Travelling with 24” Monitors • Hacker News Board

Re: Travelling with 24” Monitors

#311

Post by vidarh » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 1:57 PM UTC

notatoad wrote: post #241

rsync wrote: post #28

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 ...

I've flown with sketchy looking computers in pelican cases a few times. The only time it was a problem was when I mentioned that the batteries in the box were scooter batteries. Apparently you can fly with any size lead-acid batteries you want, but "scooter batteries" are on a list of specifically banned items. The security folks aren't applying any judgement, they're just looking for things on a list of stuff that's…

Not just security people. Easy way of avoiding it if the gate staff want to tag your carry on bag and put it on the hold: be very willing,take their receipt that points out there shouldn't be batteries in there,then very apologetically point out you have devices with batteries in there.

So far it's worked every time - not once have they asked if I could take them out; probably not so much that they're clueless as that they're just looking for the easiest way of getting their assigned task done.

Re: Travelling with 24” Monitors

#312

Post by ajnin » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 2:17 PM UTC

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 " 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 ;)

Re: Travelling with 24” Monitors

#313

Post by vb6sp6 » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 4:05 PM UTC

BooneJS wrote: post #3

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #2

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.

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

The TSA did an internal audit where they sent 70 mock explosives and weapons through checkpoints. 67 made it through.

Re: Travelling with 24” Monitors

#314

Post by markogresak » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 4:18 PM UTC

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.

Re: Travelling with 24” Monitors

#315

Post by wdb » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 4:36 PM UTC

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

Re: Travelling with 24” Monitors

#316

Post by nullsmack » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 4:42 PM UTC

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.

Re: Travelling with 24” Monitors

#317

Post by kayfox » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 4:53 PM UTC

polote wrote: post #307

FrankSansC wrote: post #279

> 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.

Author here: there is a 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

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.

Re: Travelling with 24” Monitors

#318

Post by GuB-42 » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 6:21 PM UTC

georgewsinger wrote: post #109

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 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…

Working in current-gen VR for me would be absolutely terrible.

- Low resolution. The best we have for consumers right now is the valve index, 1440x3200 resolution ~100 degree vertical FOV. A 24 inch display at a comfortable distance in such a headset would be at around 720x480 (480p), and a little blurry because of the projection.

- Fixed focus lens. You basically can't read anything close on today's headsets. Lens are focused so that they are sharp at infinity, which also mean they are blurry up close. Coding on virtual gigantic screens at a distance may be a good experience though.

- Touch typing is a must. In fact it is touch everything, because you will be blind to the real world.

- VR headsets can be uncomfortable when worn for hours at a time. Because of technical limitations (FOV and resolution), you tend to move your head a lot in VR, and doing so while wearing a heavy headset can make it even more uncomfortable.

Portability, for me, is the least of the problems, especially those that have "inside out" tracking. These things can fit in a small backpack.

Re: Travelling with 24” Monitors

#319

Post by Fnoord » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 7:35 PM UTC

Polylactic_acid wrote: post #268

varenc wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of pixel count, isn’t the Vive only a 1080x1200 monitor? (per eye). I’d like more information density without having to move my neck around.

The original vive is pretty outdated now. You would struggle to even read text, let alone want to replace your monitor with it. Currently the best you can get is 4k per eye which is going to allow you to read text ok but the quality will be something closer to a 720p screen since those pixels are spread out over a huge area. Give it a couple years and there will probably be an 8k vr setup that might allow for decent…

> and no one else would be able to see your screen.

I consider that a plus. I'm regularly flabbergasted by the things I'm able to see on screens in public transport.

Re: Travelling with 24” Monitors

#320

Post by oneplane » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 8:54 PM UTC

paraselene_ wrote: post #251

Razengan wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I figured it may have something to do with the different internal circuitry for driving the massive 5K wide-color screen, but I would have settled for some kind of adapter, no matter how bulky. Anything really to save me from buying an standalone screen just for my MacBook.

Get something like a camlink 4K and just plug your laptop into that. And VLC should be able to fullscreen that video feed just fine. And it's about the size of a USB stick (plus HDMI cable of course) so it's actually portable enough.

Keep in mind that you get some serious limitations; either low frame rate or crappy color. The problem is that at the time there was no realistic way to pump enough data around in a fast enough method. It has to be something like 20Gbit/s with no processing involved, and with processing it has to be even bigger to relax the compression a bit.

I think what most capture devices do that have 'realtime' options is either heavy compression/decompression, reduced framerates or lower color capture.