Building a Portable Fold-Out Monitor for Your Laptop

basically follows the USBC power delivery specifications and allows you to draw many watts of power from a single USB type-c socket this means that instead of using a set of bulky rechargeable batteries and their compulsory protection secretary we can simply opt for an off-the-shelf power bank the only requirement is that it supports USB power delivery spec just plug the power board into it and use its built-in button to cycle through the power banks supported output voltages mine supports 5 volts 9 volts and 12 volts and you can find a link to it in the description we'll leave it set to 12 volts for now as that's what the display board expects after which it can be glued to the edge of the display board to hold it in place its voltage output can then be soldered to the display boards of voltage input for mounting the battery I wrapped it in food wrap and then used sugru to mould a set of rubberized clips that allow the battery to be easily removed when needed for other activities with that done this aluminium sheet can now be screwed to the hinges and then the screen cable plugged in I tooked it underneath the board to make it neater

The final touch is to add a cover of some kind over the driver board in my case a 3d printed one and that's the build completed now it's just a case of attaching it to the laptop using velcro as this allows it to be removed easily and doesn't damage the laptop as you can see it's not at all thin but this is of course a DIY project so it's not too unusual it's still portable enough to slide into a padded bag easily allowing you to take it around on the go as my laptop has a particularly loose hinge and it has no limit on it so it folds flat it can't support the screen by itself so I added a little fold-out kickstand to make it nice and secure

to get it going all that's needed is for you to plug it first into the battery bank after which the display enters standby mode it uses very little power like this so it can be left on without draining the battery now all that's needed is to use a short display cable to hook it up to your laptop's display output after which the new screen will be detected and you can use it as a secondary display as I mentioned earlier this really is a productive way of working as you can have various documents open or programs open at once and reference between them plus it's more comfortable thanks to the increase in height now it's worth noting that you don't actually have to use a battery bank at all if your laptop has a USB type-c socket as you could pair it directly from the laptop instead if you don't mind a slight reduction in battery life speaking of battery life it is extremely power efficient as I was able to get a whopping 15 hours out of the battery bank that I was using which is not bad at all and means that I only have to charge it once in every blue moon

well the use cases are that you can fold it backwards and set it to mirror mode which allows you to share your screen with somebody across a desk which I can see is something that would be useful in quite a few situations now as the display is obviously battery powered it also means that you don't strictly have to use it with the laptop at all you can plug in any number of devices including TV sticks allowing you to have a very decent portable media watching setup if you hook up something like a Bluetooth speaker or use headphones so thanks to the productivity benefits of having a dual screen setup along with the ergonomic improvements that it brings to the table you can get some serious work done on the go which I'd say is pretty neat

now speaking of doing work on the go you can potentially be exposed to insecure Wi-Fi which puts your work and online security at risk a good way to combat this is to use a virtual private network like this video sponsor Nord VPN a VPN gives you an encrypted pathway to the internet meaning your connection is protected end to end to prevent anybody from tapping into it and stealing information this is particularly important with the holiday season coming up where you might be making multiple purchases online and you want to keep your transactions doubly secure it really does give you peace of mind and is something that I personally use regularly to get 70% off a three-year plan and an extra month free visit Nord VPN comm slash DIY perks and use the offer code DIY perks so again that's Nord VPN comm slash DIY perks with the offer code DIY perks to get your internet secure today

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enlaptops are superb devices that allow you to get a huge array of tasks done on the go but they do come with a few compromises simply down to the form factor one of these compromises is that economically they aren't great particularly regards to the screen as it's very low down so you'll tend to be looking down at it which is fine for casual use but when you need to get some work done over a long a period of time it can get quite uncomfortable for your neck another compromise again relating to the screen actually is that there is just one screen which is a shame because having two screens in a dual monitor setup is actually really beneficial for productivity so in an effort to combat these two compromises I will in this video be showing you how to build a secondary fold-out laptop screen that allows you to experience all of the benefits of a dual screen setup and also brings to the table some serious ergonomic improvements to because the top monitor is lifted up which means that if you use this as the primary one it gives you a much better posture and it's much more comfortable to use for long periods of time and I'm so surprised that this kind of thing isn't more common so hopefully after this videos out maybe a manufacturer will come on and make something like this but as there's nothing on the market like this at the moment let's get building it this video is sponsored by noir DPN the best way to secure your internet connection from snooping and in secure Wi-Fi get a free month and 70% off a three year plan by visiting Nord VPN comm / DIY perks and using the offer code DIY perks so the first thing we'll need for this project is a small LCD screen panel these can be salvaged from old or dead laptops or bought directly from eBay as a spare part while it is cheaper salvaging one from an old laptop buying one from eBay gives you more options in size resolution and color fidelity for example after some hunting