The problem

A dock gives you ports. A bench gives you instruments. They sit on the same desk and have nothing to do with each other, so you end up with a fixed dock whose port layout you chose once and cannot change, a multimeter in a drawer, a bench supply that takes up space, and a pile of Framework Expansion Cards you swapped out of the laptop and never used again.

DockFrame puts those in one box. It is a USB Type-C hub built around the Framework Expansion Card slot standard, so the cards you already own drop straight in. Then it adds Tool Cards that turn a slot into a measuring instrument.

It works with any Framework laptop or desktop, and with any USB Type-C host. The Framework part is the slot standard, not a requirement.

A dock and a bench, in one

Keep it on the desk as your everyday dock, and reach for the same unit when a project needs measuring or powering. Your spare Framework cards come back into use, and tools stop going missing. One box covers everyday docking, bench bring-up, lab work, and field repairs.

More than 1,400 people signed up for this before the campaign, and their feedback shaped the lineup. The Mini Hub Card goes back further than our form does, which is a story in its own section below.

Two power systems, kept apart

This is the part worth reading if you only read one section.

The hub has seven USB-C ports. Five are card slots on one side. Two are on the host side: the uplink to your computer, and a second charger input that does not touch anything else.

The logic path runs everything normal. A USB PD charger on slot D brings in up to 100 W, and the hub splits it between your computer and the cards. Up to 65 W goes back up the uplink to charge the laptop, and each of the other logic slots can put out up to 20 W. Those maximums add up to more than the input, so the budget is shared dynamically against what the charger actually provides.

The isolated path exists for one reason: cards that need real current. A second charger goes into port G, and its power passes through to slot E and nowhere else. Slot E is galvanically isolated from the rest of the hub, and it takes up to 240 W. That is USB PD 3.1 Extended Power Range, 48 V at 5 A.

Slot E still carries data, across the isolation barrier. That is the whole point. A card sitting there can source 100 W into your circuit and be controlled over the wire at the same time, without tying your computer's ground to whatever you are driving. Nothing on the isolated path draws from the 100 W logic budget, and nothing on the logic side cares what slot E is doing.

Ports

Card side

Host side

Slot D doing double duty is a deliberate trade. With no charger connected it behaves like any other slot and takes a card. Plug a charger in and it becomes the power input. Port G is a dedicated connector, so feeding the isolated slot never costs you a card slot.

Key numbers

SuperSpeed pairs are routed impedance controlled at 85 ohm differential, USB 2.0 pairs at 90 ohm, with custom KiCad DRC rules enforcing it.

The cards

Multimeter Card

An isolated multimeter in the Expansion Card form factor, with real 4 mm banana jacks on the end.