My background is from someone on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/weeviltime/comments/18uh96q/a_work_sketch/
The title sounds like a get-rich-quick crypto scheme, but that's not what I'm getting at.
In the past year, I've been trying out Linux Mint as my daily-driver OS. I've been a Windows person for most of my life, but back in 2018, my first job required me to have a computer, but they didn't actually have one for me. So I supplied the computer, an old Dell workstation laptop that had a 1st generation i7 processor. For reasons I don't remember well, I'd installed Linux Mint on it. For work, it was great - I was mostly using the internet and Google Docs, and it connected up to a docking station and an external monitor at my desk just fine.
Fast forward to now, and I've installed Mint on my school laptop (exclusively!) and also as a dual-boot with Windows 11 on the laptop I intend to replace both my school and home laptops with. And I'm loving it. Mint isn't perfect, and linux can be a little rough around the edges. But it's snappy, it's easy to customize, and I feel good knowing it's open-source.
That's not the point of this post though - I want to talk about the docking station I'm designing for it!
The laptop I'm switching to is a 2-in-1: its screen flips 180 degrees so the whole laptop can become a tablet. It also has a Wacom stylus and digitizer, so I can use PDF markup apps like Xournal++ to take notes in classes and do my homework. I love the 2-in-1 form factor. Being able to do sketches and hand-written notes without having to carry around paper in a binder and then scan it when submitting work is so nice.
I mentioned the docking station I had on my first linux laptop - I miss docking stations! Being able to plug your laptop into this one thing, and it would charge, connect to your external monitor and other peripherals - and then when you needed to go, being able to remove it easily and seamlessly with one action - that was nice. As someone who uses their laptop as their only computer but enjoys using a second monitor, I missed the ease of a docking station.
My 2-in-1 (a 2019? Lenovo Yoga 9i) doesn't have a docking port (nor could it, with the 2-in-1 functionality), but it does have USB C with Thunderbolt 3.
Enter the Docking Station:
Essentially, what I've done is taken advantage of Thunderbolt and the 2-in-1 capability. The docking station holds the laptop in a portrait orientation after you've flipped it to 2-in-1 mode, turning it into both a second (portrait mode!) monitor, and connecting it to the charger and external peripherals. Sadly this model doesn't charge through USB C, but with the 3D-printed dock, it's not a big deal.
A cutting board off Amazon ended up being a great way to support the laptop. I wanted a clean look (the yellow PLA really makes it work, doesn't it?). Once I've tested this prototype and made some revisions, I'll print it again in black PLA, which I think will look nicer.
Speaking of my desk setup, I'm using an old Apple Cinema display (because I think they look really nice) and a keyboard from an old iMac G3. It's the "Blueberry" color, but you can't see that until you flip it over.
Making tech work for you:
What did I mean by that? Well, this is an example of that. Recently, I've been really enjoying the concept of making things (spaces, devices, systems, etc) work for you, rather than making yourself work for them. I don't remember where I got the idea - probably some video on how to get better at accomplishing things you want to do (make your environment easier to do the thing you want to do instead of trying to force yourself to do the thing in an environment that makes it hard).
In this case, I want to use one computer for everything to keep it simple and keep all my files in one place. I want to use external monitors at home, but that required a lot of plugging-in-and-unplugging when I wanted to take my laptop somewhere, or when I came back home with it.
Instead of making myself work (plugging and unplugging) for the laptop, the docking station will make it work for me.
The other ways I've been trying to apply this are with my phone (removing apps I don't want to use entirely, for example). One example: I want to spend less time watching YouTube as a default solution for boredom. So, I removed the YouTube app on my phone. I also disabled Chrome and installed Firefox, because with Firefox I can install a plugin that will make YouTube way simpler and make it less easy to watch a ton without doing so intentionally. I have awful self control for these kinds of things - simply stopping is often not effective (IE, I won't, or not for long). In trying to set new habits or change old ones, I've been finding that changing my environment, or the setting in which the habit happens or does not happen is far more effective than just trying to force myself to do something. The idea is that it happens naturally without effort (or with less effort). I also feel better about myself - less guilt-tripping!
Back to the laptop dock:
What's next for it? Well, I want to add some Apple Pro Speakers (the clear round kinds from the iMac G4 - see a theme here?) to the setup now. So I need audio (or a USB amp).
I also want external user-facing SD and USB ports on the front of the docking station, since I might sometimes want to plug in stuff without having to reach around to the back of the docking station where the thunderbolt USB C adapter is.
And honestly - I think that will be all! It's such a simple thing, I'm not sure why I didn't think of it earlier.
