External Keyboard based on FL16 keyboard

It would be great to create an external keyboard into which you can insert the layout from the Framework Laptop 16. This way, you can use the same keyboard both when working on the laptop and when working with multiple monitors connected to the laptop, but with the same keyboard. For such a keyboard, it is important to support Bluetooth and the ability to connect to multiple computers, switching between them. So, there would be a keyboard base, and you could insert the keyboard from the Framework Laptop 16 and change it whenever you want.

Bluetooth support would be difficult as the Framework 16 keyboards have an USB connection over the pogo pins and tunnelling USB over bluetooth isn’t something that’s commonly done.

Turning it into a standard USB keyboard would be very easy, though. Mostly just designing the case and a small PCB that turns the Pogo pins into a standard USB connection. I think Framework already released the schematics for something like this for development purposes.

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The internet is full of keyboard to Bluetooth projects: make usb keyboard bluetooth at DuckDuckGo

The is already a device for it.

Framework published an circuit board layout for pogo pins → usb c

The missing part is the pogo pin connector, which is a Framework specific part. You could try to contact framework to ask for some of these.

It’s great that there are schematics or DIY projects available somewhere, but I would prefer to buy a ready-made solution on the Framework Marketplace rather than spending time on building computer hardware myself.

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This would be an interesting side project if someone were to undertake it. Even if it was just someone 3D printing the shells for the modules to go in and someone else developed a little board with the pin connectors to a USBC female connector would be pretty neat. I think someone mentioned in the projects area about making one for the Numpad and Macropad modules. Probably not hard to expand on that a little further.