While I haven’t managed to take apart one of my expansion cards yet, I still definitely have a desire to make some addons for this computer. I’m not experienced with CAD, or even with this scale of DIY (at least not enough to do the prototyping required), but I definitely want to try my hand at it. On that note, is there any plans to offer an “empty” expansion card, with only the internal USB-C part included, so that we could make our own cards while still having them look like and be as durable as the first party ones? I think I could make, for example, a hidden dongle card (non-removable dongle at least) with my limited soldering knowledge, but before I plan to salvage another card i’d love to know if that’s a plan. This could also facilitate community “kits” where in addition to a blank card, people could offer a list of parts in order to teach fellow community members skills like soldering, 3d printing, etc, while also creating functional expansions in the process.
As much as making your own expansion cards is cool there is a few major risks, failure, magic smoke or you can even damage the unit by wiring up wrong, for example, you do not insulate it right and give the card 5V on the ground rail possibly shorting internal components out, or you attach 5V to the aluminum accidentally, boom 5V into the chassis. And what do you mean by the internal USB-C plug? Do you mean on a blank board soldered or on a breakout board?
I think a company such as shapeways (that will 3d print anything you want with many different materials) would be great for this. If you get an STL of a blank (not sure if with or without the usb-c connector as a dummy plug would be best), you could have it printed. I would think as long as you have the channels and hook like interface for securing it, you should be good to go. I would think if you wanted different purposes, such as, a micro-sd card holder, or some other kind of box-like device, you could have a lid that would easily pop open, or perhaps even slide out the side from below. Anyway, lots of options. Someone with a 3D printer may want to test the designs to begin with, or find someone or a print shop to test them. That would be a neat idea for expansion. Nice idea.
Personally, I came to look for exactly this. A “Blank” card that does nothing - as Framework recommends you buy 4 expansion cards, and if you don’t need all 4, having an empty slot with sharp edges isn’t very nice, it would be great to have a “filler” card that does nothing, just plugs into the slot and fills the space, preventing lint from getting into the port and crud from accumulating. Internally it could be just an empty box with the generic USB-C plug that “leads nowhere”. And if anyone wants to use it for DIY projects, they can just put whatever they want in the box, and solder0 it to the internal contacts of the USB-C. Or not, c’mon, it’s easy to lose MicroSD cards, a handy box for them as a module of the laptop would be great.
There is this
I think the best solution if it hasn’t already been mentioned is to just use a USB C module. They are just straight pass through and don’t trigger any kind of sleep issues. They cost $9 and I would wager are probably close to the cost of 3d printing your own, but these at least can still be used if needed.
+1 on this idea. It will be nice to have an expansion card that’s completely empty with cut-offs that allows you to put a USB c on one side and whatever you wish on the other side. It will also keep home made expansion cards professional looking
3D printing is very cheap if you have access to a machine (some public libraries are starting to even offer this service). Just a quick slice of this says it should cost $0.07 using PLA ($0.06 if I switch to ABS) and this is at highest detail with 100% IF.
But also +1 on this being an official product 
Yep, that is what I am doing. Framework could just order the USB-C case with no circuit board and sell it as an empty case. I would buy a load of them.
Then have another option a USB-C board separate with only the connector and a wiring breakout to USB-A circuitry. Would cover about 80% of my projects… When combined with the empty module.
I would like to offer this service once my new filament comes in.
I am also interested in empty ones, but they should be as light as possible, so everything should be removed we don’t see when it is plugged in.
@Bernd_Steinzimmer if I understand correctly you are looking for something like this ?
If so I filled one expansion card for testing purposes that you can print: 3D design Framework Empty replacement card | Tinkercad
We are actually talking about a real one (not 3D printed) from Framework, preferably with the aluminum cover.
They already produce them, we just want an empty unit.
I think there are 2 legit demands, completly empty ones to only fill other sockets when you don’t want to install anything. Let’s say you need only 1 USB C and 3 empty ones.
The other demand is empty ones with circuits.
I wouldn’t mind having well made empty expansion cards. It would guarantee no parasitic power drain. I usually have 2 usb-c, plus the 250Gb [Ubuntu] and the 1Tb [storage]
Bump
I would be interested in empty expansion cards as well. For the two following reasons: First going minimal with my framework and second for prototyping new expension cards.
My workaround is just buying a lot of the USB-C and modding them. Not my preference, or as perfect, but it works. Especially at the price… Although you do have to order a lot at once because of the shipping…
I would love this, sometimes i just don’t need the I/O, and with the idle powerdraw i’d rather just have dummies
Yes, indeed. Thanks, I am going to consider this option.
Another workaround which came to my mind is to open the storage expansion card and remove the flash memory and PCB.
Although this workaround costs around 70 bucks for every such pseudo-empty expansion card and I am not yet sure if I can remove the interior without any issues.