Framework Expansion Board

One of most exciting recent developments in laptop world for me is definitely the framework laptop. A major component of that concept are its expansion cards. And, of course, you can build your own.

This repository is quite encompassing if you’re using KiCAD. However, for those who love nicer tools (ehm, DipTrace), it’s annoying to find that there is no board size specification in human readable format (and no, KiCAD XML is not). So I decided to figure it out.

To cut the long story short, here are the board outline points for the expansion card PCB:

• (0.0, 0.0)
• (26.0, 0.0)
• (26.0, 26.5)
• (25.0, 26.5)
• (25.0, 30.0)
• (17.7, 30.0)
• (17.7, 28.0)
• (16.0, 28.0)
• (16.0, 29.0)
• (10.0, 29.0)
• (10.0, 28.0)
• (8.3, 28.0)
• (8.3, 30.0)
• (1.0, 30.0)
• (1.0, 26.5)
• (0.0, 26.5)

In order to make it slightly nicer to handle, each corner is additionally rounded with a 0.3 mm radius.

And let’s not forget two holes at (1.7, 10.5) and (24.3, 10.5), both with a 2.2 mm diameter and 4.9 mm keepout region.

With that information in hand, one can create PCB board in any program they might prefer. Of course, I already did so for DipTrace and you download the files here.

And yes, PCB is just a first step in a development process. What I found the hardest is actually getting appropriate connectors for the enclosure as there’s not too much height to work with.

PS: No, I do not own framework laptop at this time. I am waiting for 15.6" model as 13.5" is simply too small for me when not used external monitor.