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Earlier birthday present to me, but a much needed upgrade given current events.

Regardless, this upgrade is long overdue.

For monitors, I've never really taken note of what I had, I know I went from a 10 to 12 then a 15-inch CRT, I think at one point I had a 17-inch CRT, still in storage.

My first LCD was a view sonic 17-inch (shown here in my first ever blog post wow!), much like the Dell (probably an E178FP or something similar) in the picture (these are great for networking\server racks and are now highly sort after!).

The current 27-inch view sonic that I have now (in the picture), actually came out of the trash (side of the road), had a few scratches on it, but I suspect someone got a laptop for work and realised it didn't have DVI on it, which is this monitor's only shortcoming.

This monitor replaced my Samsung 21-inch LCD that was the replacement for my first view sonic when it died sometime back in 2010? - maybe 2009. - it was a lot of space for the time, then again I remember the awe of seeing a 40-inch flat screen for the first time.

Monitors for work are a different story, you get what you are given. (Usually north of 24-inch), I have x3 HP Elite Displays E231 for my main workstation, but I wasn't sent home with any.

Parts list

Here is an itemised list of what I bought.

I wanted a no compromises "gaming setup", but I also wanted the flexibility of professional displays, so I bought 2 types of monitor, a gaming oriented one and x2 professional displays, bringing the total to x3, I did measure my space and realised that I wasn't going to have enough room for all of my displays, so I settled on getting a custom 3 point VESA mount stand that supported up to 27-inch displays.

After cleaning off my desk, I set to work setting things up.

I've had to move my desktop behind the monitor stand, as there is physically no more room on my desk, but I still want to be able to access my optical drive, it doesn't compromise the airflow at all, and I have no intensions of upgrading any time soon. (I think if I had my time again, I would rack mount my computer and put it in another room).

Anyway, here is a pic of what everything looks like assembled, and now you can see the second problem.

So, this is the current setup, for now.

There are still a few things that erk me with the setup; the centre monitor sits higher than the rest because the vasa mount sits slightly higher on that model. - I'm going to see if I can get a plate made to correct this.

The x2 side professional view sonic monitors didn't come with a DisplayPort cable (despite being $500+ bucks a piece) so one is connected via USB-C and the other HDMI, and windows keeps wanting me to know that every few seconds that my right most monitor isn't connected in the 'optimal' way, and the RTX 2080 TI only has a single USB-C port. - I can only get the far-right monitor to 1920x1080 until the cable is changed.

Scorptec gave me the wrong upstream power cable for the centre monitor; I got x3 C14 "kettle cords" when the centre monitor uses a C6 ("cloverleaf" or "Mickey Mouse") for the power brick. - oddly, they also left the US style power lead in the box.

I managed to pillage a C14 "kettle cords" style AU plug power lead from a spare Dell laptop, for the time being, I put in a support ticket to ScorpFam and they are just sending me a new one, so props to them.

Despite measuring the monitors (across the top, and they are bezel-less) The monitors are bigger than I expected so I now need to find a new home for my comms rack (Or, it might be fine, will have to wait and see).

Fixing the alignment of the monitors

So, fixing the height alignment of the monitors, I first took some measurements of the height difference and came up with about 28.5mm

I mocked up a diagram to help better illustrate this, this also allowed me to account for the lip of about 7.5mm to 8mm, I took multiple measurements from multiple points, and then I set out designing a bracket to elevate the screens 28.5mm from the VESA mount arm.

This was the first iteration of the design.

I had picked up a HP Quick Release Kit Bracket which came with an abundance of VESA compatible M4 screws, of variable lengths and sink type so it was easy to pick the ones that were necessary.

I sent my design off for review to someone who is a qualified engineer and got back a reviewed copy with some minor adjustments made to it later.

The intention is to build the plates out of 2mm thick aluminium steel, with a total quantity of x4 for each side, I had the option of using countersunk screws for the inner brackets, the right-hand side would connect to the monitor mount adjustable VESA plate that connects to the arm.

While that was happening, I built a prototype using cardboard (of the same thickness of the material), and plastic straws, this allowed me to visualise what I was building.

This also gave me the confidence to know what I was building was a practical solution, it enabled me to do a dry fit (obviously it wasn't structural and held together with blue tac).

I sent the reviewed drawings off to my brother who runs a machine shop to get the plates built, total cost was a slab of beer so not that much in the grand scheme of things, (and I had to 'fix' his computer while I was there).

While the bracket was being made, I had a look at the main pole that holds up the StarTech Triple Monitor Stand, it was hollow, and that gave me the option of fitting in a small black PVC plumbing pipe from my local hardware store, I didn't really take note of its diameter, as it was a bit of material I had laying around, but I know it's primarily used on the water tanks near my house (if that gives any indication as to the thickness).

