Using such a device one can precisely control any absolute scale with good accuracy. Tactile feedback and muscle memory would help to easily find the slider and control it.
It can be used for (button action):
System volume control (mute)
Microphone level (mute)
Screen brightness (on/off)
Arbitrary MIDI control
Any other creative application
P.S.: The card itself is ~3 cm in width. However using a knob that sticks out a bit and overlaps the side we can implement full travel width not bounded by the card. Oversized cards sticking more than 1 mm can provide even more travel distance.
Some more ideas. USB condom cards for safe power er… interactions with an untrusted devices.
Sometimes it just so happens that you forgot your cute Framework PD adapter, but you desperately need some amps in. You see a spare one freely laying around in your office, a café, or an airport. You struggle a bit, remembering all those stories where devices were hacked using publicly accessible charge points… but then you remember you have a USB condom card in your backpack. Lucky you! You simply swap one of your USB Type-C cards with a protected one, distinctively colored in bright red, amber or hazard line-ish yellow-black version, that routes only power lines with surge and ESD protection, and that prevents any data lines from passing through.
Next day, after a couple of drinks, a semi-familiar coworker kindly asks you to charge their phone a bit using your laptop, since the bar you are both sitting lacks any power plugs. They even has a USB cable… no problem, you just pick another USB Type-A card that only provides power output and voila!
Long story short, there are thousand of situations where such a gadget can literally save your life. Better be prepared.
P.S.: I can even imagine a switch somewhere on the inner sides of a card (to prevent accidental switching) that can cut the data lines. That way even existing cards can easily be converted to a safe ones. But a switch can be mistakenly flipped into a wrong position, so it’s better to have a dedicated card for hot stuff.
@nrp, I think such a switch can relatively simply be integrated into existing designs making them a bit more useful than just a dummy 3cm repeater. Of course, dedicated hardware with ESD and surge protection is preferrable, but that’s another story.
It’s possible to my card as a one/two button card; I just didn’t add it to the firmware, as none of the encoders with switches/buttons are short enough.
The connector for the switch is located at the end of the PCB with the label SW1. It’s not enabled in my QMK firmware config though.
A thin solar panel with a battery pack, that can be used when you forgot the charger or out of home without wall socket. Kinda cool if you’re outside you can hook two of them so they can give 30%-35% extra charge? Or more if you have more of them, like carry 10 numbers? Alternatively putting few on sunlight, and other half on laptop.
Partner up w/ Tom Christiansen from Neurochrome or Ivan Khlyupin @ E1DA to build a high fidelity DAC w/ high quality amplification circuits. Both of them have a massive background in audio circuit building and have been known in the audio community to make extremely affordable, compact, and high end gear.
In LTT’s first video they mentioned a BIOS setting that lets you power the device directly instead of using the battery. I would assume not, but is it possible to integrate this feature into a USB-C charging expansion card?
*gasps*
Imagine remembering 3Com omg
I mean, yeah. solutions exist.
Huh. My Dell adapter (realtek) is doing fine. There should also be one or two companies doing this out there. TP-Link? Microchip? Simens? Cisco? (granted, the latter two are old school too, but still)
It was a feature of the motherboard (that allows it to power on without a battery). It doesn’t even need to have any expansion cards attached, since all the ports on the board are effectively Thunderbolt4 ports.
USB RFID reader would be nice. Although, usually you would want one with a cord so you can put them elsewhere, so the demand would be pretty low.
However, I think I have overheard a discussion about an onboard gyro (accelerometer). Instead of building it on-board, we can make a expansion card and have it appear to the device as a 6-dof controller. Granted, a 6 degree of freedom (xyz movement, xyz rotation) controller that is rigidly attached to the laptop would make it extraordinarily hard to use
I dont even know if 6dof controllers existed. I know Kerbal Space Program support it so you can build more effectively (wow)
I’m going to build a hat asap just to experience it.
Okay, hear me out here. What if you could make a two-way battery expansion card which could be charged by the computer that it’s plugged in and charge said computer.
(shitpost please do not take this seriously)
The other night I did think about how to add a second battery and daughter board with all the ports, that is attached underneath, using the expansion cards for data, power and attachment.
