2280 is the most common size so I don’t see the problem. Are you expecting one of the less common size such as 22110 ?
I was hoping / expecting to have 22110 support in the expansion bay, if it’s physically possible. Being able to run enterprise drives that have PLP (power loss protection) in a consumer laptop would be a killer feature, and those are (as far as I can find) exclusively in the 22110 form factor.
Drives with PLP tend to have substantially better write performance compared to drives without it, which is a major consideration with developer/sysadmin workloads such as running databases, multiple VMs, etc.
Yea, I’ll produce them, but probably only do 1 batch.
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I have a bunch of 22110 drives, so I do see a problem.
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Unless there are enterprise 22110 drives with PLP and working apst now, all that would kill is battery live.
I don’t know why anyone needs PLP in a laptop, nor am I in the situation where I’d care. But this is Framework. Isn’t this community in the spirit of “what more can I do with this hardware [outside of the box that it came in]?”
Nothing is stopping you from connecting them with adapters (or your own pcb) and stuff but it makes sense to not waste valuable space to support hardware that would not make much sense in the laptop shell anyway.
I have seen this mentioned several times in various topics on here, and I agree with you. Why have PLP when you have a built in UPS in the form of the internal battery? Maybe they don’t charge their battery and rely on mains power only.
But in the context of this thread,
- The space exists.
- Doesn’t seem like a monumental addition:
Yeah, but this statement is the very kind of sentiment I was addressing in my sentence you quoted. Creative license is an encouragement to think outside the box―or in this case, the laptop shell. There are all sorts of weird ideas in other threads. I don’t see the appeal for my uses, nor do I think anyone else has as any stock in those ideas. But some idea is going to make sense to somebody.
One could argue that many ideas exact development, production, and support costs. But what are the costs of supporting an extra 3 cm that’s earning your negative feedback? I’m curious to hear your side of the story.
A lot stops a lot of people. I’m not a hardware engineer. Rather, I work with the more squishy innards that reside in storage and CPU registers. But advocacy is also a valid way to engender support for something. How does anyone with the means to make something know what the market wants if the market doesn’t speak?
On further looking into it it looks like the reference design even supports them, not sure what’s going on there. I initially looked at the reference design assuming it only supports 2280s in which case it looks like there really isn’t any extra space but looks like that’s already with bigger ssds in mind.
In this case there is no cost as it’s already done and filling out the already available space so there is no need to find an extra 3cm that comes with drawbacks. I am all for add extra options if convenient and not making the intended use worse.
If however doing 2280s side by side would fill out the whole width, supporting 22110s would require a stacked diagonal setup which is pretty much universally worse as long as you are not using 22110s and I’d be against that.
You don’t need to be one, all you need (assuming hypothetically the adapter only supported 2280s) is a pair of wired m.2 extensions you can buy of the shelve and you can put your (hypothetically) oversized ssds wherever you want.
I don’t think I ever said advocacy is bad, apart from vocal minorities having a disproportionate impact on the silent majority sometimes it is a very important tool over all.
I figured out why 22110 was not present on Framework’s version, because of a few areas with 0mm height clearance. Shown in the screenshot below has the maximum height in those areas, this also means I will not be able to support 22110 M.2 devices, but I’m not sure why there is the limited clearance in these particular areas.
I see U shaped H:0 zones on the lower left and right edges. Those are the ones?
Could you do one 22110 capable slot, one 2280? Maybe not ideal for those that would like a pair of matched 22110s, but hey, better than nothing.
There are also 2 2.5mm maximums, but the sockets I’m using are 3mm in height, and sockets under that height are very low profile and non standard so I’d like to avoid them.
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I know i am insane 
but I’m Not looking to use 110 any ways as long as it supports the 80 all the way down to the 30 I would be happy since it seems like the standards are shrinking towards the 30.
Too bad we cant get a usb c or some other useful port on the rear in that dead space looks like we would have ~20mm once you slide the nvme over to clear the obstructions but looks like it would only be a max of 2.0 as it only has 1 usb data line.
Hmm, only USB 2.0, but what only needs 2.0 and is small?
Can an internal port be fit in for a Logitech Unifying dongle or similar?
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I have included solder pads for a small wireless dongle (like the DongleHider+) and I might also add a USB2 port that is externally accessible. I’m also waiting on confirmation from Framework so I can send these boards off to JLCPCB so they can get prototyped, and a similar situation with my OcuLink 4x board.
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I would greatly appreciate an extra usb port for my wireless mouse.
I am simply unable to soldier due to a medical condition and would hate wasting 1 of the 6 available ports
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lol ok ok you got me there i was dreaming of an external usb c lol but then you smack me in the face with reality…
Hear me out maybe cut a hole in the board and put a 2.0 usb a port that is sunk down a hair so the antenna of a Logitech/MS/Xbrand/what have you receiver is in the top grill area. not sure if that is viable. but just thinking out loud. like this. since the port is ~6 mm thick that should get past the limitations in theory.
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Hi @Josh_Cook - we’re you able to get that batch made? If not, it would be really fantastic to get an update at whatever level (or lack of) confidence you have - i would really strongly prefer to wait a bit longer for a full 2nd 2280, but if its totally indeterminant (especially if its not possible to articluate what dependencies are blocking, even if we don’t have any schedule) - i don’t know what i should.do but i guess i need to re-evaluate my plans here.
I know you’re doing this a something of a hobby / passion, and i really appreciate it - crossimg fingers just to get your current outlook on the boards. Thanks!
Still waiting for some final details from Framework that wasn’t covered in the documentation. I have the PCB pretty much completely designed, so whenever I get an answer, it won’t take very long to get prototypes made.
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