My review from a blind person's perspective (FW16)

[David_Mellor]

@Alan_Pearce

@David_Mellor

Could anyone say a bit more about the location and nature of the input latches please? Thank you.

Are you referring to the latches that hold the touchpad and its spacers? They are on the sides of the laptop, just to the left and right of the touchpad area, as you slide your hands out towards the sides of the laptop you should feel a little raised piece right at the front edge. These slide out sideways about a millimeter or so to unlock the touchpad and spacers.

If you are referring to the latches for the expansion modules, these are on the underneath of the laptop. They are about 40mm or so from the front of the laptop in line with the inside edge of the expansion module slots. Pull them about 2mm towards the front of the laptop to unlock the modules on that side, and push towards the rear to lock them again.

Thank for this. I did eventually figure this one out on my own. Now I’m struggling to find my first screw. I’ll continue to feel around the plate until I find one.
At least once I’ve got one I’ll know what they feel like.

[David_Mellor]

@RandomRanger

@David_Mellor

If any sighted folk were prepared to describe them… I’m wondering how important this actually is.

Regarding the Framework 16’s screws, the “correct order” resembles that of putting a tire on a car. As someone who’s redone these screws many times for component swaps, the general philosophy for the ordering seems to be to screw things down in groups of two. Each screw on the left side has a mirrored screw on the right side. The official order is to do the left screw, and then the right screw for each pair. The pairs are ordered in a manner such that they start in the middle (vertically) and gradually branch out, with the last screws being those in the far corners. Hopefully that clears up the ordering a little without being to look at a visual map.

Perhaps it would be beneficial for the Framework team to add braille indents the the chassis for a future revision, it’s certainly thin enough for it… or offer them as an optional addon where someone manually indents it for that unit.

I assume we tighten from the inside out and untighten in the opposite direction, from the outside, or perhaps the undoing really doesn’t matter.

[RandomRanger]

@David_Mellor

I assume we tighten from the inside out and untighten in the opposite direction, from the outside, or perhaps the undoing really doesn’t matter.

I’ve personally been following the same order for untightening as well, at the very least so I can maintain and reinforce the muscle memory of tightening. I doubt it makes much of a difference, but I would guess that a mechanical engineer would agree that outside-in is “more optimal”.

Additionally, I forgot to mention there are a total of 16 screws numbered 2 through 17. Number 1 is the ribbon cable.

[David_Mellor]

Ok… I’ve found and unscrewed 10 of them. This is going to be quite impractical without sighted help or a plastic or cardboard guide to indicate where the holes are, or a st of (x,y) coordinates on the framework website. I appreciate that that’s quite a minority benefit.

Once unscrewed many of them still sit flush so I can’t tell by feel which ones I’ve done.
There are 8 on each side, symmetrical. Maybe I can get help to produce 8 (x,y) millimeter coordinates for them all.

[Christina_Weymouth]

I had to get sighted help to find all the screws, but having felt where they tend to be, I think I can pick their shape out of the surround fairly accurately. I would love Braille numbers, but that might mess with the input connections. Maybe some other form of tactile indicator would work, though. Maybe very slightly raised squares or circles around where the screw driver should go, just to indicate the screw locations. I need to get more familiar with the innards of these units. I’ve never put together any sort of machine before, so I consider the fact that my keyboard is the only inoperable bit isn’t bad for a first attempt. I didn’t short anything out or make anything explode or catch fire, so I’m pretty happy. This community is so great with us novice types, by the way. That’s not to generalize all the visually impaired or blind folks working on these as novices, but I myself am one, and I decided to be brave and dive in and see how it went. I feel so welcomed and supported in my DIY journey. If these weren’t so expensive, I might buy another one and try it again.

[David_Mellor]

Hi Christina. As you said before I think, many have rough areas on the board which can be felt, plus the four corners.
I don’t kno if there are any others that don’t have this.

