Another potential idea:
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.
I’m not sure if the solar panels are feasible with the tiny area! Although the batteries could be interesting!
such things are readily available from other sources, I don’t think this is something framework need to be concerned about.
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.
I could see an integrated dock/battery pack attachment being a popular accessory. My only concert would be ventilation.
How about a mediator? Just like a normal USB-C connector but battery inside it? Charges both inside battery as well as framework when plugged in, and configurable charge pull based on a software inside the laptop when necessary (like when battery falls below 20%)?
Not sure about the legality but for a few people a native Rubber Ducky would be a nice option, just like a small Storage Card with a pop-out USB Port on the outside (with the required actions on that port, see https://hak5.org/blogs/usb-rubber-ducky). For Pen-Testers this would probably make their job much easier.
Yeah the laptop’s ventilation being there would be an issue, something I didn’t think about / realise at the time.
Personally I’m looking at the Framework to get away from carrying separate dongles. BUT if I have to carry one, it may as well have an extra battery in it.
Havent seen anyone suggest this, but for music production its always a hassle to carry around an audio interface, so an 8mm guitar jack would be an amazing addition to the lineup.
I think it would be nice to have an expiration card with GPS + GSM modules, which can double as a wireless GSM/*G modem as well as an answer to SMS for example tell the current location of the laptop. Having type C as a disguise would be also awesome on the card.
Alternatively integrating Apple Airtag or some technology like that would also be a nice idea.
I’m not fan of apple, and I have a framework laptop DIY edition with Arch on it. 
I think this issue can be mitigated with some form-factor compromise, if the expansion card must exceed the physical dimensions of it’s slot I don’t see any reason a riser couldn’t be used to elevate the existing feet to provide the necessary clearance on a flat surface.
I wouldn’t even care if the laptop was wobbly. Obviously it wouldn’t be ideal but I genuinely wouldn’t care if I was able to get 1/4. Unfortunately I don’t think 1/4 in would be popular enough of a design, and I think a lot more people would care about wobbly than not. If someone makes it we’ll buy it 100%, but I’m not holding out hope for it.
~ Jamie
I’d love to see a hub sort of module. Just placed an order for a laptop and the first thing I want to try making is something that can act as a foot to raise up the back end a little bit and house a battery & ports like ethernet, HDMI, etc. facing out the back, similar to alienware laptops.
6mm.
You can buy a cheap adapter (6mm to 3.5mm) for that matter.
More importantly, you should get something like iRig. They have additional circuitry to convert the guitar/instrument’s “line in” to a compatible “microphone” signal, pass it to the host and pass out the audio out to a headphone jack.
With iRig 2, you can even adjust the “gain” and other thing. It’s almost like a pre-amp
As for the idea of using the expansion slots as some kind of “built-in riser”, I am not sure. I do not think that the rails of the slot should be used as “lifting point” (attached to points of structure significance with lots of structural rigidity, such as the hinge-base joint) that is able to handle the weight/forces.
(laughs)
What about some kind of hotspot/modem card which would allow other devices to connect to the laptop and so that just the laptop needs to be connected to the internet?
I want a card with 2-3 USB-A/USB-C slots. Even at some performance cost, it’s nice to not need an extra expander.
