up my third monitor in exchange for
convenience. Also, I'd NEVER make it through security with something that
looks like that.

------
ipython
I had a similar problem back in 1997 - of course it was much worse since we
had much heavier CRTs then.

The answer was to rent the monitor when I needed it. I’d imagine it would be
easier to do that today than it was back then. I remember going through the
white pages to find a company who would accommodate me.

------
jbverschoor
Why not get a status upgrade and get an extra checked in bag for free. Also,
get a hard case for this

------
ygggvg
I would find it much more interesting on how often he travels while working.
Findings. Affordable place and internet and how it feels.

There has to be a huge advantage building such a weird thing over just going
on holiday without all that crap

------
chx
Ah, large sized travel monitors. I am reasonably (unreasonably, really) well
versed in this topic although my interest leans towards carry on sized
monitors. I started looking almost a decade ago...
[http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/1080p-travel-
monitor...](http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/1080p-travel-
monitor.603212/) and there are no good solutions still.

The best monitor when looking at physical formats is the Asus PQ22UC. It has a
fantastic little folding stand and less than five pounds even with that. Of
course, the price immediately kills the party. Wish they released a FHD
version of it.

The next best is the AOC E2351f. It's 5.5 lb with a stand that disassembles
well. The 21.7" length alone however makes it near impossible to fit it in a
reasonable carry on.

The one that is actually carry on friendly is the Sharp LL-S201A. The stand is
a problem with that one, I admit. It's 5.1 lbs without stand and stand wise I
do not have a great solution. [https://www.instructables.com/id/Lego-Folding-
Tablet-Stand/](https://www.instructables.com/id/Lego-Folding-Tablet-Stand/)
this holds it up for a while and then some parts bend because it's not meant
to hold something this heavy. But while it works, no question it's the
lightest possible stand :) Or you could use the K&M 19685 to adapt it to
tripods and use a travel tripod with removable head. The K&M 19685 is the only
affordable VESA-to-tripod adapter I am aware of but it's alas 1.366 lbs and a
bit bulky. The VESA stand visible on [https://images-na.ssl-images-
amazon.com/images/I/81SC5mDeNdL...](https://images-na.ssl-images-
amazon.com/images/I/81SC5mDeNdL._AC_SL1500_.jpg) has a few problems: it
doesn't fold fully flat and it's impossible to buy these days. See rant about
useful products being discontinued at
[https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/evj4o0/why_ar...](https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/evj4o0/why_are_there_no_118w_chargers/ffw6bil/)
and
[https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1201726345383776256](https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1201726345383776256)

However, since the new Club 3D DP 1.4 MST hub makes both of my PackedPixels
work with the ThinkPad 25 I have, I am simply flying with those, makes life
easy. I posted the first quick test and a comparison to the venerable W701ds
to [https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/portable-lcd-
monit...](https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/portable-lcd-monitors-for-
work-and-gaming-recommendations.2089/page-34#post-184348) and have found a
personal item sized bag which easily hosts the PackedPixels and the laptop
[https://www.reddit.com/r/ManyBaggers/comments/f40dz2/hersche...](https://www.reddit.com/r/ManyBaggers/comments/f40dz2/herschel_gibson_large_very_nice_personal_item/)
so for me, for now, this problem is solved.

------
oknaj
Another suggestion might be to get accustomed to programming in VR. You can
have as many virtual desktops "in there". Search for some youtube videos and
see if its viable for you.

------
bschwindHN
Thank goodness I'm productive on a single laptop monitor.

------
clarry
I really just want a head mounted display, which should give much more virtual
workspace than a 24" monitor.

But it seems like the VR craze killed the market and HMD products with it.

------
benibela
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liaN1lu5b_A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liaN1lu5b_A)

------
bransonf
As a Mac user, the best nomadic setup is a MacBook and an iPad. I can’t think
of a more practical dual monitor setup to travel with.

------
justinator
_During 2019 I was living in Paris and really wondering what I was doing
there_

If one is bored living in Paris, the problem isn't Paris.

