I already 3dprinted one module, where I enclosed a USB dongle for my mouse, and I ordered some PCB from Asia, but this is out of my league!!!
Is someone willig to help me (a lot) or just drop a USB-C PCB, which I can order as a finished assembly from one of the big vendors?
A list of things I dont know:
How to use KiCAD
what caps are on the original USB-C board
how thick do the traces need to be for 20V, 3 A?
do I need RF shielding through ground areas?
duh?
I would love to throw that design on Github under a free license afterwards. Ill provide the 3d model for that. (WTFPL or Beerware license)
So if anyone feels adventureous and would like to help (or do it on your own because its the easiest possible expansion card and I am just to stupid): Welcome
Sorry, I don’t see you mention what you were hoping for the card to do, what capabilities you were hoping to get.
To be honest, if you want to not risk killing your port or your motherboard, I’d highly suggest doing charging only. You just can’t adequately protect very high speed data lines at a reasonable cost from arcing, ESD, static electricity. You’ll find a good amount of discussion in the Full Power Magnetic Charging Card thread, I think about here is a good place to read from, at least for the inability to protect high speed data lines Full Power Magnetic Charging Card - #289 by Jonathan_Haas. Also, last I looked, Volta does not even attempt to claim that they have any ESD protection, they are just no different than any other random magnetic USB adapter. Other than a higher price, and spending money on a smooth looking website.
There are a couple reports in that thread of magnetic USB adapters killing ports. Also, this separate thread someone made after theirs was killed Don't use magnetic USB-C cables
If you’re just looking for charging, then that would be safer, plus easier. I think you only need the positive, negative / ground, and the two CC lines connected. A card like this might be a nice place to get into learning PCB design if you’re interested. There are some open source Framework Expansion cards you could use as a starting point, just editing an existing board. Here is one: DongleHider+. There are lots of youtube tutorials on basic KiCad, and online trace width calculators to tell you how wide you need for the desired current.
I’m also going to leave this here; my own saga/perspective and reasons why your hunt for a magnetic charging solution will likely be fruitless in the end:
I think the only realistic hope would be if Framework were to work with a company to design and manufacture a high-quality magnetic charging expansion card of some sort…and even that isn’t very realistic given the small return on R&D investment it would yield for them. Apple has invested millions into their MagSafe design over 3 generations and they don’t even (officially) support data over it…but they also have millions of customers to sell that feature to, which justifies their investment. Framework just doesn’t have that kind of inertia behind them.
design over 3 generations and they don’t even (officially) support data over it…but they also have millions of customers to sell that feature to, which justifies their investment. Framework just doesn’t have that kind of inertia behind them.