[RandomRanger]

@David_Mellor

Hi Christina. As you said before I think, many have rough areas on the board which can be felt, plus the four corners.

Near each screw is some sort of boxed lettering. Without having my device on hand, I believe these are slightly tactile, so that may be what you’re feeling. Some gotcha’s I’d recommend looking out for are the two vents holes for the fan at the top, the hole for the ribbon cable on the mid right, and the 2 magnets in the middle of the bottom by the lip (simply because it may catch the screwdriver).

I may be able to try creating a more detailed guide either tonight or this weekend if that’s helpful.

[David_Mellor]

@RandomRanger

@David_Mellor

Hi Christina. As you said before I think, many have rough areas on the board which can be felt, plus the four corners.

Near each screw is some sort of boxed lettering. Without having my device on hand, I believe these are slightly tactile, so that may be what you’re feeling. Some gotcha’s I’d recommend looking out for are the two vents holes for the fan at the top, the hole for the ribbon cable on the mid right, and the 2 magnets in the middle of the bottom by the lip (simply because it may catch the screwdriver).

I may be able to try creating a more detailed guide either tonight or this weekend if that’s helpful.

Any guide as to the exact locations would be really helpful.
I understand the left and right are symmetrical and so there’s 8 each side, and two of those are right in the corners which are easy to find.
Many blind people have speaking tape measures. If not then they could get assistance to create paper rectangles which when aligned with the laptop outer side and bottom edges would have the other corner lie on the screw position.
Two missing corners at the bottom would give the orientation.

[David_Mellor]

OK, I’ve found all the screws.
Now I need to figure out the nature of and orientation of the midplate cable.

[Christina_Weymouth]

As far as I can tell, the midplate cable is on the righthand side of the unit near the middle. If you feel a smoothe rectangle near the right, follow it right until you feel a sort of plastic film strip. You can pull up on that to remove the midplate cable. Do it as delicately as possible. It will take a bit of force, but slow and steady is best. I’m pretty sure if you yank on it too aggressively it will disconnect not only where it’s supposed to, but also from the other end, which will disable your input modules. I’m not completely sure that’s what will happen as I’ve never built one of these before, but that’s what all the reading I’ve done seems to indicate.

 A bit of info on how to check the other end of this cable if you think you've disconnected it would be helpful. I've read a couple of tips that reference a latch for one end of this cable, but I can't manage to figure out where exactly this is.

Let me know if my cable location instructions don’t do the trick and I’ll try again.

[Alan_Pearce]

Christina is correct about the midplate cable location, and how to disconnect it. The other end of the cable is pretty robust as it is attached with some double sided sticky pad, and takes some effort to dislodge (don’t ask me how I know). I would be surprised if you dislodge it by unplugging the other end. That takes a firm pull to lift it, but it is not excessive. Use the spudger end of the screwdriver to lift the tag, which lies to the right hand side.

If you do manage to dislodge the other end you will need a sighted person with a magnifier to put the cable back inside the connector correctly.

[David_Mellor]

Can anyone give information about the exact location of the battery screws that won’t get me shocked whilst trying to find them by feel and the location of the wifi card please?
Very many thanks!

[Alan_Pearce]

Don’t have my machine in front of me at the moment, but from memory there are three screws along the back edge of the battery, which are Posidrive instead of Torx head, so you would need to change the tip in the screwdriver to its other end (the tip is reversible). I don’t recall if there are any other screws for the battery, I just noticed those ones when dealing with my new memory modules.

IIRC the network card is at the back right somewhere, to the right of the memory module [edit] WRONG - it is at the back left, just above the heat pipe. [/edit]

But I do wonder why you want to go removing these, I haven’t found a need to do so. I’m just concerned you’ll get into a state where you will need help from a sighted person who hasn’t seen it assembled.

