In theory, someone could design a custom CNC lower chassis (and keyboard controller PCB) to squeeze a Thinkpad X200 or X201 keyboard into a Framework 13 (though those are pushing it; if X200/X201 doesn’t fit you’d have to resort to the X60/X60s/X61 keyboard). I’m loosely looking into doing it.
Unfortunately the much more available T400s/T410/T420 keyboard is likely too wide to fit in a Framework 13.
There also might be some complications with drivers if you hack a Lenovo keyboard onto a Framework.
HP and Dell no longer make laptops with pointing sticks. Check their current laptop lines and you won’t find any. Toshiba is apparently now known as Dynabook, and they do have pointing sticks (AccuPoint) in their Portégé X30L and X40 models, but none of them are equipped with 3 mouse buttons between the keyboard and the trackpad, which makes their implementation incomplete.
It goes certainly a long way showing how to do it, which parts work, how big the assembly is, etc.
I suppose with the modular input cover in Framework 16 it’s more realistic that a trackpoint could be provided as a module. Is there somebody looking into that?
I pretty much had the FW13 ordered when I realized it doesn’t have a trackpoint. Didn’t even occur to me there might be people out there wanting laptops without one… Very unfortunate, there’s no way I’m going to use trackpad.
For an alternate perspective, I have had trackpoint devices on several of my laptop computers, and never used them, beyond a first test, and thinking oh, that’s nice.
I never used it enough to be comfortable in controlling the mouse with it.
I did appreciate the physical buttons that the device usually came with, however.
So, for me, a trackpoint, is a leave it device. Don’t really care whether a keyboard has it or not.
Appreciate the choice, though, for those that want it!
ya me too i think the idea of adding a trackpoint to framework laptops would be really nice beacuse i really like the trackpoint but the design would be better if the design would be like the hp 9480m what i am using now
Actually I took some measurements and it looks like the T400s/T410/T420/X220 keyboard could very well fit onto a Framework 13 with a custom lower chassis. It comes in at 287.3mm wide, which is less than the 296.6mm of the Framework 13.
The hard part is…designing that chassis to accommodate the keyboard. The Thinkpad keyboard is pretty thick by modern standards (around 6.3mm), hence you would have to design a new chassis to hold that keyboard along with the Framework motherboard and all the other parts of the laptop. It would cost at least a few hundred dollars to get it CNC machined out of aluminum. You would also have to design make a custom keyboard controller PCB for the Thinkpad keyboard and Trackpoint, and wire that into the USB interface for the fingerprint reader on the motherboard, though that’s quite doable nowadays (you’ll probably some STM32 running QMK or ZMK, and a USB 2.0 hub IC to accommodate the Trackpoint as well)). In all, a pretty substantial project, but very doable by a hobbyist (or several). I’m low-key looking into doing it after gathering some more data (I have a T410 and a W520 keyboard on me, and also ordered a Framework 13 AMD Batch 7, though that won’t show up for a while)
It would probably be possible first on the 16 Framework due to the modularity of the keyboard. 13 Framework would require a new chassis design to incorporate it. Would definitely be a nice addition.
+1! I would Immediately buy a trackpoint module with dedicated clicker buttons instead of a trackpad - it seems like there are a lot of people who want this, so I hope Framework considers actually making one!!
Welcome to the forum.
HP does pointersticks, and several other companies have as well. But they are usually on business-class models, which have features needed/desired by companies and business users.
If you search “Trackpoint” you’ll see several threads.
This is the one with most of the discussion about it
Lenovo probably has a trademark on the name - other manufacturers call it differently, and they probably have to for legal reasons.
I don’t know about patents - they should be expired by now.
One problem is getting decent quality thing that can be used in a non-Lenovo notebook.
The Lenovo spare parts typically come as a whole keyboard including a trackpoint which is not very practical. You can get some random Chinese clones but the quality is not guaranteed unless you do your own QA.
Another problem is that the trackpoint is BIG. The space reserved for the keyboard in the 13" framework is not big enough to fit in a trackpoint. The 16" model might be better in this regard but it remains to be seen.
As said, you cannot reliably get a Lenovo part in bulk, only some Chinese clones, and there are not that many of them that you would get all these sizes.
And the part extending above the keyboard is only one side of the story. The other is that you need to mount an extra PCB below the keyboard, and that’s going to be difficult as well.