OSHW Framework Laptop Expansion Hides Dongles

Should you’ve acquired a wi-fi keyboard or mouse, you’ve most likely acquired a receiver dongle of some type tucked away in considered one of your machine’s USB ports. Whereas trendy expertise has allowed producers to shrink them right down to the purpose that they’re barely bigger than the USB connector itself, they nonetheless stick out sufficient to often get caught on issues. Plus, let’s be trustworthy, they’re sort of ugly.

For house owners of the Framework laptop computer, there’s now an answer: the DongleHider+ by [LeoDJ]. This intelligent open supply {hardware} undertaking is designed to carry these little receivers, such because the Logitech Unifying Dongle, into one of many Framework’s Growth bays. The customized PCB is designed with a big notch taken out to suit the dongle’s PCB, all it’s essential do is solder it in with 4 items of stiff wire.

That will be a neat sufficient undertaking, however [LeoDJ] went one higher by including a CH334 USB hub chip and a feminine USB connector to the board. So not solely does this module conceal that ugly dongle, it offers you again the USB port that it could in any other case be taking on. For the reason that CH334 nonetheless had additional ports obtainable, [LeoDJ] put some further USB pads on the again of the PCB — so assuming you possibly can bodily match it within the 3D printed enclosure, you might tack on a second receiver dongle or another tiny gadget.

As slick because the DongleHider+ is, it’s not an ideal answer. In line with the undertaking’s README, whereas USB 2.0 appears to work fairly effectively, plugging a USB 3.0 gadget into the port briefly knocks out the inner dongle. It’s not a deal breaker, however one thing to remember. It additionally seems to be just like the DongleHider+ has solely been examined underneath Home windows to this point, although we’d be shocked if there was truly something that might maintain it from working underneath Linux.

Whereas there are plenty of reasons for {hardware} hackers to be excited in regards to the Framework laptop computer, we predict the Growth Playing cards need to be close to the highest of the checklist. Should you don’t have any dongles you need hidden, possibly you’d be fascinated by a microcontroller development board which you can slap into the facet of your laptop computer?