A friend’s printing me a housing for a spare input cover I had laying around. My thought is to connect it to my FW 11th gen CoolerMaster.
The keyboard connector on the input cover is relatively short. Does anyone know Framework is using an off-the-shelf ribbon cable, or would I have to hack something if I needed a longer one?
I’ve looked at the connectors closely, and thought about options for alternative cables.
For replacing the whole cable
No, not an off-the-shelf ribbon cable. And worse, the motherboard side connector does not seem to have an easy source for small qualities. People have talked about the trouble sourcing them. So that will be an obstacle to making your own longer cable.
Though some forum members have got them from someplace. See, [SOLVED] Anyone know how to ID a socket? for one.
I think an easier option would be just to make an extender for the framework cable. The other end of the cable looks more standard.
github.com/FrameworkComputer/Framework-Laptop-13/tree/main/Touchpad#mainboard-connector
guides.frame.work/Guide/Input+Cover+Replacement+Guide/93?lang=en#s505
FFC cables should be available somewhere, if not from a big mainstream supplier then likely aliexpress. I found a lot of hard or expensive to source parts on alie for cheaper.
So a 0.30mm pitch 51 Position FFC cable, and a pcb cable-to-cable adapter to connect it and make the extension. I’ve seen some such extension adapters for other FFC cables on alie, if they don’t have a 0.30mm pitch 51p one, then you might have to make one, or have one made. Might be able to get boards & have them assembled at https://jlcpcb.com/.
(what can I say? I enjoy looking at hacking and modding Frameworks 
)
That is one thorough response. Thank you!
Based on your notes, along with the links, it looks like making an extension cable from the input cover side might be easiest. Will see what we find.