It’s nice to have ideas, but better to perform a quick forum search before opening a new topic about an already existing idea…:
I’m not an engineer so I wouldn’t know where to begin to develop a cad for this but I am wondering about whether anyone has thought of designing a mini power bank that uses two expansion card slots (I presume one expansion slot would be too small) or a qi charging adapter to use in tandem with portable qi charging power banks? I don’t mind if it extends outside the chassis. It would be so useful if it could support even just half charge of the device when going from place to place. I’m constantly looking for an outlet to keep my laptop from draining during lectures and my peers keep tripping on my long charging cables. Also on flights when there isn’t an outlet to charge my device, I don’t want to tangle with cords while using a USB-C power bank. If it could at least sustains half the charge would be amazing.
I had thought before they fully released specs that they would have a battery option for the video card spot, cause that just makes sense, you have a big slot, so the plain cooling one should in my mind include some battery in there, that would be the ideal setup imo, and would solve your case I believe.
The FW 16 might have a battery bank in the expansion slot in the future.
For the FW13 there have been ideas to make a second bottom, that slots into expansion slots on both sides (one for mechanical stability), but I guess that market is just to small for anyone to do it.
Hi,
I think it would be great to have an adapter that combines an audio/mic jack with usb C or A. I feel that filling an Expansion card with only an audio port is a waste.
Not an expert on how and if its possible to do
Just an idea 
from someone who’s tired of the wireless world
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You’d need to basically embed a USB hub into it, so while it’s possible, I suspect most folks won’t want to bother. Especially since you’d probably want one to handle the USB 3.2 gen 2 at a minimum, if not USB4. There’s also pretty limited space inside the modules, so would need a pretty custom board probably, if you’re going to have much of any kind of DAC in there.
while going through some topic here, i had a idea. Why not make a expansion card connected to a small solar panel, it would be interesting for people working directly outside in the nature or family who live in a camping car. we can also make a small one next to the laptop 16 keyboard. (note that i don’t know anything about pc except building one) What do you think?
Given that laptops don’t like heat/sun and solar panels need it, you would need to have a longer cable so that your laptop can stay in the cold while the panel is charging your device.
Especially the Framework 16 won’t make much sense to me: Depending on the workload it will probably eat up to twice as much energy as the Framework 13 (I’m just guessing) and I really don’t see myself gaming in the wild using a solar panel.
What high-CPU+GPU-intensive tasks can you do outside which make sense to have a solar charger?
I would instead go the powerbank route: There are good solutions for quick-charge big powerbanks that will last days on your laptop. You won’t have the hassle of clouds and alike as well.
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Are you aware how much area you’d need to even break even at idle?
Asuming perfect angle and sun (~1000W/m2) and a 21% efficient solar panel you get 210w per square meter. If you covered the lid of the 13" perfectly you’d get 14W in a best case scenario, sounds not too bad but that’s at noon in summer with the lid perfectly angled to the sun. A tiny liver next to the keyboard would not do much even if it isn’t covered by your hand and perfectly aimed at the sun.
There are foldable solar panels that charge powerbanks for camping, that’s probably a better solution and you can also use it for other stuff.
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the short answer is that for this sort of usage you’re much better off with a big power bank and then moving the issue to how to actually charge the power bank. if you want a small solar panel, the market doesn’t offer great choice. i have a cheap 28W one which is enough to charge a phone (slowly since it doesn’t have full PD output) and show off at the park every now and then. if you can get a big powerbank and you have space then you can go wild on the solar panel size but you will need a specialised solution
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And thanks to usb PD laptop power banks are actually quite common and easy to get, plus the framework even charges off old school 5v ones (slower of course but depending on your use the 10w of a generic 5v 2a charger/powerbank can keep you above water).
God I love usb PD XD
A solar panel lid would make much more sense than a card IMO, as a passive feature, not to actually charge the laptop, though.
The math just isn’t kind to things like this, even if assume the lid faces the sun at the right angle at all times.
Or any of the common dongles would be great obviates the need for a USB-A for me.
Tbh I don’t see that becoming a card, since all Xbox One controllers after the first generation work without this Adapter and using Controllers on the go to a degree that requires a Card isn’t realistic, since using it over a cable over short distances would work too.
But still the 2nd generation Wireless adapter (seen below next the the 1st gen) might have a small enough PCB that could be the right size to turn into a mod using the dead DP cards that Framework sells on the marketplace. Stripping the board a bit and adapting the pads on the Adapter PCB to a USB C Male Plug on the USB 2.0 backwards compatibility leads and a Resistor to Pull the Voltage down to make it work.
But still my suggestion would be to buy a controller that supports Bluetooth out of the Box to avoid buying a additional adapter and supplies for the mod.
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Good afternoon,
Thinking about those people who make presentations, there are computers that have an infrared port to turn the pages of PowerPoint, PDF… or to manage the audio or video.
I don’t know if it would be possible to integrate an infrared receiver and somehow integrate it into the system.
I hope someone finds the idea useful and can make it a reality.
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Why limit yourself to infrared? There is enough space to have a little rf clicker and receiver in an expansion card. Or maybe just stowing space for a little bluetooth one.
I was just thinking about this idea. It does seem like something valuable. I know enough about electronics to consider learning how to make something like this… It’s tempting. And @Josh_Cook has even said that he’s willing to do the surface mount processing for prototypes… hmmm…
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Just an idea but imagine this. A card that you take out of your laptop then it connects via Bluetooth and it has a little scroll wheel, left and right click, and laser for movement. Works like a regular mouse but the size of a expansion card.
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