The idea is that you could make a “best of both worlds” expansion card so you don’t need to have an SD to micro SD adapter. Currently for me the two largest constraints are the height of the expansion card and trying to make it USB 3.0.
For the height problem, the combined height of a typical SD reader,micro SD reader and PCB is typically exactly tge height of the toal expansion card or over. Lucky I have an idea that might work, most SD readers micro and not are boxes, the fromt profile where the card goes is a square and my idea is replacing the “top” of that reader that holds in the card with the top/bottom of the expansion card so you save height.
For the problem of USB 3.0, to be honest I’m just kinda out of my depth, I’m relatively confident that it is possible to make it happen within the footprin. But I’m not an actual engineer (yet!) so I dont know how to design a pcb that can do that. Currently I plan on moddifying an existing 3.0 SD reader but it remains to be seen how that will go.
An additional goal that might be super impossible is that in a perfect world id like for at least the micro SD reader to be the kind that click in and out like a button.
I just had a look at the Minisforum V3 3in1 AMD tablet (which should be an inspiration for a future FW product) and saw that it has so called “VLINK DP in” support. I could not find any general information about that interface/standard. But to be able to use a Laptop/Tablet screen as standalone Display should be the standard in my opinion. Is it somehow possible to provide such a functionality via the USB-c ports? Or does FrameWork need to provide a different screen controller/mainboard for this?
I love this idea as well. As 2230 ssd’s get higher capacities, it would be nice to be able to swap one into an expansion card. Maybe even with the option to buy the blank enclosure to supply our own drives.
I would love to see an expansion card that is a combination of a USB C port AND a flash drive. It’s a somewhat covert way to have some extra storage or a convenient spot to back up your home directory without plugging in an external device.
Bonus points if you add a switch on the top side (out of sight when plugged in) that lets you disconnect the drive like a super spy or whatever.
New request! I’m not sure how simple this would be, but I want a KVM port card! It would have an HDMI IN and USB port that allow me to use the Framework’s screen, keyboard, and trackpad on a server, pi, etc. Pretty handy.
That would be super useful for me, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be fairly simple. I think that would basically require some form of HDMI capture and some form of mcu (or maybe these sort of chips already exist) that would take take commands from a piece of software on the laptop and transmit them as usb HID.
I wonder what the viability of an SDI/HDMI connector in an expansion card for live video production/streaming with software like “LiveStream,” or “OBE?”
A modular SDI/HDMI connector for the framework would disrupt a whole cottage industry of incredibly overpriced and underfeatured dedicated video production boxes (and underserved customer base) in the pro-sumer market for boradcast equipment…
I am currently on a project right now where I am trying to research broadcast equipment to replace my current setup on a Framework and the marriage seems obvious…
I think this addon module can be a great usb thingy. Not only would support fingerprint security, else we can provide more secure laptop if the user would like to.
I’d love a version of the audio card with multiple headphone jacks. I carry around a splitter because I do sound design and often need multiple people plugged in. It seems like a pretty straightforward thing to design…
Possible, yes / maybe. Depending on the capabilities you want from the port and SD card.
But whether it’s worth the time & effort, is another question.
Want a MicroSD + full capability USB-C? Thunderbolt, DP alt mode, USB-PD 100W+ charging of the laptop. Even if you can cram all the necessary components in there, way too much work to be worth it, imo.
But a basic USB-A for a keyboard/mouse dongle, which only needs USB 2.0 speeds, + a basic microSD slot. That should be a different story.
A lot of people think it should be easy to have multiple things in one card. Often because they only think about it from the outside, mostly fitting the external holes for the ports or slots.
Is there any chance framework will work on a smart card reader expansion bay? The ONLY reason i don’t have a framework laptop right now is that i need a smart card reader for work. I’m extremely mobile, so a usb expansion bay + a usb smart card reader is a massive pain, enough so that i spent a lot of money having a Lenovo T16 made to order and one of the things i had done was adding a smart card reader.
I’m not the only one out there using smart cards, and it would really open framework up to an entire market of workers out there who require smart cards for their work.
Do you mean an expansion card or expansion bay? The expansion bay is only found on the Framework 16, and it’s located at the back, optionally housing the dGPU.
If you mean an expansion card, trouble is, a standard smart card is larger than the size of an expansion card. Though some community members have proposed an expansion card that extends slightly under the laptop in order to have a smart card side in just under the laptop.
While they would fit into an Expansion Card, there are two spots of bother:
The NVMe’s are fixed with a screw, the same way as the internal ones.
As I doubt the NVMe connector is actually designed to provide hot-swap capabilities, this could be actually a good thing, as it prevents the NVMe’s from getting damaged from said action.
The adapters include heat pads to transfer the heat to their metal casings… and when in use they get hot to the point where it’s unbearable to touch them. Of course, this varies by the actual NVMe you are using and its use case, but their threshold usually being at 70°C, you need to think about how to transfer said heat to avoid throttling.
Considering these issues, you are way better off using USB-C NVMe enclosures including passive (or even active) heat dissipation.
I have both the PC Card MoGo mouse as well as it’s X54 ExpressCard MoGo mouse sibling. They both use a small arm on the bottom which flips down to offer some height. The FrameWork Expansion MoGo could similarly flip open to offer some height for better grip.
