I hope am NOT the only one that still needs an ethernet port (gigabit preferable)! Not a deal breaker but it’d be awesome to have it in hand, rather than a dongle/adapter.
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The framework team already has a full-sized ethernet port in the works. It’s double-height, with the idea that this will also angle the laptop up for better airflow and keyboard ergonomics. If you want a fold-out ethernet port to keep the form factor as-is (or because afaik there’s no other double-height card in the works for the other side, which seems like a lot of wobbling unless you need two rj45 ports for some reason), there’s some rumblings about community production, but nothing definite.
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I don’t think a double-height would be a good idea. A fold-out would be the way to go!
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As one of the folks that may have originated the double-height suggestion…
I have a fold-out on my current laptop. I find the cable seems to wiggle loose frequently and I’m always nervous that the cable isn’t being held in securely enough and is eventually going to cause the port to become unusable.
I also keep the machine permanently parked on a wood plank to ensure nothing blocking the intakes on the bottom, and I don’t often travel with it, so I really can’t see much objection to a double-height card. The biggest one would seem to be traveling with it, but hey, it’s removable!
Plus, it seems that double height is probably going to be necessary to get more than five ports (including the fixed audio port)…
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@matthew3 I currently have a Dell Latitude with a fold-out ethernet and it holds up pretty good, although I don’t use a lot. I guess it’ll come down to how many people are going to have a demand for it, and the good thing is the developers have it in mind.
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on my old laptop had a sort of spring-loaded “jaw” ethernet port. It outlived the wifi-card. I used to take that to class ona regular basis and plug it into a cord at home on a daily/weekly/as-needed basis. The thing is like 6yrs old and still going as a home-server. That said, I think that the folding ethernet port it had is still taller than a standard expansion port. It might be doable if you allow the card to be over-height but shorter than the rubber-feet on the underside of the laptop, they’re pretty thick on the FW.
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I just stumbled into it, but there is an industrial standard for gigabit network connections that Hirose is promoting called iX (IX60G-A-10P - HIROSE Electric Group [Connector] as an example). I don’t know why others haven’t looked at adopting it in the laptop market. It’s unfortunately 5.7mm tall, and the total module height if I am correct is 6.8mm. So that’s tight though potentially doable with some clever board and housing setup. Hirose does supply example RJ45 to iX, but a little pricy and I don’t think they intended as a volume product. Just an idea and likely won’t get traction but looks like industrial has a solution for giant RJ45 issue, it’s just still a little “proprietary”.
Is there any rough ETA on this? I’m not sure if I should bother looking for a better ethernet dongle or just wait it out.
Are we looking at 1 month, 6 months, or longer?
@Keith_Wakeham
I do like the Hirose connector, this is the series document that covers all the ordering information.
But yep, still thick…
@ImaxinarDM I like it too. The crimp tool is 700 though which I didn’t realized compared to an $80 RJ45. They do offer solderable connectors which is a nice entry. It’s so close to fitting in a module, but magnetics + a Gigabit chip is tough. Rough layouts I looked at is hard without two boards stacked because you can’t really use the opposite side of the PCB unless it’s a taller one and then is it just back to RJ45?
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How about a contest to come up with the best solution for a rj45 connector. I’m sure anyone who is interested has ideas that maybe the framework team hasn’t thought of yet?
I would love a fold out ethernet module. Never had any problems with those with any brand over the years. Would be a shame if I still had to carry a dongle/hub with me just for that.
Unfortunately I have bad news for this. I emailed support recently as that seems to be a better way to get an answer lately than on here (probably more of a staffing thing than anything else if I had to guess).
Not really bad news, just a non-answer. Even if the announcement were planned for tomorrow, they’d probably give the same answer because they’d want to announce it as planned.
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I suppose that’s true, I was just hoping for a little more transparency on their end.
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Hey everyone, I have my prototype boards coming in so hopefully I will be able to start sales around Christmas.
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Run a kickstarter and let us place preorders right now? 
Just need to figure out how I could do it. Does anyone have ideas?
Need it too, I´m annoyed by my Lenovo adapter cable for years.