I really like the idea, but i’m worried about the strain on those tiny usb c ports. What if the connectors were on a hinge? Thereby the likely accidents (accidentally bumping the numpad with a table or leg) would only lead to it hinging rather than breaking. I love this idea and would be very happy to see it come to fruition
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Love this. It would be considerably more useful for my use case for the numpad expansion to include a power bank, even at the expense of some of the ports. At this size, I imagine it may be possible to have the powerbank at exactly the maximum FAA/TSA capacity.
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Could the keypad portion be a replaceable portion of a 16" FW laptop that FW puts in a FW expansion unit? It could work with any laptop, or desktop for that matter as an expansion unit if the male plug was swap-able with a short cable. This would stick with repairablility and wouldnt even be proprietary to the FW laptop. It could work for years as a numpad/hub for any usb device.
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Take a look at the mountain everest max keyboard. It features this exact idea and also a slider to change the side of the usb c port (which wouldn’t be as feasable here, since the ports on the other side).
It works great so far - the only issue is you have to disconnect it before picking it up, so it’s not as easy to carry arround.
I don’t think I’m the core audience of this, but I like the idea and especially I like that things like this can be discussed.
Because most good ideas only ever exist because another idea had to be rejected and rethought.
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Blockquote Neat mockup, but it feels like a solution looking for a problem. There are good bluetooth numpads for $20 or less on the market right now.
Ports+Physical connection. I would totally get this so I have one less thing to pick up when carrying my laptop around and still have the functionality.
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One issue I see with this design is that I don’t know how secure it would be once it’s in the air. On the other hand, as you add cables (display, Ethernet, power/PD), the numberpad becomes less mobile. So you wind up stationary with little benefit, or you wind up unplugging all the things before you leave.
However I see some potential: if the wires are long enough and well managed, you could anchor this to the desk and make it a one-wire connection to your entire environment. The only issue then is that it might float away to wherever the wires drag it, and it might impair usability in standing-desk situations.
Finally, if you leave out the connectors and instead design it to be more generic (i.e. usable for more devices beyond FW), you could make it match the FW aesthetics so that the “signature” is there for FW fans, but also provide an integrated number pad with USB hub and SD Card reader, and still enable certain FW expansions through the slot (and perhaps include a USBA adaptor as part of the integrated hub).
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Ooh I really like this idea! I’m one of those people who can blast out long numbers in seconds on the numpad, but take 10 minutes poking my way through the numbers on the top of the keyboard.
I think having have 2 type c connectors, instead of expansion cards, is better, like you say. Maybe have them be slightly flexible, like with a strain relief inside the numpad (e.g. if you held the numpad and the usb connector, it would have a bit of flex from rubber around the connector). And then you can use usb c extension cables to hook it up to any other laptop.
And I love the extra ports. To be honest, I don’t think the durability is a huge issue, because you’ll most likely use this only when sitting, especially if you have accessories plugged in.
Regarding the keys, it could be built like the laptop, where you can change out the keyboard - so you can change out the keypad, if you want arrow keys, numpad, or something else (drum pad? 
)
Make it a whole ecosystem in itself! Some ideas that can use the same form factor:
Credit card reader, mini touchscreen, hard drive dock, audiophile DAC, large speakers (sold in a set, one for each side), magnetic parts tray, battery pack, receipt printer.
The possibilities are endless!
Even better - put expansion card slots in the expansion hub! Expand to infinity!
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you gonna try to press 2 buttons at the same time to pull this thing out lol
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Absolutely love this idea. I would love to see a full prototype of this. But as others have mentioned it would be better if it was flush usb-c connecters and not just exclusively the FW expansion cards. Also as others have mentioned about the sag bc of the numpad would definitely be a problem if you just want to pick up the laptop and throw it in your bag. All in all great idea, I just want to see a prototype bc this would make me buy a FW rn.
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very cool. i would pick one up sure.
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I’m late to the party, but I would very much like to throw support behind this idea. I would absolutely spend money for a product like this.
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How about a short flex cable from normal expansion cards to the numpad?
Would add some leeway and if the cables replaceable would be all your risking damaging if you accidentally knocked it around.
Idk the exact bandwidth of the expansion port but you could use type-c or thunderbolt cable or even pcie if that works since idk what sort of controller that might need.
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There are already numpads like that. Just do a bit of searching on amazon
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Wanna throw some support in for this, I would definitely buy it! I’m on the fence about which model is best, the expansion card connectors or just straight usb-c. On one hand, the usb-c model allows you to disconnect the numpad and still have 2 usb-c ports, but i would be concerned about the strength of the actual connectors. Seems like it would be easy to pick the laptop up with the numpad still connected and accidentally put pressure on it or hit it on something and have the connectors snap off. Maybe it could be combined with the magnetic usb-c expansion card and have a purely magnetic connection to the laptop body, that way you could still have your usb-c ports (albeit magnetic ones), and also not worry about breaking the numpad.
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I’m more than willing to build a prototype, but I’d assume this would use a membrane keypad which is hard to prototype cheaply, if I were to build it I’d run it with mechanical switches.
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This is a pretty cool idea. I use a bluetooth keyboard only for the times I truly need it but this would be handy in many scenarios, especially with a kind of breakout of additional ports on the side.
Thats a clever trick, just choose between having a DVD drive or numpad …
Guess one doesn’t need both at the same time.
Just a bit hard to fit it in an expansion port though … 