[David_Mellor]

@Alan_Pearce

Don’t have my machine in front of me at the moment, but from memory there are three screws along the back edge of the battery, which are Posidrive instead of Torx head, so you would need to change the tip in the screwdriver to its other end (the tip is reversible). I don’t recall if there are any other screws for the battery, I just noticed those ones when dealing with my new memory modules.

IIRC the network card is at the back right somewhere, to the right of the memory module [edit] WRONG - it is at the back left, just above the heat pipe. [/edit]

But I do wonder why you want to go removing these, I haven’t found a need to do so. I’m just concerned you’ll get into a state where you will need help from a sighted person who hasn’t seen it assembled.

Thanks Alan,
I can tell you that the battery screws are Torx.
I thought I’d found the wifi card over to the right of the RAM chips.
Heat pipes… I haven’t figured out where they are or what they feel like yet.
I don’t even know where the processor is.
Could you give any more detail about the location of the wifi module from memory please?

[David_Mellor]

Could I also ask where the screws to remove the expansion bay are please?
I’ve removed the interposer. If the two screws are in there, they seemed to have no traction at all with the torx bit.

[David_Mellor]

@David_Mellor

Could I also ask where the screws to remove the expansion bay are please?
I’ve removed the interposer. If the two screws are in there, they seemed to have no traction at all with the torx bit.

OK, there are two torx screws in there, right at the sides inside the interposer compartment about a fingers width from the back.
Is that it please?

[Alan_Pearce]

@David_Mellor

Heat pipes… I haven’t figured out where they are or what they feel like yet.
I don’t even know where the processor is.
Could you give any more detail about the location of the wifi module from memory please?

I haven’t gone investigating how to get the expansion bay off, so cannot help there.
The processor itself is a lump just above the battery, to the right of the middle screw. If you have your fingers on the battery, and then slide them up the laptop towards the screen you will find a rectangular bump that is about an inch front to back and about an inch and a half wide left to right. That covers the processor. Then leading away from that are the heat pipes, one pair lead up to the right, and the other pair is longer and lead up to the left. These will feel like flattened tubes, about 3/8 inch wide. The ones to the left go towards the back then to the left, then towards the back a bit again. The wifi card is just above the portion that is parallel to the front edge of the chassis. The connector for the wifi is the same size as the SSD ones (but has different keying) and is on the left. You should feel a couple of round connectors on the right hand end of the card which are the aerial connectors. From memory my card has some plastic sheet over it, so the touch you get may be a bit indistinct.

[David_Mellor]

@Alan_Pearce

@David_Mellor

Heat pipes… I haven’t figured out where they are or what they feel like yet.
I don’t even know where the processor is.
Could you give any more detail about the location of the wifi module from memory please?

I haven’t gone investigating how to get the expansion bay off, so cannot help there.
The processor itself is a lump just above the battery, to the right of the middle screw. If you have your fingers on the battery, and then slide them up the laptop towards the screen you will find a rectangular bump that is about an inch front to back and about an inch and a half wide left to right. That covers the processor. Then leading away from that are the heat pipes, one pair lead up to the right, and the other pair is longer and lead up to the left. These will feel like flattened tubes, about 3/8 inch wide. The ones to the left go towards the back then to the left, then towards the back a bit again. The wifi card is just above the portion that is parallel to the front edge of the chassis. The connector for the wifi is the same size as the SSD ones (but has different keying) and is on the left. You should feel a couple of round connectors on the right hand end of the card which are the aerial connectors. From memory my card has some plastic sheet over it, so the touch you get may be a bit indistinct.

Thanks Alan. that’s brilliant. So I’ve got the wifi sorted.

[David_Mellor]

Hey framies,
Could anyone give a clue as to the location of the fasteners used to remove the expansion bay please?
Thank you.

[James_Cassidy]

I haven’t removed the graphics module myself, yet. Looking at it, it looks like the screws are on either side of the interposer and are torx as you described. A finger width from the top edge of the interposer compartment looks about right as well.

In other words, I think you already found them