Tag: home office

Cheap Home Office Fix – HDMI audio with multiple PCs

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

Many people are working from home exclusively or a couple of days a week as part of a hybrid work environment. With a few tweaks, a home office can do double-duty nicely.

My home office has evolved recently, as I’ve written about previously. I have a desktop PC with a 34″ ultrawide monitor and work laptop with a 14″ screen. I want to use the big monitor for everything. I plugged my laptop directly into my monitor’s second HDMI port and bought a Logitech MX keyboard and mouse that pair with up to 3 devices. Now, I can use my desktop monitor, keyboard and mouse with either system.

Audio was the next challenge. I started with a pair of headphones on my work laptop and another on my home desktop, but had to switch back and forth, and deal with 2 sets of cables.

I bought a Jabra Elite 45h wireless headset. It’s noise isolating, has great battery life, good microphone performance without a boom microphone (I felt so 2000s before!) and it can sync to 2 different devices.

I bought a pair of Creative Pebble V2 desktop speakers mostly for looks and to streamline cabling – they’re USB-powered. I had them plugged into my desktop, but realized when switching audio devices that there was a listing for my monitor HDMI connector. I did some poking around behind my monitor and found a 3.5mm headphone jack. Plugged the speakers into my monitor and now I have room audio that plays with the active HDMI connection!

My printers have always been networked, so no office changes were needed to enable me to print from my work laptop.

My only non-shared peripheral is my trusty Logitech  C920 webcam many years old and hasn’t failed me yet, while providing good 1080p video of my office.

My next challenge? Office lighting.

 

Logitech Zone wireless headsets

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

In an earlier post, I talked about how I built an effective home/work office by using Logitech’s MX Keys keyboard and MX Master mouse with 2 unifying receivers. I put one receiver in my home PC, one in my work laptop, and connect both systems into one monitor.

Switching between home and work environments is easy, and helps keep work and life separate. I can switch to my home PC when I’m done with work and not be tempted to log in and keep working in the evenings, when I’m rechgarging by spending time with family,  relaxing and preparing for tomorrow’s tasks.

The one snag in my setup is headsets. I have a work headset and a home headset, both wired models. I end up havcing to switch between them when I switch from home to work and vice versa.

Logitech has come out with the Zone Wireless headset, a nice looking Bluetooth headset. What sets it apart is a new unifying receiver that can tie in the headset and Logitech MX keyboards and mice. It’ll also connect via Bluetooth to a cell phone.

With a Zone Wireless headset and a second audio unifying receiver, I could make a seamless work/home/phone environment and get rid of two more cables.

 

Goodbye, Remote Desktop!

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

I’ve discussed my office updates In a previous post. I bought a Logitech MX Keys keyboard and Logitech MX Master 3 mouse, and am happy with the results. The keyboard feel provides just enough feedback without noise. The mouse has more buttons than I know what to do with; being able to horizontal scroll in Excel with my new ultra-widescreen monitor is great. The combination cost more than some computers I’ve purchased, but it’s a smart investment.

I’ve been trying various remote desktop tools including Remote Desktop to access my work laptop from my home system. What I hadn’t thought about was that the Logitech keyboard/mouse combination can talk to up to 3 different Unifying Receivers, and that my monitor supports 2 digital inputs.

My laptop is sitting in the corner with the display and keyboard inaccessible. I’ve plugged the laptop into the monitor with an HDMI cable, and now when I want to switch to work, I hit the <2> button on the keyboard, press a button on the mouse, switch inputs on the monitor, and I have my work laptop, in ultra-wide 34″ greatness, with no network lag.

With an ethernet cable into my laptop to eliminate any wireless lag, I’m working on a 13″ work laptop with an incredible monitor/keyboard combination.

State of the Home Office, 2022

Posted on by Kurt Weiske

I upgraded my workspace for 2022.

I used to have a dual monitor setup with a 23″ 16:9 monitor and a 19″ 4:3 monitor. This worked adequately for several years, but the mixed geometry made moving windows from one screen to another difficult.

I replaced two monitors with a single LG 34″ ultrawide flat screen monitor, and I couldn’t be happier. I had thought about buying a curved monitor, but this monitor was relatively inexpensive and I don’t have the focus issues I thought I’d have with such a wide monitor. An ultrawide monitor greatly improves working on spreadsheets  – I can get so much more of the spreadsheet in one screen without side-scrolling.

With 2560 x 1440 resolution, I have a lot of real estate to work with. LG includes software that allows you to tile windows based on several layouts, making multi-screen use easy. Whereas I used to use 2 full screen sessions with my multi-monitor setup, with one ultrawide monitor I default to 3 or more tiled regions with 1 or 2 windows on top of each other.It didn’t take long to get comfortable with this layout; I went into my office with a single laptop screen and 27″ monitor and it felt cramped!

One feature I wanted was an articulating monitor arm to replace the stock monitor stand. A Vivo single monitor arm made for an inexpensive upgrade to my desktop. My monitor has a built-in VESA mount, so installing the arm took 10 minutes. I now have more tilt/swivel range, and can raise/lower the monitor father than the stock stand – and I cleared out usable space under the monitor. And, I have to admit, it looks cooler than a center-mount stand.

I’ve scrimped on keyboards for years, using a low-end wireless keyboard/mouse combo. I wanted to upgrade to a mechanical tenkey-less keyboard, but my home office is an “open seating plan”, it’s off of our living room and the clicking noise of a mechanical keyboard would be distracting. My 1991 IBM Model M keyboard will need to stay in storage for the foreseeable future.

I read glowing reviews of the Logitech MX Keys keyboard. At $120, it’s the priciest keyboard I’ve ever bought. Seeing as it’s my main interface with my computer, it makes perfect sense to get the right keyboard. It’s a membrane keyboard, but has a scissor switch and positive feel. The keys are sculpted, with a round indent where your fingers land, and in initial use the indents seem to help you center your fingertips on the keys.

I bought a Logitech MX Anywhere mouse, and can connect both mouse and monitor with one receiver.Both keyboard and mouse can connect to 3 hosts using a USB receiver or Bluetooth, so I can put one receiver in my desktop, one in my work laptop, and share peripherals. I can use the keyboard with my phone via Bluetooth as t

Logitech has an application called Logitech Flow that is the kicker. With Flow and two devices with unified receivers, you can seamlessly switch peripherals between computers. With my laptop alongside my desktop monitor, when I move the mouse off of the desktop screen, the mouse appears on my laptop.I have some tools that only run on my work laptop, so I can focus those tools on the laptop screen and do the rest of the work in a web browser on my main screen.

I upgraded my desktop in 2021 –  a used Dell desktop with 16 GB of RAM and a 3.2 Ghz i7 CPU. I installed Windows 10 on a new SSD and used the SATA drive for storage and backup. While it’s a 3 year-old desktop, with 4 cores and a decently fast clock speed, it runs well enough to keep multiple windows running.

These changes will make it easier to work (and multitask!)  from home.