Touchpad Spacers FW16

There are some online 3D printing services you could look into, where you just send them the file and they print it. Some even offer post processing things like sand-blasting, but that does have the risk of making the final product smaller.

Thank you. I am really happy it fits better than the original because I saw that certain laptops did not have a very nice fit. Do you maybe know why this one fits better? Was there any adjustment for your laptop?
I saw the original has a magnet in. Does this one have it, as well? Tbh, when thinking about it, it does not seem very needed.

To make it fit better, I widened the top by 0.3mm and made the part that locks in have a smaller gap, as this is what makes it slide about half a mm when locked - in my next revision I’m going to make it slightly smaller. I should be able to test and upload it Thursday or Friday.

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Thanks, seems like you are attempting a perfect fit.

Thank you! Definitely bookmarking this so that I can print some when my batch 9 gets delivered. I got the lavender bezel so I might try to find some matching PETG.

BTW, once I get my FW16 so I can fit them on mine, I’m happy to print out a bunch for various folks. Basically just pay shipping and an extra $2 for the plastic & electricity.

Assuming I get what I consider a satisfactory print from mine, which I presume I will.

And thanks @Erik_Isakson, for putting up the STL

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I just uploaded a new version of the spacer to the Printables page with tolerances that are basically perfect, at least on my computer it doesn’t wiggle at all.

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Looks very neat. Looking forward to others testing it to see how it fits onto their machines. Unfortunately, I am only batch 18, so I will have to wait.

Finished a double wide spacer

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I don’t own a 3D printer, but I think I might see about getting a couple of these printed somewhere!

That’s brilliant.

You know, what’s next? Full touchpad enclosure :wink:

I think the touchpad needs to be clamped on an conductive material for grounding static discharge. I am not sure if the electrical conductive tape is glued to the palmrest like every other laptop including the fw13 or might be isolated.

This is awesome! Do you have plans to model a keyboard spacer as well?

I might at some point, but my concern is that they’re held in with magnets rather than hooks like the bottom one so I’m not entirely sure how well it’ll stay in.

OK, thanks for the quick response. I unfortunately forgot to order a spacer along with my FW16 and am itching to try out my LED matrix, but I need a spacer to use it! If you happen to work on modeling one in the future, I would be very happy to help beta test it. :slight_smile:

You can get small neodymium magnets in almost endless sizes on aliexpress. Including some 0.5mm thin ones. You could maybe add spots to the model to glue some in. I think the keyboard spacers just have metal on their side, to pair with the magnets in the input deck. Magnets on the spacer side should work too, as long as you check that the orientation matches before gluing them in.

Aren’t the keyboard spacers also electrically connected to ensure the deck is fully populated? Then you’d have to replicate that connection also. I’v got a numpad and no spacers, so can’t check myself.

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Ah, I believe you’re right. Forgot about that. But there is an option in the BIOS to turn off the check for a fully populated input deck.

Modules, including spacers I believe, use the board ID pin to show that they’re present. Looks like a spacer (single slot size) would use a 180k resistor to ground. github.com/FrameworkComputer/InputModules

Framework has board files on their github which can be used for a spacer that wouldn’t require one to use that BIOS option. MinimalSmallInputModule

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