The old Macbook had a magnetic charging adapter that prevents the notebook from crashing if someone trips over the cable (very usefull in our familiy). The Surface Connector is similar. And there are some cables and adapters on the market with this feature. But maybe there is an elegant solution with the expansion cards?
I’m not sure how to deal this with the expansion cards. But maybe someone has a good idea.
Volta i fully intend to get one for mine
It’s definitely technically possible to make an Expansion card that does this. We’re hoping to see someone build one.
@Vash according to VOLTA’s faq it does not support usb-PD unfortunately
I would be ecstatic to see a magsafe-like open hardware power solution that’s usb-PD compatible. I can think of lots of projects that would benifeit
I definitely remember going through their website deciding if I was going to grab one and I swore I thought the spark version had that: VOLTA Spark™ +3 Tips | Magnetic Charging Cable | VOLTA
Yup! The Spark is PD, the “2.0” is not. From the page you linked:
Quick Charge 4.0, 60W PD 3.0 PPS
Note their prices are in Australia $$; click on the tiny AUD in the upper right to change to your currency. The $45 1M, 100W cable comes in at US$38, for example, with all 3 tips.
I do want to get a couple of housings printed and get a few adapter heads, I’m unsure where I would be able to get a chunk of magnetic material and get it machined which can cause chips in the material, for example, neodymium and alnico are very brittle. One thought was to have the plug mounted internally and have the pins recessed inside of the edge, which would require tight tolerances for the cable and it would be pretty snug. I would need to either design a thing that would mimic the USB-C plug but has the magnetic material around the edges. Would have to get something custom designed.
Before getting that magnetic adapter you might want to read
https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/motlhn/magnetic_usbc_cables_are_not_recommended/
The thing that convinced me to abandon magnetic charging for this particular laptop is that since your charging cable is a mundane usbc-to-usbc and your charging port a dirt-cheap passthrough card, there’s very little of value to get damaged by a mishap. There’s still a case to be made for magsafe-like connectors with the risk of tripping and knocking down the full laptop, but when added to all the other benefits of Framework’s in-house charger (great portability, the anti-static and data passthrough benefits @aquaticDolphin mentioned, the retrospectively-obvious kindness of making the charging cable elbowed on one side so you can choose to elbow or not elbow depending on the situation), that little tidbit nugged me out of the magnetic charging camp.
I’ve been using this product for years now, through several of their revisions. Have them on all my phones, tablet, Raspberry Pi & Arduino bench test units, some mice, and one keyboard.
Since I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel, I am going to try it on the Framework laptop as well once I get it.
Yes it pops off with ease, and on a laptop a stronger magnet might be better, but it is part of my kit anyway. Lots of similar brands out there, I just appreciate their cables, design and cost. They come in and out of stock though so you have to keep an eye on when they are available.
NetDot Gen10 3 in 1 Nylon Braided Magnetic Charging Cable Fast Charging and Data Transfer for Micro USB and USB C Android Smartphones and I-Product (3.3Ft/ 3 Pack, Red) https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07W6VX8ZL/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_MJ9BS19PG9V8D4Y3XNWT?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1