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My DIY ergonomic travel workstation with aluminum and magnets

thume.ca

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Re: My DIY ergonomic travel workstation with aluminum and magnets

#11

Post by gboss »

mgarfias wrote: post #3

Omg thank you. Having some massive pain in my shoulder (when externally rotating my arm), and I think it’s due to moving my arm out to get the trackpad/mouse. I’m going to try this keyboard setup deal with the track pad in the center.

I think the best thing you can do is resistance training exercise. Also going from a wide keyboard (full size Apple keyboard with number pad) to a narrow keyboard (narrow Apple Keyboard no number pad) worked for me. For a while I was doing the exercise in the video below and it helped me but I think just regular weight training can do wonders. I mostly just do shoulder, back, arms, and chest exercises and still haven’t had the pain I used to have. Hope you find something that works for you!

https://youtu.be/IdDqdrGMFBw

Re: My DIY ergonomic travel workstation with aluminum and magnets

#12

Post by ianthehenry »

Oh I love this! Doubling as a carrying case is a great idea. I like the flat-pack assembly with the spacers parts. What's the weight of the full assembly like?

I did something similar to this last year, but without the travel goal (just trying to get myself to move around and work outside more). Instead of mating the keyboard to the base, I attached some larger magnets to the bottom of the keyboard by setting them into a custom aluminum bottom plate (also from SendCutSend) and made a flat desk surface out of ferromagnetic steel.

https://ianthehenry.com/posts/kyria-build/bespoker-aluminum-...

One advantage of this is that I can move around the keyboard halves freely, angling them differently throughout the day. Which is also sort of a disadvantage, but they stick pretty well in place if I'm not trying to mess with them. I can also attach some other things that I slapped magnets on (mostly a mechanical pomodoro timer that I use for writing).

https://i.imgur.com/S0bstNs.png

I experimented with some alternate keyboard mounting strategies, but didn't find anything that made a big difference.

https://i.imgur.com/ohNWhhS.png

This is my second magnetic keyboard lap desk prototype. My first was far too heavy, so to reduce weight I just bent a piece of sheet steel around a piece of cork (the sharp bends add a lot of rigidity). I think the next one will be tented a bit... SendCutSend does bending now; I bet I could laminate steel to a thin aluminum frame...

Re: My DIY ergonomic travel workstation with aluminum and magnets

#13

Post by ianthehenry »

tra3 wrote: post #5

I built a Mobile workstation out of an old dslr tripod after I saw one on Amazon (0). Game changer for me. I can use it sitting down like a traditional desk, or standing up. Occasionally I bring it all the way down and squat in front of it. Surprisingly challenging. It packs rather slim but it’s not as fancy as the Amazon version 0 https://www.amazon.com/TRIPODSY-Portable-Standing-Adjustable...

Does it take a long time to adjust the height between sitting and standing? Without any tripod experience I would assume it would require carefully adjusting each of the three legs whenever you want to change height. Is that true, or is there some mechanical cleverness at work?

Re: My DIY ergonomic travel workstation with aluminum and magnets

#14

Post by reacharavindh »

seltzered_ wrote: post #9

FYI, I curate setups like these on https://reddit.com/r/ergomobilecomputers

I use to be able to read Reddit links on my phone browser, now they simply it a useless banner preventing me from being able to even read the thing unless I download their tracker. Now, I need to train my brain to never click on Reddit links when reading HN on phone :-(

Re: My DIY ergonomic travel workstation with aluminum and magnets

#15

Post by sundvor »

jonhohle wrote: post #7
hi_its_trevor wrote: post #4

magnets are the best.

And underrated, imho. I’m always delighted when I get something that uses magnets in a unique way: keeping a lid closed, providing alignment when attaching things, as a method of mounting unrelated things to each other, and even just to fidget with. Magnets are awesome.

The sunshade on a Tesla Model 3.

The case panels on Asus' Chakram X mouse (on way to a mostly tool less 15 second microswitch replacement).

Re: My DIY ergonomic travel workstation with aluminum and magnets

#16

Post by thakoppno »

jonhohle wrote: post #7
hi_its_trevor wrote: post #4

magnets are the best.

And underrated, imho. I’m always delighted when I get something that uses magnets in a unique way: keeping a lid closed, providing alignment when attaching things, as a method of mounting unrelated things to each other, and even just to fidget with. Magnets are awesome.

I have an Apple cinema display that has magnets around the bezel and a stainless steel 1” wide ruler which accidentally ends up making a most satisfying physical iSight privacy barrier.

Re: My DIY ergonomic travel workstation with aluminum and magnets

#17

Post by volderette »

reacharavindh wrote: post #14
seltzered_ wrote: post #9

FYI, I curate setups like these on https://reddit.com/r/ergomobilecomputers

I use to be able to read Reddit links on my phone browser, now they simply it a useless banner preventing me from being able to even read the thing unless I download their tracker. Now, I need to train my brain to never click on Reddit links when reading HN on phone :-(

There are browser extensions like PrivacyRedirect (iOS app) and LibRedirect (Chrome, Firefox …), that have the ability to redirect you to alternative reddit frontends (teddit and so on).

Re: My DIY ergonomic travel workstation with aluminum and magnets

#18

Post by nvln »

mgarfias wrote: post #3

Omg thank you. Having some massive pain in my shoulder (when externally rotating my arm), and I think it’s due to moving my arm out to get the trackpad/mouse. I’m going to try this keyboard setup deal with the track pad in the center.

I was having similar issues a couple of years back. I'm now using 2 trackballs - Expert Mouse and Vertical trackball to distribute the movement. The pain hasn't come back and I enjoy having dual mice with some extra buttons.

I tried using the expert mouse between my ergodox splits, but the movement was even more awkward as I had to bring my elbow closer to my abdomen. YMMV.

Over the years, adding variety/variability has helped me more than many specific solutions. Seems obvious in hindsight given the R in RSI :D

Re: My DIY ergonomic travel workstation with aluminum and magnets

#20

Post by jimmySixDOF »

My travel workstation consists of a SFF 13L PC, a Meta Quest 2 VR Headset, and the paired Logitech K830 keyboard. No battery but it all fits into a carryon roller at 8Kgs with cables and it's a true workstation as in high end GPU/CPU/RAM with multiple monitors. I call it an All-in-One-Office-on-Wheels-in-a-Box !
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