Framework Tablet lite project (10.5" version of FW tablet)

[Surja_Knap]

That makes sense, although makes me wonder why did I receive two then. I will go with option 1 if there is no further input.

I have successfully tested 90% of the tablet on a very improvised testbench, meaning the display, battery, board, eGPU, charger etc. work together well. I also tested the concept of the battery being over/under the mainboard. Battery under the mainboard is a bad idea, because it heavily restricts the airflow. Battery over the mainboard seemed to be a bad idea as well, because there is heat coming from the CPU and batteries don´t like heat.

But I really want the tablet to be small. I placed a 1mm thick insulation layer between the mainboard and the battery (compressed cardboard for now and foam stickers on the CPU heatpipes, I am very open to suggestion for a better material) and it works quite well, battery surface temperature did not exceed 35 degrees celsius after 20min CPU stress test. I will have to do some more severe stress testing such as 2hr CPU load while battery is charging etc., but initial measurements indicate that the battery temperature will not be an issue as long as there is some insulation layer.
Surprisingly, the hottest part (of the insulation layer) was the part that touched the SSD, not the CPU (as the layer of cardboard did not make any contact with the CPU heatpipes and the gen4 SSD can produce a lot of heat, while touching the insulation layer directly). I put some thermal pads between the mainboard and the SSD to hopefully bring the temps down, because the poor guy needs some cooling. On top, I should put the same foam stickers as on the CPU heatpipes so that there is an extra air layer.

That would bring the dimensions of the tablet to about 249,5 x 170 mm compared to original 249,5x209,5 and the estimated thickness will be about 22mm (in terms of making it thin, the board seems to require only 2mm headroom on the bottom, the most outstanding parts being the fan screws, 2mm being much less headroom than other projects accounted for. If everything goes as planned, the tablet will be pretty packed). Meaning the bezels around the active display area will be 5mm on bottom and top and 10mm on the sides. These are estimates based on how I put everything together on a testbench, but seem very promising at least for me.

You may ask - why I do not 3D print anything yet - that part will be done with my friend and he is very busy right now, so I am trying to do as much as possible without 3D printing. Anyway, for the 3rd time, I am designing the tablet from scratch, so there is again nothing to be printed anyway Will post screenshots when I advance with the V3 design (with battery on top of the mainboard) - just started it today.

[GhostLegion]

@Surja_Knap Have you considered dropping to a gen3 SSD? The reduction in performance likely won’t be too noticeable but ideally would yield improved battery/thermal performance.

[Surja_Knap]

@GhostLegion honestly I haven´t, because I have been using this Aorus gen4 2TB SSD for over 2 years with gen3 connection, so I was really looking forward to unlocking the gen4 speeds with Framework board. Would be a bummer to swap it for gen3 now. I must say though, that the thermal pads helped a lot as per my today´s testing. I would never have thought of using PCB for cooling, but I have seen that solution in my previous laptop - Asus TUF Dash F15, where SSD was cooled from factory by placing thermal pad between the SSD and mainboard PCB.

Now, under synthetic load, temps are around 35-40 degrees celsius, which is better than 50s it has seen before (50 would be ok for SSD, but inside the case I expect things to get toastier than on testbench).

About the battery performance, well, I think it will cost me a little, but I use my machine mostly plugged in, I rarely use it on battery for more than a couple hours. But you are right, the difference in speed will likely not be noticeable even when editing videos or gaming (which I will be using it for most of the time). So we´ll see.

[Surja_Knap]

I made a rough design - the main purpose was to see how thick will everything be once fit in the case and if everything even fits. I will advance it more in the following days, for today, just rough design and mainboard mounts. So it seems that in order to accomodate everything, it has to be 249,5x170x20mm (which is pretty positive given the original tablet is 25mm thick and much larger). Important take is that I have about 18mm of room for the type-C cable. So I ordered this cable: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003478288982.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.259218022svDkG as it is L-shaped and the L-shaped side of the cable should be just small enough to fit in the case. I really don´t want to make the shape weird just to accomodate the cable.

Mounting of the display will be tricky as I don´t want to use two plates as the original tablet - one to hold it from the bottom and second holding plate from the top that screws into the case, that makes it very thick, so I figured that it will be better to print a hollow frame where the display glues in - it doesn´t make it less repairable because the display itself will be easy to replace, one will just print a new frame for the display or use heat-sensitive glue. The frame itself will be screwed into the case.