around I found one that is both full HD and also IPs meaning it's got great colors and viewing angles as panels like this use a tiny interface link they need a separate driver board to translate an input signal into something that they understand these again can be bought from eBay but when purchasing one make sure that it's specifically designed for your LCD panel otherwise it might not work properly to do this compare the model number of your display and make sure that it matches what the control board is designed for if you want to avoid this matching process I've included a link in the description to the exact same display that I'm using which includes the interface board as well allowing you to get it up and running straight away with the display now sorted we can continue with the build and begin working on the backing support and hinge system for this we'll need two thin sheets of aluminium that match the screens width but have a tiny bit of extra space near the bottom now to give it a more robust finish I sanded down my aluminium in one direction to give it a brushed appearance which makes it more resilient to light scratches as well as fingerprints and looks pretty cool as well now the point at which this aluminium will later hinge is of course the top of the laptop but it needs to fold down in such a way that it will leave a gap for the display board and battery system for this I've designed a set of little 3d printable hinges which after being printed off can be screwed together to give us the hinge action that we need if you don't have access to a 3d printer it's always possible to make something similar out of wood or PVC sheeting if you take your time with a coping saw so to attach these to the aluminium we'll need to drill a few holes which need to be countersunk on one side so that the display can later fit over the screws without them being in the way once done it should be looking something like this and it's time to fix the display to it before doing this though a slot needs to be cut for the display cable to go through and using a rotary tool to make it is pretty straightforward to hold the display in place for now we can just use some double-sided tape though this will be made more secure in the next step as you can see the display is extremely thin but its border isn't particularly pretty to neaten it up one method would be to use vinyl wrap this is what I used on a previous similar project and it works well and keeps the display secure as well as keeping it nice and thin I am trying to avoid vinyl wrap this time though so instead I used the 3d printer to make a set of clip-on bezels these work nicely but being 3d printed they look pretty rough so in an effort to combat this I sanded them down to take away a lot of the ridging and decided to finish them off by giving them an acetone vapor bath as I had printed them with ABS filament this method is used to give 3d prints a smooth glossy look and I have an entire video about how to do it but unfortunately I wasn't really paying attention I left them for too long and they just melted into a bendy mess it didn't actually make them look particularly glossy either so realizing that this wasn't going to work i reprinted them with PLA filament this time and again sanded them smooth I then cleaned off any particles and grease with white spirit and then gave them a spray with some plastic primer I then followed this up with some gloss black and used some epoxy to secure them to the border of the screen when clips in place the next step of the build is to make the other part of the hinged system to house the drive the board and battery this is fairly self-explanatory just add some PCB pillars to the back of the board and mount it to a suitable location on the other piece of aluminium again using countersunk screws as this board requires 12 volts of power in order to work we need some kind of battery system which turns out to be quite straightforward thanks to a neat little power board I've discovered that will be useful for many projects beyond this one this little board basically follows the USBC power delivery specifications and allows you to draw many watts of power from a single USB type-c socket this means that instead of using a set of bulky rechargeable batteries and their compulsory protection secretary we can simply opt for an off-the-shelf power bank the only requirement is that it supports USB power delivery spec just plug the power board into it and use its built-in button to cycle through the power banks supported output voltages mine supports 5 volts 9 volts and 12 volts and you can find a link to it in the description we'll leave it set to 12 volts for now as that's what the display board expects after which it can be glued to the edge of the display board to hold it in place its voltage output can then be soldered to the display boards of voltage input for mounting the battery I wrapped it in food wrap and then used sugru to mould a set of rubberized clips that allow the battery to be easily removed when needed for other activities with that done this aluminium sheet can now be screwed to the hinges and then the screen cable plugged in I tooked it underneath the board to make it neater the final touch is to add a cover of some kind over the driver board in my case a 3d printed one and that's the build completed now it's just a case of attaching it to the laptop using velcro as this allows it to be removed easily and doesn't damage the laptop as you can see it's not at all thin but this is of course a DIY project so it's not too unusual it's still portable enough to slide into a padded bag easily allowing you to take it around on the go as my laptop has a particularly loose hinge and it has no limit on it so it folds flat it can't support the screen by itself so I added a little fold-out kickstand to make it nice and secure to get it going all that's needed is for you to plug it first into the battery bank after which the display enters standby mode it uses very little power like this so it can be left on without draining the battery now all that's needed is to use a short display cable to hook it up to your laptop's display output after which the new screen will be detected and you can use it as a secondary display as I mentioned earlier this really is a productive way of working as you can have various documents open or programs open at once and reference between them plus it's more comfortable thanks to the increase in height now it's worth noting that you don't