It's been a bit since my last post so before I get to the main content I wanted to assure everyone that when not doing life stuff I've been slowly picking away at RIPmotion.
Just over a week ago (wow, seriously?) I was able to demo a new version of it at the Boston VR Meetup. I learned a lot from demoing and I'll have more on that later, but this post is about hardware, specifically portable monitors.
After putting together my Mini-ITX build so I can demo and hackathon I realized I didn't have a display, so naturally looked at some of the off-the-shelf options.
First up was the ASUS MB168B+, which seemed perfect on paper, but because of driver issues with the Vive it had to go.
Next I figured the newly released (like, same day I ordered the old one) ASUS MB169C+ would do the trick since it has "DisplayPort™ over USB-C™". Of course this means "uses DisplayPort protocol over a USB-C port" not "get a USB-C to DP adapter and you're in business" like I had assumed, so yet another one didn't make the cut.
At this point I didn't want to drop the coin on one of the nice HDMI connected GeChic offerings so decided to get creative.
I had previously built a digital photo frame out of the monitor from an old dead laptop so figured I would explore some high res, low size options. I found a few ~15" 1080p panels and adapters that seemed like reasonable options when I stumbled upon Abusemark which uses an Ipad screen and knew I found it.
What follows is the final product and build list. I put it together the night before the meetup and it was perfect for the job. I think there may be a few things I tweak over time, but overall really happy with it compared to lugging around a giant monitor. In addition to saving my HDMI port by using DisplayPort for input, it also uses USB for power which is one less power outlet, key in a mobile setup.
- 9.7" 2048x1536 iPad screen
- Display adapter
- 2 x 8"x10" plexi (not the exact ones I used, but effectively the same)
- Bolts, nuts and tubing for hardware