Some screenshots, I feel shy to post such unfinished work, but at any time, I am happy for suggestions, so I post things even if they are early in the design process, so that I can accept suggestions and critics before I put many more hours into it, just to find out it is stupid.

Tablet overall shape (without any holes for connectors, but inside there is already mainboard mounting done + venting holes):

Display frame (without holes for screws as I did not find a good place for them yet):

[Xavier_Jiang]

Can you utilize the native “express-displayport” on the Framework?

[Surja_Knap]

@Xavier_Jiang as it was discussed here: Different battery and display (smaller)? - #17 by next_to_utter_chaos
Most likely not. Almost definitely not with a touchscreen. Although I would personally love that.

[MJ1]

Framework’s eDP connector does support touch signals.

github.com/FrameworkComputer/Mainboard/blob/main/Electrical/Pinouts.md

Display Interface

IPEX 20879-040E connector used to interface to an eDP display. Note that there are signals defined for both USB 2.0 and I2C touchscreens.

[Surja_Knap]

Update:
I finally received my display cable that has an L-shaped connector and I am very glad that it fits within the 18mm of space that there is available to the left side of the mainboard.

Also, my friend with 3D printer is not available, so I decided to get my own 3D printer and learn printing, so over past 2 weeks, I have been working on printing, testing, designing and today I am hoping to put together the tablet into a test-case made of PLA. My heat inserts have not arrived yet as well as my screws, so I adjusted the design so that it is held together by plastic pieces that fit into each other and a little duct tape will be needed, but I will definitely update this post if I have a working prototype that is (kinda) assembled.

Still unsolved issues: battery mount (it is in such an awkward position that holding it in place will require some interesting design), strength of the display mount, absence of any wifi, absence of bluetooth, absence of any microphone input (only headphone jack output, no input), that I have hoped to solve with a built-in USB hub that would not only serve for USB inputs but also contain a wifi USB antenna, but with how packed the tablet currently is, I first want to put it together as it is and find out where is still space for adding stuff. I also have yet to choose a keyboard/trackpad combo and a way to connect it.

I don´t care a lot about built in microphone and webcam, so these I am not going to prioritize these, but I may look for a solution for these if there is time and space. I am planning to make something like a base version of the tablet with basic functionality and then upgrade it, add features etc.

[Surja_Knap]

Hello there - good news, everything fits, bad news, touchscreen stopped working.
So after printing the full case for the first time (modified version that holds together without using screws as my heat inserts have not arrived yet AND it is made out of PLA and not ABS or PETG which will be my final choice of materials), I learned many things that have to be altered in the design, but I expect the dimensions to stay within 5% of the current size as everything fits together pretty well. Will have to add cable routes and holders, better mounts for different PCBs and components and most importantly, thickness of the walls and improve the overall body strength. I went from 1mm to 1.2mm and I will probably end up with something like 1.5mm.

Unfortunately, the chinese display controller board now has an issue where if I plug in the touch, one inductor on the board will start coil whining, overheating and display won´t power on at all. It functions OK without touch, so now I can at least test it as a portable computer and try and discover any further design flaws.

[Xavier_Jiang]

@Surja_Knap

touchscreen

I upgraded my Dell’s screen to a touchscreen, and in addition to the Express DP there is also a 5-pin “touch” cable, which you likely will need to connect to USB or some other connection. Which you might be able to take from the fingerprint reader slot.

The idea is to connect as many things as “natively” as possible and not go through the USB ports, but oh well.

Given the amount of work that is needed however I can see why. If you are going to be making improvements down the line this is probably worth it.

[Surja_Knap]

I apologize for the month without updates, after the touch stopped working, I realized it won’t be resolved anytime soon due to the lunar new year and got burned out and set the project aside. A few days ago, the display manufacturer’s support finally replied issue finally got resolved (faulty cable/connector) and the touchscreen works again. So I quickly went on to print parts and assembled the prototype to start testing daily driving it.

It currently weighs 814g and dimensions are 250x170x20mm.

It definitely requires thicker side walls (maybe 1.6 mm instead of 1.2 mm but will see when I switch from pla to petg), more screws for mounting the display, battery mount, a way to implement wifi and shape adjustments to make edges less sharp and a looot of details.

Interesting note, PLA works better than I expected and even after using it often at max temperatures (I have been using it as a desktop in previous version of the case), the damage to material is not too bad.

Here are a few pictures of what it currently looks like:

[mxxivcz]

Great progress!

