Audio would be nice if you could combine 3.5mm jack and a mini toslink inside ( old macbook pros used to have this)
5 Likes
Dual usb C in one slot would be good if the slots support thunderbolt (3?) so you could have daisy chain option in a single slot
8 Likes
Thunderbolt 3/4 ?
Would be great if we could use an eGPU with this.
9 Likes
On this picture, from the landing page of the project, we can see that the two cards are separated by about 1 cm:
I guess this is because you need some space for the rails in the laptop.
If placing the two cards side by side without this separation was possible, we could have x2 expansion card slots and we could put larger plugs in the expansion cards. This is basically what happened when we used to replace the optical drives by a hard drive or any other adapter (SATA connector,…). IBM/Lenovo named it the UltraBay: ThinkPad UltraBay - Wikipedia
but other makers had something similar too.
This idea being: the rails are taking a lot of space, so there is an economy of scale when you make the slot wider.
How about having two x1 expansion card slots on one edge and one x2 expansion card slot on the other edge? It would expand the possibilities.
14 Likes
I’m sure this has been mentioned but could we have, for example, 2 USB A ports on one slot?
6 Likes
What about a tiny drawer for SD cards, folded up cash, screws, snacks, etc.?
40 Likes
Sure… a drawer for “snacks”.
37 Likes
Maybe a couple wheat thins or some mints or gum.
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I would like to specify my Idea:
the docking stations I used before, always requiered to press a button or slide the connector.
My wish is to have the station and an expansion card for coupling. Contacting done via magnets! My Sony Xpreria Z1C had this, was very convenient. I am shure it can be designed to handle power/signals.
4 Likes
That is awesome news!
5 Likes
Here’s weird idea but I think fits framework spirit. Slot that fits screw driver so that you can open up the laptop anytime!
12 Likes
As an embedded engineer I often need many dongles for field work to support older protocols. It would be fantastic to have options for RS232, CAN bus, and RS-485. I would like to add a vote to the folding ethernet jack suggestion above as well.
24 Likes
I agree, a combination of 2 functionalities/card would be a big big win!
If not, we carry along a lot of dongles again, only 40 years later they are called expansion cards. 
combine USB-C 3/4 with any of the following.
- USB-C 3.x Gen2
- ETH 1-10Gbit/s
- HDMI (mini/micro)
- DisplayPort (mini/micro)
PCI-Express
a ethernet 1 (-10) Gbit/s is a must.
a standard 2.5 mm audio jake, compatible with the ones used in phones, is also a must and would be better placed in the chassis, then in a expansion card, not to waste precious space and make it more stable. so on the photo above (left side of the laptop), there is a round connector, without any description found on the website, it might be such a thing???
4 Likes
You say High Fidelity Audio Out… what ports will be on that expansion card? If it’s just Microphone and Headphone out there really isn’t a point over sticking with Bluetooth v5 and HDMI out. If it’s possible to include a mini-toslink (optical) and a discrete audio chip, now we’re talking.
As far alternate ports go, a recessed/shielded USB3 port for micro-dongles like Logitech’s Unify adapter would be very nice. A cellular service adapter (hopefully a physical micro/nanoSIM card and not eSIM) card would also be very appreciated.
6 Likes
You may say I’m daydreaming. I hope Framework team could work together with Logitech to build an expansion card with 1 USB-C port and with Unifying dongle built-in.
It would be great if the expansion card has a microSD card slot, too. So, I could make sure Unifying software (saved in SD card) always “travel” with the built-in dongle.
There is no need for the slot opening be placed side-by-side to the USB-C port. It’s alright for me to insert microSD only when expansion card was removed from Framework laptop.
14 Likes
Instead of rails on the sides of the card, what about rails in the middle of the card with one at the top and one at the bottom. The top and bottom rails don’t have to be long either and I think 10 to 15mm should be sufficient.
1 Like
Actually - the person that mentioned a little drawer slot has a decent idea. You could store earbuds, portable usb drives, sd cards, and other small things in there if there isn’t a need for an additional expansion card. Assuming there’s enough room to fit any of these in those small expansion boxes.
10 Likes
I would second Thunderbolt (since Thunderbolt is really USB 3.*) for eGPUs.
I voted for Ethernet and Audio in the poll above.
3 Likes
Would it be possible to have a whole numpad which could plug on the side of the laptop ?
I think it could be amazing.
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@brochard Since the expansion scheme is based on USB-C, somebody could build one if Framework doesn’t get around to it.
1 Like