------
sgjohnson
Sounds like an amazing way how to get picked up by customs every other time
you cross an international border.

------
wdb
When I was nomading I just bought a new monitor much cheaper then the
overweight fines.

------
drunkenmeister
Call me crazy but maybe you can just buy one of those portable USB screens
from ASUS.

------
tiku
Perhaps better to buy just some pico projectors? Are there 4k versions
already?

~~~
polote
I thought about that, one issue that you will have is that you still need to
have blank screens to project on, and the setup would be more complex as you
need to project from the back ...

------
leksak
The screens look delightfully industrial. Love it.

------
sneak
Sweet hack. This is real engineering.

------
PeterisP
That's cool. Crazy, but cool.

------
dfboyd
WTF is an "alimentation cable"?

~~~
detaro
"power cable". Author forgot to translate or mistranslated from French.

~~~
polote
Yes exactly, it is fixed now, thank you

------
CriticalCathed
Does does security like that?

~~~
gbraad
they already complain with my setup; I use 2 LT1423 screens and a ThinkPad
laptop, two external batteries for work in a unplugged situation and a tablet.
All weighs about 6kg.

Each airport I arrive at I have to open this up. My setup does surely not look
so 'open' and 'exposed' as his does, but always have to explain this is for
work. the US is the worst, Asian countries usually care less... but each and
every one.

~~~
gbraad
... also, would wonder if three long pieces of wood with L-brackets will be
regarded as potential hazardous for carry-on.

------
seungjulee
Why do you even need 3 monitors? That seems excessive.

~~~
csomar
If you are doing web dev, it's literally a must. One screen to type code, one
screen for the browser, and one screen for the browser webdev tools.

Sometimes I wish I have a forth screen for the documentation.

~~~
justanotherc
Exactly, although I tend to find the third screen starts to push the limits of
the convenience of having the real estate vs the inconvenience of having to
turn my head too much.

Sometimes I just set up my terminal windows to take up have the screen of my
main (code) screen and alt+tab to it, and then just clicking on the IDE to
bring it back on top.

I go back and forth between using the 3rd and not depending on my mood.

~~~
tom_
Try portrait monitors!

I have 2 x 27" 1440x2560, and my laptop's hi-dpi screen as well. I found a
landscape multi-monitor setup a bit much, but a portrait arrangement is fine.
Doesn't feel like the amount of head turning required to use the side monitors
is a problem. It's definitely most comfortable to look straight ahead while
using the central monitor, but using the side ones isn't a big problem.
They're good for more than just displaying documentation.

(Total width of my setup is about the same as 3 x portrait 27" displays, so it
feels like I have a reasonable idea how much head turning would be required
for a better setup. Unfortunately, my laptop can only drive 2 external
displays.)

I've been using this setup for about 2 years now, and have no intention of
going back. It's really great.

(Portrait 1200p or 1080p isn't as good! The screen isn't quite wide enough. A
lot of stuff assumes you have 1280+ pixels horizontally.)

------
tiborsaas
This sounds a bit bizarre to me. Took a few seconds to find a large pool of
monitors designed for travelling.

[https://www.techradar.com/news/best-portable-
monitor](https://www.techradar.com/news/best-portable-monitor)

I also don't get the need for an external GPU. Maybe for machine learning it
makes sense, but just to drive monitors it sounds excessive.

~~~
marcinzm
>Took a few seconds to find a large pool of monitors designed for travelling.

Those are relatively small and ergonomically horrible (as are laptop screens
in general). So wouldn't meet the authors needs to retaining current
efficiency and comfort.

>I also don't get the need for an external GPU

I doubt his built in GPU can drive 3 large monitors and the laptop display at
the same time.

edit: Also, for future reference, it's better/nicer to assume people are
intelligent and try to understand their reasons for something rather than
assuming they're idiots.

~~~
polote
> I doubt his built in GPU can drive 3 large monitors and the laptop display
> at the same time.

Well in that case it works. Last generation integrated GPU can handle 2 4K
monitors at 60/s or 3 full hd at 60/s if I remember correctly

