My Battle Station

I have been working from home for almost 8 weeks since the Coronavirus outbreak. The situation slowly turns better, but there seems no clear sign when our lives will go back to normal, — and for some families, their lives may never go back to normal. I am lucky to have the choice to work from home, and here are some tips to maintain my productivity in affordable budgets.

One BIG screen

I used to have two monitors, one 24’ Dell P2415D with 2560x1440 resolution, and one 19’ Dell E207WFPc with 1680x1050 resolution. Due to the resolution disparity, dragging a window across the screen boundaries never works smoothly. In 2019 Black Friday, I pulled the trigger and upgraded to one relatively BIG screen, the 34’ ultrawide LG 34UM88C-P:

• it supports 3440x1440@60Hz resolutions.
• 2 HDMI 2.0, 1 DisplayPort 1.2 ports
• 2 USB 3.0 downstream ports, and 1 USB 3.0 upstream port.

The lack of Thunderbolt 3 turns out not a deal breaker, and essentially works quite well for my bespoke use case.

Three Computers

I have three computers to share the keyboard, monitor, mouse:

1. One MacBook Pro 15 with Thunderbolt 3 from my employer
2. One HP Envy 13 with USB Type-C with PowerDelivery
3. One Windows desktop with DisplayPort and HDMI.

Here are how they connected:

The laptop connects to this dirty-cheap USB Type-C hub from Amazon, via single USB Type-C cable. The USB Type-C hub extends the display to the LG monitor via 4K HDMI output¹; charges with PowerDelivery capability; and connects to the access point via gigabit ethernet². Its USB port is connected to a 2-in, 4-out USB 3.0 switch to share the keyboard and mouse. As the external screen is big enough, I usually leave the laptops in the vertical stand with lip closed³.

The other upstream port of USB switch is connected to the desktop, which is then connects to the LG monitor via HDMI 2.

When switching between laptops, I just plug the USB Type-C hub’s cable to the target laptop. When switching between laptop and desktop, I need to select the input source in the LG monitor’s OSD menu manually, the USB switch generally switch to the new input source automatically.

Ergonomic setup

I found the standup desk really helps to maintain good postures. But in 2016, the motor-powered solution is a little bit out of reach, so I bought the hand-cracked IKEA SKARSTA standup desk. It is clearly more affordable, low- maintenance; but you need extra will power to overcome the friction of switching positions.

I switched to trackball 4 years ago after being diagnosed of RSI in my right wrist. I currently use the Logitech M570, and consider to give Elecom Deft Pro a try.

Recently, I also took advantage of Airbnb’s work from home expensing policy, and upgrade to the Keychron K2 wireless keyboard. K2 is a bluetooth 75% keyboard, capable of paring up to 3 devices. I am personally not aware the any lagging of bluetooth, but the keyboard will not be recognized in wireless mode when the MacBook Pro is rebooted, just fyi.

What’s Next

Since I spent almost 10 – 12 hours at the desk everyday, I continue improve the working environment to make it more comfortable, and convenient.

• Add another screen vertically mounted on the monitor arm for slack and email.
• Add under-desk storage for various cables, USB drives.
• Replace the lamp with BenQ’s ScreenBar⁴ or alternative.