I rolled my own outdoor laptop, using an old Dasung e-ink monitor, power bank, and latte panda SBC. Works great for outdoor coding. Cut the chassis out of 1/2' plywood on the CNC router. Dual boots vanilla Windows and Linux. Picture here: https://imgur.com/a/RrpPjET
Love your keyboard. I use the UK version and it seems like the Trackpoint II keyboard is discontinued last I checked. Don't know what Lenovo are doing I think it's one of the best keyboards I've ever used when also factoring how portable it is
I code in the sun a fair amount just with a Macbook. Not direct direct sun - but outdoors on an English summer's day.
Main things are:
1. Use light mode not dark mode
2. Max out screen brightness (obvs) - there are hacks for HDR displays to make them even brighter but my Macbook is too old.
Coding is fine but anything that requires looking at images (low contrast UI design in particular) sucks. However this probably forces you to design good accessible UIs!
I also use a Quest 3 as a display when I can as that also solves the sunlight problem and gives me a huge virtual display to boot.
The biggest thing I'm lacking is a remote desktop app that doesn't mess with my muscle memory. Keys like escape and alt-tab often aren't handled correctly over remote desktop (Chrome Remote Desktop is the best thing I've found so far but that still doesn't handle alt-tab between Mac and PC)
I’m unsure if the same applies to older macbook screens, but I’ve found that polarized sunglasses help alot with reducing glare and the marks/dust on the retina screen. Combined with the HDR hacks you mentioned above I can sit in sun with sunglasses and still keep dark mode on while coding
Sunlight-powered computing is an idea that is very, very ripe for arrival. It needs to happen.
I sincerely hope we see, within a few years from now, e-ink laptops where one side of the screen and the underneath surface of the laptop consist of solar cells, and all one need do for a daily/weekly charge, is tilt the laptop in teepee orientation and let it charge, charge, charge.
I've already decided personally to get off the grid as soon as possible - in my case, in the form of a sailboat outfitted with as much solar panels as possible. Having a solar powered laptop has been a fantastic dream for decades - I really think it's going to happen, commercially and successfully, within the next few years.
I could already power my iPad and uConsole with portable solar and battery banks. This all just needs to get integrated, and someone is going to have a HUGE HIT on their hands ..
I tried using a Dasung e-ink monitor, then I asked for a refund because I cannot review PRs on it. Even though it is a color e-ink monitor, I could barely tell if a line of diff was an addition (green) or a removal (red)
This great I would love to work on the sunny day outside but it feels so limiting after leaving my 3 monitors desks. It feels like I spend more time switching windows beetwen code, tests, browser and Teams than doing the actual work.
I’ve got a Daylight and it’s pretty similar to e-ink.
Without the backlight the contrast is lower than a newer e-ink display, such as on a Remarkable, so you need good ambient lighting. It being actually backlit rather than front-lit is nice though.
I’m not sure why, maybe it’s just psychological, but the Daylight panel feels like a screen, whereas an eink panel feels more like a static surface.
Agree with the above. It's during the night time reading with backlight that the difference from E-Ink is most clear, IMO. There's like a slight sense of depth between the surface and the pixels, if that makes sense, which I don't perceive with E-Ink in the same way. As noted above, "the Daylight panel feels like a screen" in that setting. With ambient daylight though, it is close to the E-Ink feel.
Yeah you’re right, I was trying to put my finger on it, but the slight depth gives it the screen feeling, whereas eink is close to the surface. The Remarkable doesn’t feel like a computer whereas the daylight does.
I rolled my own outdoor laptop, using an old Dasung e-ink monitor, power bank, and latte panda SBC. Works great for outdoor coding. Cut the chassis out of 1/2' plywood on the CNC router. Dual boots vanilla Windows and Linux. Picture here: https://imgur.com/a/RrpPjET
You rang? https://imgur.com/a/H5UufKh
Mine is just normal notebook dropped one too many times on the floor.
Love your keyboard. I use the UK version and it seems like the Trackpoint II keyboard is discontinued last I checked. Don't know what Lenovo are doing I think it's one of the best keyboards I've ever used when also factoring how portable it is
Wow this is awesome, I think you’ve inspired me to try and make something similar…
That's sick, very inspiring!
