Niche expansion cards

Creators & Developers Expansion Card
84

Something similar to magsafe connector would be interesting

1 Like
85

@Brenton_Ferullo
Search for Magsafe - there are a lot of conversations about the topic and at least two people here who have done it. One is a very nice design.

3 Likes
86

I am one of those people :slight_smile:

Check this thread for the most complete solution:

4 Likes
87

KVM expansion card with vga or hdmi in and usb out.

7 Likes
88

Just some random ideas. Sorry if some of these were mentioned before already (I havenā€™t read all posts in detail):

  • Arduino-like chip with some leds and gpio pins
  • Wireless game controller with small battery
  • Thinkpad-like mouse nipple with actual left- and right mouse buttons. (for whatever reason the designers of the Framework forgot the mouse buttons around the touchpad).
  • NFC
  • Hardware random number generator
  • Killer USB (or maybe not)
  • IOT sensors
  • Tiny foldable wireless mouse
2 Likes
89

Just a note, there are ā€œbuttonsā€ for the touch padā€¦ The lower edge of it is click able. So not forgotten, just not the implementation some like.

I too prefer separate buttons, but am getting used to how it is anyway.

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90

Wow I would love to see both of these, even though I donā€™t think Iā€™d actually use them all that much

1 Like
91

Some more ideas:

  • Beer bottle opener
  • Powerfull vibrator. Or call it a haptic feedback engine if you want
  • USB-C connector with built-in current and voltage meter
  • Smoke detector
  • Atomic clock
  • Extremely loud buzzer. Can maybe even be used together with motion sensors as an anti-theft alarm
  • Gyroscope sensors to use your entire framework as a handheld gaming controller
  • Geigercounter
11 Likes
92

Definitely niche. I love em.

2 Likes
93

Nice! Way to think outside the lines!

94

Hmmmā€¦

Flip it over, spin it around, and use expansion cards with joycons and dpads sticking out the bottom(/top)?

5 Likes
95

Maybe want an external screen for that.

96

I also have a really great idea! Iā€™m sure Iā€™ve posted it somewhere around hereā€¦

97

Definitely. I was envisioning holding the laptop as a large handheld controller, in a spacious environment, probably with a big screen display

98

What about packing a AI accelerator in one. I believe Coral has both a PCIe and a USB chip and from a birds eye view the power consumption doesnā€™t seam like it would be a major concern.

7 Likes
99

  • Air monitor with VOC, pressure, humidity, temperature, PM2.5 sensors. PM2.5 could be hard to squeeze in there but the others should be easy.

  • RS232 (inverted levels) and serial (TTL levels)

  • GPS + IMU + Barometer

  • ESP32 with some sort of recessed but standardized connector that exposed SPI, I2C pins

  • Google Coral +1

  • Motor. One on the left and one on the right. Plug wheels in and the laptop should be able to drive itself around! Have a current limiting thing to prevent it from damaging the USB port if the wheel gets stuck.

3 Likes
100

I like it! But 4 of 'em. Unless you want the front of the laptop draggingā€¦

Teeny tiny motors, maybe even with a small turning radius.

FrameBot!!

5 Likes
101

Trouble is the expansion card locations wouldnā€™t allow 4 wheels to balance well. Itā€™s pretty easy to just stick on some kind of skid surface under the front of the laptop though. Like those furniture skid pads would probably be perfect.

2 Likes
102

I already have that made, except with a rotary encoder in mind; however, itā€™s possible to remix it to be a button/LED driver, as it uses the same chip as the pro micro arduino board. The only downside is that I only exposed a limited number of pins.

2 Likes
103

If you want a really wacky Expansion Card, here you have some:
Emulator-Compatible GBA Link Port
SIM Card Slot

4 Likes