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Hacking the Ill-Fitting NVMe Adapter - Printable Version

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Hacking the Ill-Fitting NVMe Adapter - diodelass - 06-03-2020

This is a bit silly, but I figured I'd post the results anyway. If you, like me, ended up with an M.2 NVMe adapter with a ribbon cable that doesn't fit, you may or may not want to follow in my footsteps and get it to work anyway.

[Image: m2_hack.jpg]

Since the M.2 adapter card is mostly empty of tracks save for the connectors at the end, you can (I think...) safely drill into part of it in such a way as to allow mounting the card in a position that lets the ribbon cable work. You only get one screw, unfortunately - the other two end up out from under the board - but between that, the ribbon itself, and perhaps some tape or poster putty, it's a fair sight better than letting it hang loose.

I don't know if all the mis-fitted cables are the same, but in my situation, drilling a hole of about 2mm diameter at a point 26mm from the bottom edge and 46mm from the connector-bearing edge (bottom and right edges in the photo attached) turned out to be the ticket. Go slow; if you try to drill through too fast, you'll buckle the copper surface layer outwards on the backside.

I can't test it myself right now - I don't have an M.2 NVMe module of my own, and was mainly just trying to get this thing installed so I could stop worrying about losing it - but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.

EDIT: ok, apparently attachments are not a real thing after all. Here's a self-host instead.