Hacking the Ill-Fitting NVMe Adapter
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]](https://fluora.net/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.
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.
