Hey guys I know their have been some posts about putting a tracker in a FW laptop. I have a FW 13 and would love to put a tracker in my laptop as an extra sense of security. My first thought was to put this tracker Orbit Glasses/World's smallest Bluetooth locator to find your glasses in an expansion card but then i’d loose an expansion card slot. Any one have any idea where I could put this tracker? it only has a 1 month battery life then it needs to be charged so somewhere easily accessible would be ideal. Any ideas?
AirTags are really slim… if you strip them down to the circuit board. You could slim it down further by running wires from the battery to the board and placing them next to each other (instead of stacked).
I just don’t know where I would put the tracker the one I linked is extremely small.
I see it says length: 28mm, thickness: 5mm. I think that could potentially fit inside a USB-A expansion card.
~edit~
Looks like the thickness they list is a lie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scYHqfSHy-8&t=4m07s
7.55mm at the thickest part. Height 8.28mm, length 29.14mm
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You’re saying with the guts of a usb a port in the expansion card or a blank one? If you’re talking about putting the tracker in a functional port i thought of that but figured heat would be an issue as don’t the expansion cards get quite hot?
Yep. I was thinking about inside a functional USB-A card. I don’t know if it will fit, haven’t measured. I’d cut open the tracker to see how much room the PCB and battery takes. The battery might run along the length, if it does, you may be able to lay it out, then it would be even thinner.
The USB-C and USB-A cards are just passthroughs, they don’t get hot. Plus, you could pull power from the USB-A card.
~edit~
The length of 29mm seems too long. Even removing the shell, I don’t know if that can shave off enough.
ExpansionCards/Mechanical at main · FrameworkComputer/ExpansionCards · GitHub
Width looks like too much for a USB-A card too.
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Yeah the airtag with the shell is 32mm, but the expansion chip width is only 24mm according to the diagram. we’re gonna have to find another location to place an airtag tracker or find a different tracker type all together. Like the Empty expansion bay if you didn’t get the dGPU in the FW16, or finding a spot with minimal heat to sandwich the Chipolo CARD spot wallet finder or rollingsquare AirCard.
that sucks looks like i’ll need to find somewhere else to fit it
I’d like to share a tiny* project I did this week! Now I don’t know much about electronics and really hope this won’t cause any issues (I wouldn’t think so because it doesn’t touch anything)
Basically I have the fan attachment for the framework 16 and taped/installed an AirTag to it. If I’m able to figure it out how to send photos I will connect them below.
You can basically save a couple millimeters if you remove the non essential battery cover and replace it with tape. Then you can attach it to the inside of assembly and slide it in with no resistance.
I will continue to look for an alternative because I doubt the would work with a gpu, and I’ve seen that it can fit into an expansion card. But for people with the 16 and no gpu this is a great solution! Also note that location tracking and sound works but proximity has major issues.
Edit: Proximity does actually work, but only from about 10-11ft
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Nice that you can fit it with such an easy modification.
How far away does proximity work when not mounted inside the FWL16?
From my experience it can go to around 20-25 ft
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This is great! unfortunately I only have a 13 tho
Looking at this (Apple AirTag Reverse Engineering - Adam Catley) post, the airtag can be trimmed down just small enough to fit in an expansion card. Not got one myself to try it out on, but theoretically doable.
Also looks like someone else on the forums did it here (AirTag Expansion Card)
If you put it in a 3d printed enclosure, I imagine that would help with the loss of signal compared to putting it in the bay
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Thanks! I’ve actually seen that post and that’s what give me the idea, however it is extremely risky. I’ve already taken a spare/old/almost gone AirTag and tore it down! Only problem is it’s extremely difficult and risky… almost killed the AirTag in the process. Aka no speaker and connectivity issues. Definitely possible just risky/hard to do.
So lately there have been a few non-disposable wireless-charging-compatible “airtag” cards;
from Nomad (2.0 mm thick): http s://nomadgoods.com/ca/products/tracking-card
from keysmart (2.0 mm thick): http s://www.getkeysmart.com/products/keysmart-smartcard
from seinxon (1.6 mm thick): http s://www.seinxon.com/en-ca/products/seinxon-wallet-finder-celestial-navigator-wireless-charging
from buyatac (1.6 mm thick): http s://www.buyatac.com/products/tracking-card
I personally bought the last one just as a test if it fits anywhere inside my Framework 13. There are trade-offs everywhere, but it fits.
I tried on top of the RAM modules, but it made the keyboard budge around the KIOP keys. I tried under the right palm rest under the keyboard ribbon cable, but it bulged the aluminium chasis at the front lip.
Finally, it fits perfectly under the touchpad but makes physical clicking very difficult. All touch input still works. This is where I’m keeping my “airtag” for now.
Thought others who may be interested in it know, even though it’s not a perfect solution.
Let us know how the battery life is. I see they claim 6 months, but in a package that small & thin I wouldn’t be suprised, at all, if that isn’t the real-life battery life.