actually have to use a battery bank at all if your laptop has a USB type-c socket as you could pair it directly from the laptop instead if you don't mind a slight reduction in battery life speaking of battery life it is extremely power efficient as I was able to get a whopping 15 hours out of the battery bank that I was using which is not bad at all and means that I only have to charge it once in every blue moon well the use cases are that you can fold it backwards and set it to mirror mode which allows you to share your screen with somebody across a desk which I can see is something that would be useful in quite a few situations now as the display is obviously battery powered it also means that you don't strictly have to use it with the laptop at all you can plug in any number of devices including TV sticks allowing you to have a very decent portable media watching setup if you hook up something like a Bluetooth speaker or use headphones so thanks to the productivity benefits of having a dual screen setup along with the ergonomic improvements that it brings to the table you can get some serious work done on the go which I'd say is pretty neat now speaking of doing work on the go you can potentially be exposed to insecure Wi-Fi which puts your work and online security at risk a good way to combat this is to use a virtual private network like this video sponsor Nord VPN a VPN gives you an encrypted pathway to the internet meaning your connection is protected end to end to prevent anybody from tapping into it and stealing information this is particularly important with the holiday season coming up where you might be making multiple purchases online and you want to keep your transactions doubly secure it really does give you peace of mind and is something that I personally use regularly to get 70% off a three-year plan and an extra month free visit Nord VPN comm slash DIY perks and use the offer code DIY perks so again that's Nord VPN comm slash DIY perks with the offer code DIY perks to get your internet secure today so that's it for this video I hope you've enjoyed it and I hope that you'll have a go in making one of these fold-out monitors because they are pretty cool but other than that I'm at you've been watching DIY perks and I hope to see you next time good bye for nowlaptops are superb devices that allow you to get a huge array of tasks done on the go but they do come with a few compromises simply down to the form factor one of these compromises is that economically they aren't great particularly regards to the screen as it's very low down so you'll tend to be looking down at it which is fine for casual use but when you need to get some work done over a long a period of time it can get quite uncomfortable for your neck another compromise again relating to the screen actually is that there is just one screen which is a shame because having two screens in a dual monitor setup is actually really beneficial for productivity so in an effort to combat these two compromises I will in this video be showing you how to build a secondary fold-out laptop screen that allows you to experience all of the benefits of a dual screen setup and also brings to the table some serious ergonomic improvements to because the top monitor is lifted up which means that if you use this as the primary one it gives you a much better posture and it's much more comfortable to use for long periods of time and I'm so surprised that this kind of thing isn't more common so hopefully after this videos out maybe a manufacturer will come on and make something like this but as there's nothing on the market like this at the moment let's get building it this video is sponsored by noir DPN the best way to secure your internet connection from snooping and in secure Wi-Fi get a free month and 70% off a three year plan by visiting Nord VPN comm / DIY perks and using the offer code DIY perks so the first thing we'll need for this project is a small LCD screen panel these can be salvaged from old or dead laptops or bought directly from eBay as a spare part while it is cheaper salvaging one from an old laptop buying one from eBay gives you more options in size resolution and color fidelity for example after some hunting around I found one that is both full HD and also IPs meaning it's got great colors and viewing angles as panels like this use a tiny interface link they need a separate driver board to translate an input signal into something that they understand these again can be bought from eBay but when purchasing one make sure that it's specifically designed for your LCD panel otherwise it might not work properly to do this compare the model number of your display and make sure that it matches what the control board is designed for if you want to avoid this matching process I've included a link in the description to the exact same display that I'm using which includes the interface board as well allowing you to get it up and running straight away with the display now sorted we can continue with the build and begin working on the backing support and hinge system for this we'll need two thin sheets of aluminium that match the screens width but have a tiny bit of extra space near the bottom now to give it a more robust finish I sanded down my aluminium in one direction to give it a brushed appearance which makes it more resilient to light scratches as well as fingerprints and looks pretty cool as well now the point at which this aluminium will later hinge is of course the top of the laptop but it needs to fold down in such a way that it will leave a gap for the display board and battery system for this I've designed a set of little 3d printable hinges which after being printed off can be screwed together to give us the hinge action that we need if you don't have access to a 3d printer it's always possible to make something similar out of wood or PVC sheeting if you take your time with a coping saw so to attach these to the aluminium we'll need to drill a few holes which need to be countersunk on one side so that the display can later fit over the screws without them being in the way once done it should be looking something like this and it's time to fix the display to it before doing this though a slot needs to be cut for the display cable to go through and using a rotary tool to make it is pretty straightforward to hold the display in place for now we can just use some double-sided tape though this will be made more secure in the next step as you can see the display is extremely thin but