Hi everyone!
I have been doing quite a bit of work on a laptop for the past few months and I really miss my desktop setup.

I started to investigate what you make my life easier and started to build a more comfy setup. First I bought a moft to relieve my neck an wrists a bit. I'm a bit dubious as the angle it provides could be larger I think, but it's still not too bad.

Step 1: Using the Right Software

Then I started thinking about using tablets that as secondary monitors (a 10.1" and a 7" both bought second hand, any tablet with a decent resolution will do really). There are quite a few apps that can achieve this, but let me save you some time as only two are worth it I think :

- spacedesk : it's free, highly tweakable, and can be used with up to 16 devices. While it's somewhat laggy using wifi it gets really good using USB. The caveat being : the way spacedesk uses USB is through USB tethering, then if your tablet constructor decided that it was a good idea to remove that option, you're screwed (pdanet, foxfi etc.. won't work). You could still use it if you are able to unlock/root/install some custom rom.

- twomonUSB/twomonSE : paid app (something like $10 IIRC), can't really tweak as much as the above but still working well even though you can only use it with a single device at once.

I've tried quite a few others (probably all the android options in all fairness) and none of them was as good.

Step 2: Cardboard Prototype

I first came up with that cardboard and velcro prototype. Although it wasn't too bad it was a bit annoying not to be able to adjust the laptop/tablet angles. That's why I came up with the following very simple build.

Step 3: Things I've Used

-hinges (you can probably get them for 50c a piece at your local home depot)
-3M command (this is supposed to be better than velcro, time will tell if I don't break my devices)
-a hammer

Step 4: Attach the Tablets to Your Laptop

The first thing you want to do is to hammer your hinges a bit, so that they can stick in place and lose their looseness and your tablets can be adjusted without going sideways.

Then stick your attaches to the hinges.

Then to your tablet.

Then to you laptop.

Step 5: Et Voilà

You're done and have now a very geeky portable setup, very easy to disassemble or put together.

Step 6: Afterthoughts

I probably should have gone for larger hinges and for 3M dual lock instead of command. That would have been far sturdier and not much more expensive.

The battery drain is quite bad for the tablets with screens on all the time. What I've done is I'm using a good USB hub with a separate power supply. They now stay fully charged.

I'm planning on getting rid of the 7" and buying two extra 10.1" instead to build up a 4 screen setup. I'll probably update when I'm done.