Usage

The images above were adapted from nerdytec and are used to demonstrate the usability of the COUCHMASTER cycon for the end user. To begin with, get the cushions and lapboard over to your couch and place the cushions on either side of your legs. Now, have the lapboard over your legs and make adjustments in the horizontal axes to have the three pieces best suiting you. Note the dimensions here, and feel free to have the lapboard loom past the sides of the cushions if it comes to that. Use the provided tapes of hook-and-loop fastener to secure the lapboard in place when you have figured things out, but make sure the tape does not block the screw holes on the back covers, nor should it extend past those. Also, be aware that the height is not as adjustable as along the other axes. The cushions are wide enough in all directions to where you can turn them around and take advantage of the varying width along the sides to get some height options here, so if you find the lapboard is hitting your legs or too tall for your hands to be resting normally, feel free to tinker around here too. Here is where I would like to see the option to add/remove foam pieces to have finer height control, but nerdytec did get back to me saying that one can also move the cushions further away from the body to counter them being too tall if nothing else works.


The mousepad is not going to move much on that hard plastic top surface on the lapboard, and it is sized very well to fit the space above the bottom bump and below the cable-management hole on either side, giving you a lot of room (25 x 30 cm, as mentioned before) for the mouse of your choice. In actual use, nearly every other mouse pad I had produced better tracking with the same mouse, and I used both a mouse with a laser sensor (Avago 9800) and an optical sensor (Pixart 336x). This was especially the case with fast motion, and tuning the mouse via the mouse driver did help. But this is a potential weak point for the setup depending on your perception of it, and I recommend using your own mousepad if you find it lacking as well. The advantage of using the hook-and-loop fasteners is that you can take out the lapboard, flip it over, remove the back covers to access the USB ports, connect and cable manage the peripheral cables, and reverse everything easily. Here is where removable cables on keyboards and mice comes in handy, especially combined with the mouse pocket accessory if you don't plan to use this a lot.


Speaking of which, the fastener tape on the mouse pocket means you can attach it anywhere really, including the side of the cushions or the back/front of the lapboard. There is enough room to also have a headset on the front itself, and I found myself using the available USB port on the front to charge my phone or use with a USB drive, with my phone resting in the side pouch built into one of the support cushions. There are other accessories available as optional purchases, and the lapboard being flat means you can also use universal accessories that clip on to an edge as shown above. Perhaps, the ashtray is out of place here, but I can definitely see the use for a phone dock and a smaller stand for a bottle or a plate.

Wireless peripherals of course work fine here, but you would be paying for a feature you are not using in this case. There is a Couchmaster basic version at a lower cost that is better value here because it does not come with the USB connectivity options, but at the same time, this setup does also get harder to justify with people going with cruder solutions, including a wooden plank being a joke and actual implementation I have heard of more often than not. Simultaneously, the COUCHMASTER cycon as we have it here works fantastically for also a laptop workstation if you have a nearby power socket, so if you are the type to not take the laptop name at face value, this is an option for you. The materials chosen have lasted very well in their 4+ weeks of use, including a few sessions where I tested water spilling on it. Of course, part of this involves how resistant to spills the actual peripherals are, but the only holes on the front being at the top meant the COUCHMASTER cycon itself was just fine.