Does anyone know if the cover for the wifi card on the L5 is actually needed? I was wondering if having the cover causes heat to be trapped, reducing air circulation? Does anyone know is there a down side to not using that cover to the wifi card?
Just curious.
Cover is for security, please do not remove.
I don’t know what the designer’s idea may have been but two things come to mind: you can use something like glitter nail polish to create a tampering indicator (so you’ll know if the innards have been messed with, card changed etc.), and the inner cover helps keep the cards and antenna wires in place, as there isn’t anything else locking them (you can see little humps for antennas on the inner surface).
If you are worried about heat removal, you can test being without the card cover (cards do seem to stay in place if there are no heavy bumps). I think a better option in general might be to drill small venting holes on it, but that’s on you (you could tape those shut, if you ever need better dust protection). But this is just speculation (how much effect those might have - you’d probably also need holes on the outer back cover too, but it doesn’t seem advisable to have them in the same spot - no direct hole to card from outside, just in case as this removes barriers for outside contaminants, like water droplets).
I’m curious, how is it for security? It is an internal part. I do understand the point @JR-Fi makes about the glitter. I’ve had the L5 for several years now, and have opened the back, so I am not worried about any internal tampering at this time.
This thought came to me because I had to partially disassemble recently to fix the HKS. And, I realized the cover doesn’t seem to serve any real design purpose that I could make sense of?
Yes it is for security internal part. There are missing 2 dedicated-screws-non-conductivity for hold m2 module. Purism used cover instead screws. So cover is mandatory.
The hot temp on librem5 will gone in Gnu Dawn version. Gnu Dawn will introduce twice cooler for system. no needed to remove cover to cool the device.
That makes sense. So, it sounds like you have been able to do testing with Dawn? Really nice. Thx!
I would suspect the cover is to help prevent damage and to help make the device look more tidy.
The back cover is very easy to take off, and can fall off if dropped—an additional cover helps protect the card from damage.
I think you are 100% correct.
@myrcy, yes, that does make sense.
Being interested in design, I’m more intrigued and critical of design aspects. I know getting software and drivers, etc to work is an enormous challenge unto itself, so there tends to not be enough time or money or resources left to focus on UX or other types of considerations.
For example, I love the librem key, use it on my L15. But, I’m intrigued if it was possible to design the key and the librem laptops in such a way so that the librem key doesn’t stick out (extend from the frame of the laptop? I am always so nervous about hitting the key when I move the laptop, and then breaking it 
So far my key is still working
Given the discussions around heat dissapation, was just intrigued by this cover, since it adds another part to the L5 parts inventory along with 3 screws. And, yes while it does help give a clean look and provide some protection, it seems like there could be other options.
C’est la vie Thanks for the feedback!