In this article, The Verge talks about the board and battery cases:
In there, Framework’s CEO is quoted as saying:
the company hasn’t yet decided if it’ll put the battery case into production but that the company will “open up design documentation around the display and battery” so users can reuse them both.
I want to express my vote for “please do put a battery case in production”. I think it’s absolutely brilliant. I was explaining to a friend how Framework is bringing revolutionary ideas to this space, and this idea is exactly part of it. You have the need for a bigger battery but feel bad about scrapping the old one? No problem: buy the case and reuse.
Part of the problem with the way our supply chains and society in general is setup now and that we think it’s somewhat acceptable for companies to make basically disposable products out of precious materials like rare earth metals and human labour. Framework upends this, and having a battery case is part of that equation.
More SKUs and more R&D could enable even less waste by making the battery case two parts: one Expansion Bay Module for the battery, and one miniature Expansion Bay receptacle with a USB-C cable for using the old battery as a charging station for the Framework 13 or other devices.
It’s a tradeoff though, I’m unsure how much Framework will spend to further its cause, and honestly I’m okay if it doesn’t.
I’d buy it. Would be nice to play skyrim at the library for a few hours without needing one of the few power outlet seats, and I bet that could be achieved with:
New ryzen 7640u (or whatever the lower skew ends up being).
New battery.
Old battery charging my laptop as I go like a big power bank.
While it would be amazing to see a first party case from Framework, I am excited that they are also opening up the design to allow 3rd party battery enclosures. I’d love to see people get creative with designs and maybe even make my own.
I wonder if we’d ever see a custom battery bank from DIYPerks since he already did an amazing Framework laptop project? I think his unique style and material choices would lead to a very cool battery bank.
Same for me!
Once the battery case would be available I’d instantly upgrade the main battery and order one of those cases, such a cool way to reuse old batteries.
100/65w pd boards for 3-5s batteries are pretty cheap (the IP2368 based ones for example), so I’d hope they don’t cheap out and do something way underpowered with it.
Worst case we could just make our own using of the shelve stuff and a bit of 3d printing. Maybe a custom pcb with the battery connector on it if we want to be fancy.
So it could either route a battery extension cable around to connect to the mainboard like it does now, or go back out through USB-C. Maybe clip them together sandwich style at the VESA mount, then put another set of VESA attach points on the battery case?
I’d LOVE to see a USB-C power bank using the framework battery pack. Bonus points if it support 20V output modes.
They don’t have to make a injection-mold part, we can just 3D print them. But a PCB would be nice so we don’t have to jerry-rig our own stuff.
+1 for making a battery case. It would be a day one purchase for me, along with a higher capacity battery. A modular portable battery would be fantastic. Bonus points if it uses the expansion cards allowing me to hotswap usb-c and usb-a ports.
With the announcement of the larger capacity battery coming soon, has anyone explored the idea of creating a housing for the current battery pack to be repurposed as an external battery/mobile power bank? If I were to explore this on my own, what sort of search terms would I use to find a connector that would to connect to the current battery and provide power out through a USB-C or A port?
I would buy a new battery and a battery case upon release, I love that I could get so much use out of my tech, while also upgrading my current battery to the higher density.