I code in the sun a fair amount just with a Macbook. Not direct direct sun - but outdoors on an English summer's day.
Main things are:
1. Use light mode not dark mode
2. Max out screen brightness (obvs) - there are hacks for HDR displays to make them even brighter but my Macbook is too old.
Coding is fine but anything that requires looking at images (low contrast UI design in particular) sucks. However this probably forces you to design good accessible UIs!
I also use a Quest 3 as a display when I can as that also solves the sunlight problem and gives me a huge virtual display to boot.
The biggest thing I'm lacking is a remote desktop app that doesn't mess with my muscle memory. Keys like escape and alt-tab often aren't handled correctly over remote desktop (Chrome Remote Desktop is the best thing I've found so far but that still doesn't handle alt-tab between Mac and PC)
I’m unsure if the same applies to older macbook screens, but I’ve found that polarized sunglasses help alot with reducing glare and the marks/dust on the retina screen. Combined with the HDR hacks you mentioned above I can sit in sun with sunglasses and still keep dark mode on while coding
Sunlight-powered computing is an idea that is very, very ripe for arrival. It needs to happen.
I sincerely hope we see, within a few years from now, e-ink laptops where one side of the screen and the underneath surface of the laptop consist of solar cells, and all one need do for a daily/weekly charge, is tilt the laptop in teepee orientation and let it charge, charge, charge.
I've already decided personally to get off the grid as soon as possible - in my case, in the form of a sailboat outfitted with as much solar panels as possible. Having a solar powered laptop has been a fantastic dream for decades - I really think it's going to happen, commercially and successfully, within the next few years.
I could already power my iPad and uConsole with portable solar and battery banks. This all just needs to get integrated, and someone is going to have a HUGE HIT on their hands ..
I tried using a Dasung e-ink monitor, then I asked for a refund because I cannot review PRs on it. Even though it is a color e-ink monitor, I could barely tell if a line of diff was an addition (green) or a removal (red)
Did you try changing the highlighting colours to colours that do represent well?
Yeah I watched the Linus tech tips review of it and the color one doesn't seem good. I'd rather try the monochrome one.
This great I would love to work on the sunny day outside but it feels so limiting after leaving my 3 monitors desks. It feels like I spend more time switching windows beetwen code, tests, browser and Teams than doing the actual work.
What about using AR glasses like the Viture PRO XR / Luma?
As it is hard see from the photos alone: How much does the aesthetics of the reflective LCD differ from E-Ink?
If power consumption is not an issue would you recommend it for a real-time information radiator that strives for the paper-like look?
I’ve got a Daylight and it’s pretty similar to e-ink.
Without the backlight the contrast is lower than a newer e-ink display, such as on a Remarkable, so you need good ambient lighting. It being actually backlit rather than front-lit is nice though.
I’m not sure why, maybe it’s just psychological, but the Daylight panel feels like a screen, whereas an eink panel feels more like a static surface.
Agree with the above. It's during the night time reading with backlight that the difference from E-Ink is most clear, IMO. There's like a slight sense of depth between the surface and the pixels, if that makes sense, which I don't perceive with E-Ink in the same way. As noted above, "the Daylight panel feels like a screen" in that setting. With ambient daylight though, it is close to the E-Ink feel.
Yeah you’re right, I was trying to put my finger on it, but the slight depth gives it the screen feeling, whereas eink is close to the surface. The Remarkable doesn’t feel like a computer whereas the daylight does.
But can you play Doom on it?
Man I love sunlight vibe coding. A good RLCD screen is one of the most significant investments I've made for my health in recent years.
I'm in my skoolie, off-grid at the moment in Skyline Wilderness Park in Napa.
My standing desk for the weekend: https://www.instagram.com/p/DPpZjy1Ej9t/
What RLCD would you recommend?
nice van! Does it run? Had some friend in portland had a similar one try to fix it.
I love it, and that's hugely inspirational.
Anyone know if you could run vs code on one of these beasts?
You can install 'code-server' with termux's pkg and access it from a browser.
$ pkg install tur-repo $ pkg install code-server
it’s Android so you’d need to use the VS code web app. Maybe remote desktop?
You can run full VS Code on android https://dev.to/junaid_dev/setup-official-vs-code-on-android-...
Theres even a paid native android app on the play store for it