I’d like to see a security card. I’m thinking make it either two-fold or three-fold depending on space. First fold, laptop lock module. “But you can just pop out the Expansion Card” you say? Here’s the second fold: Encryption key. If the Card is removed, the laptop does one of a few things. Either it auto-boots into a decoy VM complete with fake files and software, while the actual instance sends all the info it can to your email or a phone app. The third fold would be a GPS chip so if the thief (low intelligence being correlated to criminal activity) defeats the cable lock and the expansion card goes with the laptop, you get a ping one of two ways: when the laptop is powered on, or constantly through powered-off USB power options that I thiiiink you can enable in Windows.
I’d also love to see a GPS theft-recovery Card, something that charges off the powered-off USB that I had to disable on my desktop to get my mouse to stop lighting up when I jiggle it. Not sure if this would work on a laptop, not sure if you could get adequate power delivery, and while it’d be REALLY cool to give it like a 4G connection so you could activate it and get its location regardless of if it’s powered up or not, that might not be realistic. Give it a dummy port like a MicroSD slot complete with a knockoff MicroSD logo. If it isn’t possible to get it to ping constantly, maybe do something where it pings when it’s turned on, and maaaybe even do the boot-into-decoy-VM trick I mentioned earlier.
I’d also like to see one of those wireless charging modules. Being able to stick a pad or five on my laptop stand and have it charge without plugging it in would be sweet.
I would like to second this. There are some hardware that would be great to plug into the Framework and the Framework acts as a screen+speaker+keyboard+trackpad.
Given how powerful Thunderbolt is, would it make sense to have an external KVM box, with all the requisite connectors, and then have a short cable to an expansion card?
Have the expansion card make the laptop the I/O for the user, but put the real intelligence (switching via a signal from the laptop, protocol shifting, resolution… resolution ) in the box.
Then you’re not limited by bays for client count, or connector type, or… power, I think?
Just some random thoughts. I like the idea of using the Framework in a KVM setup.
At least for me, I would like to maintain portability while doing it, the system could be in another room so I would like if I can walk to it and plug into my Framework, once I am done, I can walk over to another room with another system. Carrying around an external KVM box would be kinda annoying.
That being said, I wonder how much would it cost to make one with PCB design and 3D printing an expansion card. I suspect the Framework BIOS requires some modification as well.
I want to see a 10G card or 10G ethernet as part of a Framework Dock solution. This would greatly enhance my workflow when moving around large datasets to external storage.
Not really an expansion card but like an IR camera module would be pretty sick. Enabling Howdy or Windows Hello with like a 60 dollar upgrade would just be awesome
Only thing I’m missing right now is a better WIFI antenna. The existing antenna is set so low on the laptop, it’s temperamental based on where and how I sit. A big honker would really add to the mobility of the device.
MacroSilicon makes some HDMI capture chips that might work, MS2109 (USB 2.0, “good enough”) and MS2130 (USB 3.2, much better), but for the life of me I can’t find where to buy a MacroSilicon chip except for contacting them directly to buy a thousand at a time. At least they’re available built into $15-$25 dongles.
This post is just to put a few things out there as they say. It would be a good thing if we see expansion cards with dual port capabilities. For example, there can be expansion cards of: Dual USB A Full size SDcard; dont know if possible but i’ve even seen docks with a microSD atop a full sized SD slot… More display options like DisplayPort and its mini variants; maybe even dual mini DP or even HDMI.
How about even make a capture card expansion? For example i have an hdmi to USB capture card for my camera for broadcasting, and it gives me basically 0ms latency since is not doing any processing and the thing about that device is that its small. I dont know the intricacies of the requirements as per space but again, im just putting it out there… oh, here is such device: https://www.amazon.com/your-orders/pop/ref=ppx_yo_mob_b_pop?_encoding=UTF8&gen=canonical&lineItemId=nprgtxmomlntwny&orderId=112-8902874-2892246&packageId=1&returnSummaryId=&returnUnitIndices=&returnUnitMappingId=&shipmentId=TkTlSxBL0
And lastly, how about expansion cards with different connectors for power delivery/charging. Like barrel connectors, lenovo connectors, maybe even some proprietary connectors like the Apple PCs (that is unless its legaly viable…)
Dual USB-A is… almost impossible to do because of the size of the cards and even if you pull that off it would only ever fit 1 plug. even 2 USB-C sockets would probably interfere with each other so it makes no sense to have a HUB in there.
Personally I would like a USB-A/USB-C combination card that lets you use either one or the other but not at the same time.
) in the box.