its border isn't particularly pretty to neaten it up one method would be to use vinyl wrap this is what I used on a previous similar project and it works well and keeps the display secure as well as keeping it nice and thin I am trying to avoid vinyl wrap this time though so instead I used the 3d printer to make a set of clip-on bezels these work nicely but being 3d printed they look pretty rough so in an effort to combat this I sanded them down to take away a lot of the ridging and decided to finish them off by giving them an acetone vapor bath as I had printed them with ABS filament this method is used to give 3d prints a smooth glossy look and I have an entire video about how to do it but unfortunately I wasn't really paying attention I left them for too long and they just melted into a bendy mess it didn't actually make them look particularly glossy either so realizing that this wasn't going to work i reprinted them with PLA filament this time and again sanded them smooth I then cleaned off any particles and grease with white spirit and then gave them a spray with some plastic primer I then followed this up with some gloss black and used some epoxy to secure them to the border of the screen when clips in place the next step of the build is to make the other part of the hinged system to house the drive the board and battery this is fairly self-explanatory just add some PCB pillars to the back of the board and mount it to a suitable location on the other piece of aluminium again using countersunk screws as this board requires 12 volts of power in order to work we need some kind of battery system which turns out to be quite straightforward thanks to a neat little power board I've discovered that will be useful for many projects beyond this one this little board basically follows the USBC power delivery specifications and allows you to draw many watts of power from a single USB type-c socket this means that instead of using a set of bulky rechargeable batteries and their compulsory protection secretary we can simply opt for an off-the-shelf power bank the only requirement is that it supports USB power delivery spec just plug the power board into it and use its built-in button to cycle through the power banks supported output voltages mine supports 5 volts 9 volts and 12 volts and you can find a link to it in the description we'll leave it set to 12 volts for now as that's what the display board expects after which it can be glued to the edge of the display board to hold it in place its voltage output can then be soldered to the display boards of voltage input for mounting the battery I wrapped it in food wrap and then used sugru to mould a set of rubberized clips that allow the battery to be easily removed when needed for other activities with that done this aluminium sheet can now be screwed to the hinges and then the screen cable plugged in I tooked it underneath the board to make it neater the final touch is to add a cover of some kind over the driver board in my case a 3d printed one and that's the build completed now it's just a case of attaching it to the laptop using velcro as this allows it to be removed easily and doesn't damage the laptop as you can see it's not at all thin but this is of course a DIY project so it's not too unusual it's still portable enough to slide into a padded bag easily allowing you to take it around on the go as my laptop has a particularly loose hinge and it has no limit on it so it folds flat it can't support the screen by itself so I added a little fold-out kickstand to make it nice and secure to get it going all that's needed is for you to plug it first into the battery bank after which the display enters standby mode it uses very little power like this so it can be left on without draining the battery now all that's needed is to use a short display cable to hook it up to your laptop's display output after which the new screen will be detected and you can use it as a secondary display as I mentioned earlier this really is a productive way of working as you can have various documents open or programs open at once and reference between them plus it's more comfortable thanks to the increase in height now it's worth noting that you don't actually have to use a battery bank at all if your laptop has a USB type-c socket as you could pair it directly from the laptop instead if you don't mind a slight reduction in battery life speaking of battery life it is extremely power efficient as I was able to get a whopping 15 hours out of the battery bank that I was using which is not bad at all and means that I only have to charge it once in every blue moon well the use cases are that you can fold it backwards and set it to mirror mode which allows you to share your screen with somebody across a desk which I can see is something that would be useful in quite a few situations now as the display is obviously battery powered it also means that you don't strictly have to use it with the laptop at all you can plug in any number of devices including TV sticks allowing you to have a very decent portable media watching setup if you hook up something like a Bluetooth speaker or use headphones so thanks to the productivity benefits of having a dual screen setup along with the ergonomic improvements that it brings to the table you can get some serious work done on the go which I'd say is pretty neat now speaking of doing work on the go you can potentially be exposed to insecure Wi-Fi which puts your work and online security at risk a good way to combat this is to use a virtual private network like this video sponsor Nord VPN a VPN gives you an encrypted pathway to the internet meaning your connection is protected end to end to prevent anybody from tapping into it and stealing information this is particularly important with the holiday season coming up where you might be making multiple purchases online and you want to keep your transactions doubly secure it really does give you peace of mind and is something that I personally use regularly to get 70% off a three-year plan and an extra month free visit Nord VPN comm slash DIY perks and use the offer code DIY perks so again that's Nord VPN comm slash DIY perks with the offer code DIY perks to get your internet secure today so that's it for this video I hope you've enjoyed it and I hope that you'll have a go in making one of these fold-out monitors because they are pretty cool but other than that I'm at you've been watching DIY perks and I hope to see you next time good bye for now\n"