Oculink.
Or maybe just a simple (but customized) m.2 to Oculink adapter, that sit on top of the dual m.2 carrier.
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Now that the Framework 16 interconnect has been updated for charging, will we see a battery expansion module finally? I’m dying for one! My average battery life is only 3.5 hours on my framework 16!
The interconnect spec always allowed for external input. It’s just that the first gen 7700S they were unable to fit power circuitry to allow charging from the Type-C port.
This is alomost 100% a Windows issue. I was getting around 4 hours as well, then i switched to Linux. Easily last a entire day.
I dont know what is preventing them from building a battery expansion module. It can basically function as a completely standalone Type-C power bank, and charge the laptop slowly. Though I suppose demand is not super high. Especially if you do put Linux on it.
Xavier, I think previously the EC firmware didnt allow power from external input and its behavior wasnt defined by Framework anywhere, this is the change I was referring to.
I wish I could use Linux to solve my battery issues but I have to use a lot of windows based legacy software for work that doesnt play with WINE. That being said, for reference my idle power consumption just at the windows desktop doing nothing is 6w, but I might as well just turn the laptop off if im going to do nothing on it. When doing actual work at a normal screen brightness during the day where I often work outdoors, in sunlight and away from power outlets, my power usage is around 20w. Really am excited for the work the community is doing on this battery expansion project and would love to see more input from Framework as well! I am here to let them know there is indeed demand for such a thing.
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I’d like a Expansion card with a short (maybe 5 to 10cm) usb type c cable, to charge/theather my phone. Also serving as a charging cable in case you forgot yours and have a usb type c outlet
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You know you can just buy said cable. I have a 10cm cable for external SSDs.
Also in Type-A to Type-C flavor for maximum robustness
I’d like a modified Dual M.2 Adapter with one of them changed to M.2 E Keyed as a spot for an upgradable M.2 cellular modem. Ideally, you could route proper antennas in the Expansion Bay and have a nano-SIM slot accessible from the back. Since the M.2 E Keyed only needs 2 PCI lanes, I wonder if you could use 1 of the lanes for a controller to get the necessary USB 2.0, I2C, SDIO, UART, PCM and CNVi and use the other for a Micro SD Express slot (also accessible on the back). This would still leave 4 lanes for the other M.2 M Keyed NVMe slot (if it can fit physically given most M.2 modems seem to be 30mm wide).
This module would then give:
- M.2 M NVMe 4 lane SSD slot
- M.2 E Cellular Modem slot (swappable for LTE, 5G, 6G, etc…)
- Cellular antennas in the bay
- Nano-SIM slot (externally accessible)
- Micro SD Express slot (externally accessible)
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The way I would look at doing that is to make a board that would plug into the existing dual m.2 adapter, and have it short enough that an E keyed modem could still fit in the rest of the 80 mm module space, it would pass one lane through to the modem, and have the neccessary chips on board to do the SIM cards. By limiting it to the rear m.2 slot the sim card sockets could reach the back edge like someone is doing with an oculink adapter.
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The way I would look at doing that is to make a board that would plug into the existing dual m.2 adapter, and have it short enough that an E keyed modem could still fit in the rest of the 80 mm module space, it would pass one lane through to the modem, and have the neccessary chips on board to do the SIM cards. By limiting it to the rear m.2 slot the sim card sockets could reach the back edge like someone is doing with an oculink adapter.
This is a great idea! Do we know that we can split the M.2 M keyed PCIe 4x4 into 4x2 and two 4x1 in the BIOS? If so, this is a relatively easy project. As you suggested, just build an M.2 M Key board which passes through PCIe 4x2 and uses one PCIe 4x1 for a PCIe to USB bridge creating the necessary connections for a M.2 WWAN slot. You could then also add a USB to SDIO UHS II bridge and combine that output with the final PCIe 4x1 lane to add a MicroSD Express slot in addition to the SIM card slot.
Be patient guys.
Silicon batteries are coming to market sooner or later along with panther Lake and new AMD CPUs that are very power efficient,
With all these features the battery will last at least two days
That highly depends on how you define last and day.
you know … the expansion bay PCB reference is out there for anyone to use.
The only problem is you have to be kinda skilled and knowledgeable with high speed signal routing (40GHz) for the PCIe 4.0, otherwise you might just end up with a nonfunctioning board.