I’d love to see a FW style NAS or Home Server, perhaps something that could better make use of the old hardware, or possibly even just a case focused on modularity with standardized components (ATX, ITX, FW motherboard standoffs, etc) modular front panel (3.5 in hot swap, 2.5 in, cluster bays, even a bay to hold FW modular ports).
To me server cases are always limiting, either not everything thats needed, too expensive, or unable to be able to be used outside of a rack. With FW’s intented target/userbase I think this could be a really interesting segment.
I was talking about a new device, like you said it will be like the 13 but bigger, see it like a framework 16 but without the gpu and the modular keyboard and trackpad, thinner and lighter, and which reuse the motherboard, the battery, trackpad and keyborad from the Framework 13.
I know Americans can use it but the functionality will be sub-optimal - I was looking for US Fairphone 4 users’ experience as that model is sold now in the US.
Just flagging this cell phone thread (had meant to link in prior post) for anyone interested in more sustainable phone options, including what’s available right now.
For ideas on what to build next, it would really depend on what theme one wishes to pursue.
I think one of the main themes of the FW laptops has been the ease of home repair and the concept that one can purchase a laptop, and never have send it to landfill and to buy a new complete laptop again, because one can just replace the failed part with a replacement one, or even a better more up to date one.
So, on this theme, I would probably suggest moving across to other house hold appliances with these same themes.
Dish Washing machine - Design one that would last forever or at least have replaceable/up-gradable parts forever, with 3D printed parts, replaceable logic boards, sensors etc. Have all the parts report when they have broken, much like modern car parts do.
Cloths Washing machine
For example, I had to throw out a washing machine recently simply because the manufacturer does not make the heating element any more.
Solar power management / controllers.
Tablet - Make one that is easy to replace the parts at home, unlike current tablets on the market.
Mobile phone - I think this would be really difficult to achieve because users want light, compact phones, and having them easily repairable seems difficult to solve. Of course, if you think you can, please do it.
Household robot - like Telsa Optimus, but easy to repair at home…but then maybe the robot could manufacture more of itself and … (reminds me of a film that does not end well. )
In general, look at what ends up in land fill a lot at the moment, and so long as people still purchase new equivalents, make ones that will last and not need to be land-filled again.
I totally agree with that! A Sensel trackpad would be amazing.
On top, Framework could develop a Module / PCB with a printable case that allows us to use the Sensel Trackpad as an external usb trackpad.
A black color variant/a dark color variant (I understand if it isn’t possible because of environmental reasons though)
Arm, honestly I have been thinking of moving to the new arm machines, I travel a lot and ARM is just better for that.
The new ram standard (LPCAMM2) looks really cool but I expect you are already working on that. I mean the power and performance savings sound awesome. I know it is a bit of a step back in terms of upgrading down the line as you have to swap out the ram already there but I don’t think that is too big of a deal.
Tablet or 2 in 1 version. When traveling I used to take my surface 2 instead of my frame work and it was great, especially for gaming on planes/trains. I mean obviously just getting a touch screen would be great and it would open up so many community mods.
having a usb header thing on the main board so you could add your own mods without having to use the keyboard connector. Obviously it would be some sort of fpc connector but I think it could be really useful.
a glass cover to the screen. I know it isn’t necessary but I really like screens that have it making the display look like one cohesive part.
a cable router provided by my cable company, along with wifi and network ports I don’t use
my own wifi router that it’s plugged into that runs openwrt and has a thumbdrive plugged into it. It controls some vpns, some dynamic dns, that sort of thing
a sip adapter that my phone is plugged into
a home assistant yellow
a philips hue bridge
another switch so I can have more things plugged into the network
I’d quite like a NAS as well, and there’s all kinds of other pieces of functionality that could fit into this.
But all of these functions could be fulfilled by a single piece of hardware, ideally with a low power requirement, and modular pieces. It probably would look a lot like a NAS, but with bays that could have, as well as hard drives in them, network ports, or bridges to various other functionality (e.g. sip bridge, lora, mobile network backup…), obviously it should be able to act as an audio & video server too, or perhaps even, if you add an amp a sound system.
A long time ago, I was really impressed with the design of the RiscPC from Acorn. It had a layered design, where as you needed more space for upgrades, you could add layers into it, so physical space was never an issue. The whole thing could be opened and upgraded without screws.
What I’m proposing is a home server that can start as little more than a wifi router, and grow to include all the kinds of functions anyone might want for a continuously running home server.
Other things I’ve seen in the thread I like:
phones - but this is very hard to get right, and I’m not sure how many people actually buy a new phone because of something that could plausibly be upgraded instead.
printer - I’ve got an A3 multifunction, and it’s pretty frustrating. Again this is probably difficult to get right - printers are subisidized, and typically have all the bits in them already, and all the miscellaneous parts typically last at least as long as the printers core function parts, so your version would likely be super expensive compared to others, and it’s not that annoying that e.g. my printer has fax functionality I never use.
