A “Vertically Arranged” External Monitor Mount for Laptops
Say goodbye to neck pain and enjoy a duo-monitor setup while working on laptops on-the-go
(中文版在下方。Mandarin version below.)
Spend much of my time working remotely, the Roost Stand (https://www.therooststand.com/) had accompanied me for over 7 years, mitigating my body pains while using a small 13" laptop:
Although being a long-time loving user of Roost Stand, I still kept thinking about one thing:
Problem to solve: looking down at a laptop screen for long periods causes neck pain.
Solution (provided by Roost Stand): Elevate the entire laptop, and prepare an extra keyboard and touchpad to use on the desk.
🤔 Since the problem is that the screen is too low, why not just raise the screen itself? Well, it’s not trivial to disassemble a laptop, separate the screen and keyboard and re-assemble it so that the screen can be raised. But Rather than raising the whole laptop and discarding its built-in keyboard and touchpad, would it be better to discard the screen and mount a screen that can be viewed at eye level above the original screen? Moreover, the original laptop screen is not considered discarded, as it can still be used for dual screens to display things that are not frequently viewed or need to be compared.
Back then, it was hard to find a portable external monitor that is good enough to replace the Apple Retina display and become the main monitor. But nowadays, the performance of portable 4K monitors that are available on the market can have been quite similar to the built-in display of MacBooks.
But while various products can let us have an external monitor stand, or be mounted, on the side of a laptop screen, there is not even a thing that can mount it on the top. So I decided to build one myself.
It works pretty stably for me, and I have been happily using and evolving it for half a year. I think it will be my new digital nomad artifact while having several advantages over a laptop stand:
- Takes less table space — a laptop stand and an additional keyboard can take quite a lot of table space. Sometimes, it can’t be set up when the depth of the table is limited or having another person is sitting in front of me.
- Probably less weight to carry in comparison to a Bluetooth keyboard and touchpad.
- Takes less time to set it up.
But it still has some disadvantages:
- An external monitor is battery-consuming. A MacBook Air with an M1 chip can only hold for about 2 hours of usage after being fully charged. It is best to use it with a power socket.
- It may be less stable than a laptop stand. I’ll consider not leaving it too long mounted on the table while un-watched in shared office spaces.
- More expensive. A 13" 4K monitor costs US$ 220, and a 3D printed mount costs US$ 105 with SLS or US$ 40 with SLA (or time and tools to self-print).
The design file is available here: https://github.com/zetavg/Vertical-External-Monitor-Mount-for-Laptop. You can use either FDM or Resin 3D printers to build one yourself. Adjusting the parameters in the Fusion 360 source file can make it suitable for different screens and laptops, or make slight adjustments for various manufacturing methods and materials. Some parts need to be made of rubber-like non-slip materials; otherwise, the surface of the PLA or resin product can be very slippery.
I printed my set using Onyx Rigid Pro410 on a Frozen Sonic Mini 4K (previously also briefly used PLA printed with FDM), and the rubber parts were printed with TPU on a Snapmaker 2.0. The screen loaded is this 4K USB Type-C screen: https://www.uperfectmonitor.com/products/4k-portable-monitor-13-3-uperfect, mounted on an M1 MacBook Air.
Photos
中文版 (Mandarin Version)
身為多年 Roost Stand (https://www.therooststand.com/) 愛用者的我仍一直在想一件事：
要解決的問題：長時間低頭用筆電對脖子不好。
（Root Stand 提供的）解法：把整台筆電架高，然後多準備一套鍵盤觸控板放在桌上用。
🤔 既然問題在螢幕太低，為什麼不把螢幕本身弄高就好？
要拆解筆電把螢幕和鍵盤分離的難度頗高，但與其抬高筆電、捨棄它自帶的鍵盤和觸控板；不如捨棄螢幕，在原本的螢幕上方架一個可以平視的螢幕。而且原本的筆電螢幕也不算被捨棄，還是可以雙螢幕放一些不常看或要對照的東西。
市面上買得到的可攜式 4K 螢幕已經做到跟 MacBook 內建螢幕看起來差不多，但各式各樣的螢幕立架、載座，全都是把外接螢幕放在旁邊，就沒有可以把外接螢幕架在原本的螢幕上的⋯⋯
等了好幾年還是沒人做，我乾脆就自己做了，先是紙模型不久後就開 CAD 拉出 3D 列印成品，用起來還蠻穩的，半年來快樂使用中。應該會是我的新 digital nomad 神器，比 Root Stand 還省桌面空間、體積重量比多帶一組鍵盤觸控板還少、架設起來更方便，但缺點是外接螢幕很噴電，MacBook Air 電池全滿大概撐兩三小時就沒電 XD 最好搭配插座使用。
設計檔開源如下：https://github.com/zetavg/Vertical-External-Monitor-Mount-for-Laptop
用 FDM 或光固化機器都可以自己印，Fusion 360 原始檔調一下參數就能適用於不同螢幕、筆電，或是對不同製造工法和材料做微調；部分部件要用類似橡膠的防滑軟料，不然一般的 PLA 或樹脂成品表面都很滑。
我的這組是用 Onyx Rigid Pro410 在 Frozen Sonic Mini 4K 印出來的 (之前也短暫用過 FDM 出的 PLA)，橡膠部分是 TPU 用 Snapmaker 2.0 印的，裝載的螢幕是這台 4K USB Type-C 螢幕：https://www.uperfectmonitor.com/products/4k-portable-monitor-13-3-uperfect ，架在 M1 MacBook Air 上。