On my last visit to my local Officeworks, I picked up a waterproof Selfie stick, on clearance, for about $7 bucks, with a little bit of modification, which just involved removing the lower cap and padding, it fit perfectly over on the plastic rod, and it was able to securely support my DSLR camera.

After I cut the plastic PVC pipe down to size it now fits snugly just above my monitor, in this configuration I can use it as a streaming camera or to look my best for morning standups, not that I have ever met anyone who voluntarily wants to put their camera on.

I'll provide an updated photo once the bracket has been installed.

Onto some of the other hardware I purchased for this project, probably one of the biggest innovations in our industry has been the introduction of USB-C docking, unifying what was previously a kludgey mess of proprietary connectors and no cross compatibility, if you bought an enterprise level laptop you had to buy the docking station from the hardware manufacturer, at best that hardware would support a number of models from that manufacturer, but if you change brands or worse, had a device from a different vendor, you were simply out of luck.

Reflecting back to my help desk days, I remember getting calls from users who couldn't figure out how to unlock their laptop from the dock, or even managed to break their device by not unlatching it. Or just the assumption that the fact that the manufacturer was the same meant that it would work with -this model of laptop" when it simply wasn't the case.

My organisation did alright when they purchase Dells from their last big IT order but moving forward, we have been switching to HP equipment.

I am going to embed this video from a recent YouTube channel that I have started watching called Technology Connections, to help evangelise the benefits of USB-C base docks.

Having experienced some of the earlier offerings from HP in this space, specifically there elite USB-C docks, I jumped at the opportunity to upgrade to a HP USB-C Universal dock G2.

For this specific reason, that it has a power button on the top of the unit, unlike the previous ones. - yes, I am complaining about having to open the lid of my laptop in order to be able to turn it on, or I just leave it on all the time.

The other reason was having had access to one, I was able to confirm that it was in fact compatible with the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro, and even provided power delivery.

To my surprise the dock also supports Samsung DEX on my Samsung S8+, so with the Microsoft remote desktop connection app I can almost use it as a full desktop replacement, assuming I'm able to use a docking station to remote into a larger PC.

I always tell the iPhone users in my tribe that they should try this, even though their phone doesn't support USB-C (yet!).

Getting to the Peripheral Sharing Switchers

I bought two types; the x2 ATEN US421 4 Port USB 2.0 Peripheral Switch, each only offering a single USB A port out, hence why I purchased 2, one for my mouse and another one for my keyboard.

I've got one of the out ports in to my docking station, and another one into my desktop, they are each labelled accordingly, that left me with two extra expansion ports. - I am building a server rack to the side of my desk, and that will contain x2 KVM switches one that outputs via VGA\PS2, and another one, a more recent KVM switch, that outputs via DVI\USB 2.0, they are both ATEN, (I've also used a lot of ATEN equipment professionally, so I have come to determine them as a reliable brand).

One day I should probably list out all the brands that I have used and my thoughts on each of them, but I am not a review blog!

For the second Switcher, that was an ATEN US3344-AT 4 Port 3.1 Gen 1 Peripheral Sharing Switch, I could have gotten away with an x2 port switch, but those were out of stock when I bought this one. - my intent is to use this to hook up USB 3.0 devices, and share them between my desktop and my docking station, for devices like my Yeti microphone and my Logitech webcam, I've got a few other random bits and pieces but for the remaining last x2 ports, I'll connect the USB hubs on my monitors to them, I'm not a fan of Daisy chaining a massive amount of USB cables together, but this Switcher is powered, and I haven't seemed to have come across any limitations with it yet.

This particular unit also comes with a button remote for easy switching, as I have cable tied it to the back of the monitor stand, I wish the other x2 ATEN US421 4 Port USB 2.0 Peripheral Switchers had a remote option, that way I could connect it all in to a single cable.

I will provide diagram as to how this is a wired up in an update.

And that's pretty much it, other than the practise of cable tying my docking station and the USB switches to the back of I'm understand to obtain more desk real estate, I would say I have a pretty sweet working from home setup, and I have immediately seen increase in my productivity, I also like the fact that I can easily switch out my HP laptop from work with my MacBook, and with a few buttons switch over my monitors, mouse and keyboards without unplugging anything, it's not the most elegant solution in the world but it's pretty close to it!

I've even had my partner working from my desk on days when I've been in the office.

On an unrelated note, since working from home I have accumulated quite the collection of headphones.

I'll happily go on record to say that I have spent quite a grand amount of money on my personal computing equipment in the last couple of years or so, but as my career has progressed, I am finding the justification for the purchases to be relatively beneficial. - buying a MacBook and learning MacOS development, and modern web development practises, among other things has allowed me to pick up projects for my organisation in the same or similar disciplines, likewise the same principles apply to Linux/Unix based operating systems, test servers and platforms, good tooling and developer flexibility is the key to having a successful project delivered on time, I now understand a lot more about software development, I've come a long way since I started almost 7 years ago.