Solar control systems - it’s pretty frustrating that my electric car, battery, solar, smart meter don’t all talk together correctly, but I think this is essentially a protocol problem that perhaps could do with some legislation. I’m not sure attacking this problem plays to frameworks strengths.
thunderbolt dock / external screen case (dumb tv?) / external keyboard case - I love anything that makes the current pieces usuable in other ways.
eink device - the biggest key factor that people vary is size, which is hard to fit into a modular design, but I use an boox note air, so I’m definitely interested in this kind of device
okay about that— probably not going to do this but i’m thinking of making a thermosiphon-like passive cooler to go on the back of heavier laptops… could be pretty cool, we’ll see how that goes.
If the question is still active, I have an idea in the category “small electronic”, made disposable by the industry:
Electric shaver
I was shocked as I could not change the battery (not cells) or the “blades” of my actual shaver and shall buy a complete new one.
Then I was shocked again, that I could not buy a shaver without battery (I am ALWAYS shaving close to an electrical outlet), because it just does not exist any more.
Mobile phone - I think this would be really difficult to achieve because users want light, compact phones, and having them easily repairable seems difficult to solve. Of course, if you think you can, please do it.
A pen. Every day people use disposable pens. When the ink runs out, these pens will be either throw in the trash (or recycle, which isn’t much better for plastic). If instead, we switched to owning metal pens and buying refills, we’d significantly reduce our pen-related plastic consumption.
What makes it “framework”? Interchangeable parts to fit each standard refill size. Start with a design like the Machine Era original pen. These pens have no moving parts, no plastic, and no O-rings. They are essentially just a solid metal body, sized and shaped to perfectly fit the Pilot G2 refills. Now change the design so that you can screw on different end piece(s) that fit different refill sizes. This should give you the flexibility of the bigidesign arto pen but with the all-metal no-moving-parts construction of the machine era original.
Machine it out of titanium and end the scourge of disposable pens.
With all the people saying Framework should build pens, shavers and dishwashers, let me say that’s exactly what I don’t want. Sure, all those things would be nice to have but not from Framework for two simple reasons:
1. Reusability and waste
Framework’s big strength and part of their mission is to build an ecosystem where you can reuse parts that are left over after an upgrade and to have accessories that are compatible with as many products as possible. I’m already sad that the FW16 shares so few of the FW13’s components though of course I understand why that is.
2. Technical know how
Building a good dishwasher needs a skill set that’s very different from the one needed for building a good laptop. Framework would essentially need to build up a whole new company that doesn’t share much more than the marketing department with the existing one. I’d rather have them build things they’re already good at.
Framework’s vision is great and I’d love to see it in more products but that’s a matter of other companies adopting this vision and not of Framework becoming a company that manufactures everything I could ever need.
So I hope they will focus on things that are compatible with existing products and let us reuse or recontextualize some of their parts. Give us new cases that take FW13 and FW16 mainboards, like servers, routers, all-in-one desktops, handhelds and so on. Give us products that use the existing expansion cards like a dock. Give us more options to customize our existing Framework laptops like more expansion cards, a touch screen and unusual mainboards.
Definitely agree. Computers first, fix what doesn’t really work optimally then you can move on to other stuff.
On the feature request side, I’ll like to see a framework-made software to control fans on all framework laptops with a simple, nice GUI. I know there are ways to talk to the EC via open source software on these laptops, but most end users find it really impractical to use the command line. If I missed a piece of software that does that but is not made by framework let me know, I’ll be glad to use it too. That should be relatively simple enough to make and a huge life improvement for end users to have a coherent platform as I’ve seen a lot of people on the forum and irl complain about the curve of their framework, often in opposing ways, too noisy for some and too slow for others. As fan noise is very personal and related to one’s hearing capabilities, it would make sense to have this nice UI.
I agree they should stay in the same area with products. Products that can help expand on their existing product lines would also be nice.
-Things like a tablet style 13" that still uses the same mainboards and many other parts would be nice, if feasible.
-Laptop dock that can use the modules and supports at least 180w power delivery.
-I can see a repairable phone being a really good next product if they are strong enough to expand their product support.
Maybe think of a way to make circuits resilient to failures, shorts. For example, if a capacitor fails and turns into a short. Have some way of making the laptop still run with the failed component.
A simple example of this is LED Light bulbs. They still fail more often than they should because other components than the LED are failing. E.g. the LED driver components. They are then packed in plastic that does not come apart to be fixed.
To many products on the market are designed to fail earlier so customers buy more products.
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