Sure… a drawer for “snacks”.
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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.
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That is awesome news!
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Here’s weird idea but I think fits framework spirit. Slot that fits screw driver so that you can open up the laptop anytime!
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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.
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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???
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I would second Thunderbolt (since Thunderbolt is really USB 3.*) for eGPUs.
I voted for Ethernet and Audio in the poll above.
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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.
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My vote would for USB-C and USB-A combination cards. The A could be used for all those legacy things. The C for the modern things.
Legacy - Keyboard, Mouse adapters, card readers for older cards, etc.
Modern, Do I even have anything yet?
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@Edward_Gray Welcome to the forum. I agree; I’d love to see an Expansion Card with both A and C in it. It looks like there should be room. All those USB-A thingies are not going away soon!
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I confirm it. My dad & I work with computers in Latin America & until now, i’ve not saw even a single home machine using DisplayPort, or HDMi. Only VGA!
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FM emitter!
It might be fun to have an expansion card that can transmit FM signals.
Because, I could go see my grandmother and play music on her 50’s radio 
Also certainly useful by car…
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Theres an entire market you could attract by offering industrial automation ports as expansion cards. E.g. Profibus-DP, RS-485, Allen Bradley Control-Net, Bog standard RS-232 serial, RS-422, HART, Foundation Fieldbus, IEC61850 certified ethernet, SC or ST fibre ethernet, Wireless HART, DeviceNet, Honeywell Data-highway, DNP3 etc etc. There are many more.
All of these would mean technicians & engineers don’t need to carry dongles. I hate dongles. Everyone hates dongles. Offering expansion cards removes the dangling dongle and offers a professional look and ease of use in an already tough environment.
30 Likes
A expansion card for SDR would be interesting.
Also another idea would be a CAN bus module, maybe it is possible to make one card with 4 pins or so to hook up to buses like i2c, can, spi and what not. That would be then usable and chooseable via software. Similar to diggles post.
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