If you scroll up in the thread, you can see that was the first thing I looked at unfortunately, there’s only barely enough room under the Framework. Plus, a custom RJ45 AND a very tiny hinge would be required. That’s why I decided to have a look at this instead.
Also:
don’t go poking a screwdriver into your ethernet ports (or do, I’m not your mum) but did you guys know that all RJ45 jacks are a bit springy?? I certainly didn’t until I just took one apart- might actually be pretty easy to get these out of existing ports
@ExplodingWaffle sorry for not being up to par here. I must have overscrolled this.
Still, looking forward to the final ethernet jack, I plan to use the framework as a data aquiring system and our labs are better equipped with ethernet then eduroam Wi-Fi
@ExplodingWaffle could you possibly shared your models that you’ve used when testing/measuring in this thread? I’d like to have a play with some ideas myself; be great to be able to reuse what you’ve already done if possible
I don’t know if anyone is still thinking about this but once I read through it I thought of the port that Fujitsu uses in their laptops. They have it collapsible and slides in and out of the side of the laptop.
Cant remember where i heard it but 95% sure those existing collapsible designs are completely proprietary and not open to be used by other manufacturers. They aren’t framework, after all. You could try reverse engineering but wouldn’t recommend it, they might come after you for patent infringement.
So you have a working prototype? Is there a STL or something of your case design and BOM for assembly? Even with the noted shortcomings, I’d much rather had one of these than the ‘official’ ethernet expansion card.
A view of a similar Dell implementation, also disassembled. It does seem too thick for the Framework, but the design created above with the flap should work.
So when you want to use the port, you completely take out a foldable Ethernet port that is connected with that small cable to the expansion card.
Of course pulling on the Port while it is out of the expansion card would rip of the cable from the PCB, but that is something we could try to solve after i have heard your opinions to that idea.
The XJACK is great for temporary use, but I’ve always feel bad about using it as a long-term connection. Even on a desk, it’s so fragile, I’ve seen many of these get mangled up.
The other thing that makes it feel more like a “temp solution” is the way the cable connects, it would have to stick up then over, so another thing to make sure you don’t snag on.
However, an option like the XJACK on an expansion card would be nice for those who’s use case is to only use it for emergencies and/or quick/temp connections (troubleshooting network equipment, for example). For that purpose, I personally would want such a card for my FW16.
Out of curiosity, why not use replacement parts for devices that had these fancy foldable connectors, like FUJ:CA52303-3751 from an 2013 era Fujitsu laptop?
unfortunately, there’s only barely enough room under the Framework. Plus, a custom RJ45 AND a very tiny hinge would be required. That’s why I decided to have a look at this instead.