Maybe you can use such board to get USB-C connection:

0.67US $ 11% OFF|Type C Male to Female USB 3.1 Test PCB Board Adapter Type C...

[Surja_Knap]

Thanks ajtakrajta, although (maybe I am too sleepy) I am not sure how would that help me?

[MJ1]

@mxxivcz

Maybe you can use such board to get USB-C connection:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803091532027.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt&_randl_shipto=US

For the connection to the display board? That particular board doesn’t pass some of the pins for high speed data. But there are other options along that line.
There are some cables like this which advertise being capable of 20Gbps
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256802596940386.html

[Surja_Knap]

I believe that the L-shaped cable solved all issues with connecting the display board, but it’s pretty late here and maybe I am just not getting something

[MJ1]

I’m guessing ajtakrajta’s intent was so the case could be made a less wide. Every centimeter helps.

[mxxivcz]

@MJ1

I’m guessing ajtakrajta’s intent was so the case could be made a less wide. Every centimeter helps.

Yes, exactly. I was thinking only about case width. Standard L shaped cable is a bit bulky. The ribbon cable in the comment above is great.

[Surja_Knap]

The ribbon cable looks great, but unless you are planning to dump the battery, you can´t make the tablet much narrower than it is. We are talking 5-7mm at best. Battery is 239mm wide and the tablet (including walls that have to be at least 1.5mm thick and even that might not be enough) is 249mm wide. So you can save 7mm if your battery touches side walls and you can print with such accuracy. Realistically, if you want to keep 1mm tolerance on each side, you can save 5mm. For some it might be a difference between printable and not printable, of course, but not enough difference for me to alter the design. Also, narrowing the tablet by 5mm would mean that I have not enough space for display controller buttons board, so it would either have to be mounted elsewhere or the tablet would have to be thicker so that it fits under the mainboard. But actually, I am thinking of a steamdeck-like project that would not use framework battery but a powerbank instead, and there, the space savings would be more interesting.

[2disbetter]

I really do prefer a smaller tablet myself, and this seems pretty nice, BUT I have to say that the placement of the battery worries me. Heat rises, and while the heat pipe and fan will do a good job expelling that heat, there is still residual, etc. Are you not worried that you are prematurely wearing your battery out? Or that you are thermally limiting what the tablet can be used for?

Another question is are you at a point where you feel comfortable sharing the print files? Is that your intention? If it is, I would like to print your case and mess around with building one myself.

[Surja_Knap]

Hi 2disbetter, the placement of the battery worried me too, so I put a 1mm thick layer of insulation material between (in my case compressed cardboard) and I put it under 1hr stress test and then measured the temperature on the bottom surface of the battery and it was 40 degrees celsius on the hottest spots (which were, curiously, on the place where SSD is, not the heatpipe, as there is an air layer between the heatpipe and the battery but SSD comes in direct contact and I use a gen4 one without any cooling). Still, 50 degrees celsius are still within spec so I believe I have a bit of headroom there.

As for the cooling, it can handle 28-32W which is in line with the laptop performance. Battery does cover 90% of the fan on the top side, but the main air intake is from the bottom anyway. It reduces the max cooling capacity by 2-4W as I have never seen the board exceed 35W even if completely out of the case. That 10% of uncovered fan on top side is useful when you put the tablet on a bed. It can still somewhat breathe.

I am sorry that the project takes so long, I ran out of personal time for several weeks multiple times during the project. All files that I created can be made available for anyone, I just did not feel like publishing them when I still use duct tape to hold some pieces together.

Current phase is that after about two weeks of daily driving it I found out that my case needs to be a lot stronger, so I am adding multiple reinforcements to it and also that display requires a much better mounting system, so I have to adjust the current one. If you like, I can send you or post here or somewhere all files that I have had, also of previous concepts that would have worked with battery in a traditional position, but they have never been printed. But it would be an alfa version at this point, while beta is in making.

*I should clarify that framework 11gen mainboard by design cannot sustain more than 28W TDP turbo boost for more than 30-40 seconds in line with intel’s stock turbo behavior and it cannot be altered neither using XTU nor throttlestop, even FW support confirmed that it is not possible, that’s why I am comfortable with cooling that can sustain 28W.

** Also I bear no responsibility in any premature battery wear, if you follow my work it is voluntary and at your own risk, I measured it several times but you might want to do your own measurements as your insulation material may vary