CrowView: A clamp-on, portable second laptop display

CrowView is a 14-inch USB-C monitor with a cunning folding stand-cum-clamp system which allows it to attach to most sizes of laptop for some more pixels on the move. crowview The CrowView is a portable display, from the same company as the CrowPi 2 and CrowPi-L Raspberry Pi-powered laptops. As a lightweight 14 inch, 1920× …

[Anonymous Coward]

"Portable Display" means what?

This is a mount with a random monitor. These have been 3D printable for a long time.

With no effort: a mount on top or to the side

A couple years ago I remixed a Surface Pro mount and while it worked, the Surface was too heavy and caused my 14" 2-in-1 to balance like a seesaw so... it was in theory cool

[Khaptain]

Re: "Portable Display" means what?

Surprising to see how close that second link ( to the side) looks like the CrowView version ;-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Portable Display" means what?

Yeh they all look very similar with hinges and swivels and what not. They're also easily printable as they don't require many Z layers or overhangs. You don't even really need a flat print bed because the frames can twist a little. In other words, they're easy and quick prints.

[Liam Proven]

Re: "Portable Display" means what?

[Author here]

> This is a mount with a random monitor.

A random *USB-C powered* monitor.

Wouldn't your device need a 2nd power brick for the display, or at the least, two cables, one for display signal and one into a USB port for power?

I am not saying it is not doable. But this device is *cheap*, it's *light*, it uses just one cable for signal and power in one, it's near-universal and it's portable.

[Mr Humbug]

Re: "Portable Display" means what?

USB-C powered portable monitors exist from elsewhere and have done for a while. Last year I bought a device branded Arzopa E1 Extreme. It's 15", 4K and either uses one USB-C from a laptop or a mini HDMI and a 5V USB-C power supply. I've not checked, but I think it may well use more than 4W.

The only issue I have with it is that it won't do 4K at 30Hz, it's 4K at 60Hz or QHD at 30Hz. On the other hand, 4K on 15" is a little small anyway.

The clamp-on stand is appealing, but not sure my 13" laptop would balance with the extra weight

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Portable Display" means what?

Arzopa's 1080p monitor looks good but, does the touch feature use proprietary drivers? I'm looking for a 2nd monitor to run along side a Surface Book in portrait but the touch will have to work with X (I'm forced to work with xrandr and xinput at the moment).

[Mr Humbug]

Re: "Portable Display" means what?

Mine isn't touch. I looked at a few that were, but they were all FHD. In the end I decided that 4K was a higher priority.

[phuzz]

Re: "Portable Display" means what?

Isn't that Arzopa monitor more expensive than the one being reviewed?

I'm all for 3D printing things, but if I can spend less money and not have to bother....

[Martin Gregorie]

Was it usable as the display for a RaspberryPi?

This would seem to be an obvious display for use with a RaspberryPI for any task requiring a laptop-size display, so why no report about how well this combo works?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Was it usable as the display for a RaspberryPi?

Depends on how you want to interface with it and what you mean by "RaspberryPI" (you don't mean "Pico" right?)

For a 4B, I picked this up "open box" for $100usd on ebay: 13.3inch oled. However, while it says it's DCC controlable, I couldn't get it to work so it's HDMI only for my 4B :-/. Other screens, by waveshare or whoever usually do work with DCC and not just the power hungry 4B.

[Liam Proven]

Re: Was it usable as the display for a RaspberryPi?

[Author here]

> why no report about how well this combo works

Um. To be honest, my Pi 400 lives plugged into an HDMI display and I am very happy with it. I don't feel any need.

I think a Pi's little PSU would struggle to power a Crowview, and I don't know if the Pi can drive a USB display. It doesn't seem very ideal to me.

I don't have any Pis running the Pi OS. All mine run other Linuxes or RISC OS. ;-) I am confident RISC OS and Ubuntu Server can't drive a USB display and I have my doubts about Lubuntu or OpenElec.

[Dave559]

Re: Was it usable as the display for a RaspberryPi?

Unless you have been given advance testing access to a new sekrit prototype Pi 5 with funky USB-C ports [1] (not just the power-in port of the Pi 4), you can't beam to a screen from a USB-A port on any computer as they are for data only, not video…

[1] which, admittedly, would be a very cool development from the Pi-bakers :)

[JessicaRabbit]

This actually looks pretty cool. I've not much faith in Kickstarter so I won't be backing it but if it ends up being mass produced and available to buy retail I'd certainly consider picking one up.

[Anonymous Coward]

What would be useful is a laptop format keyboard and display that can just be plugged in.

Can I find something so obvious? No.

[Dave559]

Only 2 screens?

Only 2 screens? Meh. This laptop has 7 screens… :-D

[Captain Scarlet]

Laptop screens

I have to say using a laptop stand alone hurts my neck and having a second display like this won't help.

Will stick with my external monitor setup for the work laptop.

[Lee D]

Almost every laptop I've ever condemned to the "cannot economically repair" bin has been breakage on the screen hinges.

This just adds for more weight, in a lop-sided manner, to what's supposed to be a portable device.

Nope. If you want this, buy a separate monitor - small portable ones are cheap - and never attach it fully to your laptop screen, because you simply don't need to.