Feature Request Megathread - Expansion Card

[Destroya]

Feature Request Megathread - Expansion Card

[Mason_Adams]

So many people really want a dual port expansion card for usb-c, or usb-a. While those might be possible, something I was thinking of was like a usb hub but for expansion cards. I’m not much of an electrical engineer, but I don’t think this would be too hard, especially if we can have a bit more space in the expansion hub right?

[Mason_Adams]

Wasn’t letting me edit, gave me error 500, so I did this as a reply

Edit: to explain the idea further, I was think that one expansion card slot on the computer could be used for two expansion cards

[R_L_Royall_Jr]

Not actually plugged directly into the laptop, but I have seen somewhere in one of the expansion card threads that someone was musing about building an external enclosure to plug multiple expansion cards into, almost like a USB dock.

[Mason_Adams]

Yeah that is what I was thinking

[Josh_Cook]

Would be possible, maybe I could attempt to make a hub station.

[Skyline1029]

Are the Expansion Slots Set to be Hot swappable by default for the storage Expansion Card, like a USB, or are the set by default to be more like internal storage?

[Josh_Cook]

@Skyline1029 They are essentially a flash drive.

[Skyline1029]

Are the Expansion Slots Set to be Hot swappable by default for the storage Expansion Card, like a USB, or are the set by default to be more like internal storage?

@Josh_Cook

They are essentially a flash drive.

Good to know. I figured but wanted to double-check because they did talk about using it as a boot for Chrome OS.

[kenshinjenna]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it honestly sounds like your talking about this pre-existing discussion:

Framework I/O Expansion Dock?

Hi all, This may be a niche feature, but I was doing some thinking about the way the architecture is set up for the expansion card configurations. Depending on the stiffness of the connection rail (how resistant or compliant it is to accidentally bending the USB-C outlet), there’s nothing conceptually there stopping development of a dock, either by framework itself or by the community. It looks like the expansion cards plug directly into the mainboard, which means that on ALL framework devices …

[AMTunLimited]

I don’t know much about hardware design so I could be off base, but I feel like a 4-8 port usb-c hub could be made that could have expansion slots to hold cards and make a configurable USB hub.

It’d also be a convenient holder for extra cards.

I couldn’t find any posts talking about such an idea, but I could just be bad at searching so let me know if it’s been done already

[dkt01]

Here’s another thread discussing this:

Idea: Framework Thunderbolt HUB

Hi guys, I am looking for a Thunderbolt Hub to connect my laptop with a single cable and access (all my) peripherals like monitor, audio interface, external drives, and n other stuff… However, by looking for the right HUB on the market it feels like you always have to compromise. For example I don’t need Ethernet, or DP, instead a Card Reader would be nice, or more USB-C ports for example. So, I thought I’ll come here and share the idea of upgradable modular multi-stack Thunderbolt HUB where y…

Here’s another:

Hub for expansion cards

Would it be possible for someone to make a hub that we can slot expansion cards into? I know you can buy USB-C/Thunderbolt hubs, but if we brought some more expansion cards (say Micro-SD, 2xUSB-A and a HDMI) and we wanted to use them alongside the ones in the laptop, then if there was a hub that they could be slotted into which would then be connected to a USB-C expansion card on the laptop, that would be great!

Also in this thread:

https://community.frame.work/t/usb-c-thunderbolt-dock-megathread/1460/70

[Justin_Sommer]

for gpus, storage, networking, etc.

[Josh_Cook]

Just no.

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[Nich_Trimble]

Its definitely possible, just much more impractical than the ADT Link eGPU setup some are using

[Taylor_Broussard]

I would think you’d still be bottlenecked by the USB-C adapter on the laptop. Maybe x4 would be a better fit, which would essentially be an NVMe to USB-C adapter.

[Shiroudan]

@Nich_Trimble

Its definitely possible, just much more impractical than the ADT Link eGPU setup some are using

Define possible. I’m siding with Josh Cook.

[Justin_Sommer]

I was actually just doing research on eGPUs. Probably right on the bottleneck. What would be cool is if you could hook up a GPU to a framework laptop.

[GhostLegion]

@Justin_Sommer

I was actually just doing research on eGPUs. Probably right on the bottleneck. What would be cool is if you could hook up a GPU to a framework laptop.

You can. Plenty of threads about it. Besides, where would these 16 lanes come from? It’s not like the laptop has lanes to spare, every lane available from the CPU has been allocated already. 4 lanes to each of the TB4 ports and 4 lanes to the m.2 makes 20 lanes, which is every lane available.