Last year I bought a framework laptop and one cool thing about it are the expansion cards. You can choose what kind of IO the laptop has, whether that's USB A, USB C, a micro-secret reader, HDMI, Ethernet and so on. What I think makes this truly genius is that the expansion cards are basically just USB C adapters, which means you can hot swap them. And they also work on other machines where they use B C port, although probably not as useful there. So I decided to make my own expansion card and this is it. It's a ESP32 S3 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth development board with a RGB new pixel LED and a quick or STEMQT connector. And I can put it in my laptop, which means I have an ESP32 dev board everywhere I go, ready to start developing new hacking tools as soon as I open my laptop. The idea to make such a development board as an expansion card is not new. I've been thinking about something like this ever since I first heard about the framework laptop and the cool thing is the framework people thought about the same thing. There's a gateway confined key-cut example projects to help you get started designing your own DIY expansion card. And not only that, they also included op-ascad files for the case. So here's what I did. I cloned the git, opened key-cut and started working on a schematic. Luckily, I was able to take inspiration from some of the Adafruit boards that used the same chip, as well as the example schematic in the ESP32 S3 datasheet. While the schematic wasn't that big of a deal, the PCB layout was probably the hardest part. The board outline and the position of the USB plug was already part of the template, which made it so much easier. But I had hoped to make the boot and reset buttons accessible to the outside of the case so you could use them while the expansion card is plugged in, or maybe make the quick connection accessible at least if the buttons weren't fit. But even though I'm using this really small ESP module, I just couldn't find a good way to make it fit. It would always conflict with the screws, with the module or the modules antenna. But that being said, I'm sure you could manage to fit everything using the bare SOC instead of a module. I simply didn't want to deal with that because this is more of a fun little side project. Talking about challenges, the quick connector. It's actually a bit too tall. Yeah, it still fits, but you have to slide the expansion card in and out a bit more carefully. I already decided to use this kind of USB C plug because it allows me to put the PCB slightly lower. And because it's sitting lower in the case, I also had to edit the 3D model. And now you can see the screws on the backside, but that's okay. They're not actually sticking out. All of this just to make the connectors sort of fit. But hey, having this tiny connector means being able to easily add sensors, displays, or other cool things that can be controlled with iSquad C, U-O-R, or just two GPIO pins plus power. I've printed the case in silver PLA because this is the closest color I've had lying around to match the framework laptop. And as for the PCBs, well, I got those made at JLC PCB. This is where the sponsor of this video comes in. I've been using JLC PCB for a couple of years now. They're fast, they're cheap, and they're easy to use. You just upload your gov files and instantly get a quote for your boards. For this project, I tried their assembly service where you can upload the bit of materials, and they will not only make the PCBs, but also solder on all the necessary components for you. And the results are amazing. The boards came out perfectly, which is especially impressive considering the price and the build time. So if this sounds interesting to you, check out the link in the video description. If you sign up as a new user, you get $54 in QPONS. Okay, so I got the boards, the case, the laptop, what now? Well, at this point, it's just a development board. You can program it with Arduino or circuit python. If you need to access the quick connector, yeah, you have to disconnect it first and plug it into another USB-C board, which isn't ideal. I know, but hey, it works. And any other deathboard would also have to be externally connected, but also probably require a cable. So that's at least something you don't have to do here. Personally, I just want to play around with the Wi-Fi features of the chip anyway. So having this powerful ESP32 built into my laptop is actually kind of cool and makes the development process easier and more fun. I hope this video can mean inspiration for others to try making their own expansion cards as well. And if you want to support my hacking endeavors, check out my store. I will put some of those expansion cards on there if you want one. Otherwise, just thanks for watching and have a nice day.