I'll chime in and say that I love my FW13. It's a great machine. I got the DIY kit and had my 7yo put it together. It was straightforward with a little help from dad (even installing Ubuntu!). Now we fight over who gets to use it.
Maybe she'll become a gamer and we'll get a 16.
Anyway, you've got my total support and $. I get that we're a niche market though. It would be great to see my non-techie friends sporting the Framework Gear -- I think they'd love the pre-built machine, but the messaging steers them to thinking it's only for DIY-ers. E.g. -- My sister would love the FW13 because she doesn't have special performance needs and cares about sustainability, but she got very intimidated buying an MBA, so guiding her through buying a Framework will be some work on my end (...messaging that would land for her would be that Framework solves all your basic problems (browsing, video-chatting, and netflix) and when you need more power you can upgrade for only the cost of the components).
The battery time is also several hours longer than compareable laptops of the same size.
I wish I could get a 4K screen, an eInk screen, a touchscreen, a Dvorak keyboard, a OLED keyboard, an IMU/GPS/barometer expansion module, a pico projector expansion module, a software-defined-radio expansion module, a larger aperture webcam module, an IR webcam module, a depth camera webcam module, an Arduino expansion module, an IR emitter expansion module that controls TVs, etc etc etc.
But nobody seems interested in making this stuff. I guess the community that uses Framework laptops isn't really capable of that level of hardware engineering (me included) and the companies in China doing hardware haven't caught onto making stuff for Framework.
I'd love to be able to just pay for them and buy them and then get rolling with software :)
I did come up with something I would want enough that I'm willing to try to make it though. Taking inspiration from some other modules like it, I'm currently looking into adding this microcontroller with a transparent case:
https://github.com/01Space/ESP32-C3FH4-RGB
If I'm happy with it, I was going to try to have it show battery status like some other laptops have. This might be possible by wiring up another microcontroller to the SMBus on the battery. I'm still researching that part though.
For what it's worth, some places like JLCPCB can source and solder SMT components to your designed boards as long as you pick from their available parts library.
> But nobody seems interested in making this stuff. I guess the community that uses Framework laptops isn't really capable of that level of hardware engineering (me included) and the companies in China doing hardware haven't caught onto making stuff for Framework.
I relate to your sentiment of wanting tons of modules, but I'm going to disagree on the skills of the community.
For some of these options (4k/eink screens for eg), you need such a panel to be available (panelook to search -> aliexpress/ebay to buy). SDRs, IMUs & sensors could be doable relatively "easily" if they interface via USB/PCIE.
There are lots of hardware tinkerers in youtube, hackaday and of course even here on HN. I'm a mechanical engineer with some electrical/electronics knowledge, and I could likely make a half-decent module if I had the time/money/reason/ethusiasm for it. There's a guy who's turned an iPad screen into the FW13 display (on the framework community). There are probably dozens of people who may read this comment who are far more skilled than I am.
If you are very keen to do this yourself, you might want to start with learning 3d modelling and building up from that (from a mechanical side). 3d printing metals with something like SLS is commercially (relatively) easy and (imo) accessible compared to say 10-20 years back.
I consider myself to be a decent software engineer. But I am inexperienced in the area of creating my own hardware. I guess a lot of things are just knowing how to stick together pre-made components like "panels, SDRs, IMUs & sensors"? But how important is it to know circuit design?
There are a lot of unknown unknowns. And it is not clear what a good learning path would be to get started with hardware hacking as a hobbyist.
For most of the sensors mentioned in the initial comment, I would assume there are already commercial USB/eDP/PCIE sensors/components, and at least for framework these connectors on the motherboard are clearly exposed. I'd imagine it's possible to have some RJ-xxx sensor needing a RJ-USB converter too, but with the sensor+converter I think it is as easy as "design a box, throw them in".
HOWEVER - ESD is something I've heard can be pretty nasty and show up where you least expect it to. Proper grounding design would help. Beyond that, I am not aware of any "major" issues (there's also general environmental/power noise but ground could help with some of those issues like the "wonky touchscreen when charging". Also stuff like debouncing and pullup/down resistors if using buttons).
My personal knowledge of circuit design isn't very good, I studied it till high school and had an intro to EE class in uni (which actually wasn't bad, learnt the basics of opamp circuits etc) but I don't remember much of those now.
> There are a lot of unknown unknowns. And it is not clear what a good learning path would be to get started with hardware hacking as a hobbyist.
I think if you want to get started, the most "comprehensive" way would be by looking at syllabus of undergraduate EE programs (or MechE for the physical side), and perhaps going through the relevant/interesting chapters.
However the "easiest" will be by just building basic circuits - using an arduino, or making a hand-wired mechanical keyboard. Googling issues like "arduino button changes on its own" will give results like https://arduino.stackexchange.com/questions/186/button-state... which talk about floating pins.
This is as much as I know on this topic (I have "tried learning more esp. in high speed designs but that's vast), if anyone else has helpful suggestions I'll be happy to learn :)
Aren't they available? Just take apart a used MacBook for a retina display, or take apart a Boox 13.3" tablet for the eInk display.
Or just buy this https://www.waveshare.com/13.3inch-e-paper-hat.htm
But good luck reverse engineering it. I wouldn't know where to start.
Yeah for sure, what I meant is that DIYing a fully custom screen with a custom resolution etc isn't very easy :)
If you're buying a panel or scavenging an existing panel it's much "easier". Of course that hasn't stopped youtubers from designing their own 7-segment LCD panels... (example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zoeeR3geTA or https://youtu.be/ZA5vlDdpbkw)
Don't worry. They will catch on... making and copying not just components but the entire framework. It really depends on how popular it gets.