This is a first impression of installing the NVME board.
I read the first impressions thread, and was under the impression that there was some kind of tutorial elsewhere about installing the NVME board. The wiki has a paragraph or two, the forum has a thread about this with respect to modifying things for an interference with the trackpad. But, if there is a tutorial or set of instructions on the installation outside of those 2; I missed them.
The NVME kit comes with a board, a non-straight ribbon cable, 3 small black screws, 1 small silver screw and a brass/bronze spacer.
I haven't tried to open either of the connectors that are meant to hold the ribbon cable in place, but I assume you need something vaguely sharp to "lift" it open.
I had no problems removing 9 of the screws holding the bottom on. The 10th (for me, the middle on the left side) one was more stubborn. I had to grip it with pliers to remove it. The instructions on replacing the back, say that screws should only be finger tight, the middle screw on the right side had significantly more resistance to unscrew it than the others.
There is a yellow "engineering change" note which is attached to the underside of the board, which "intrudes" on the area the ribbon cable has to travel through. There is also a black and a red wire to some connector which isn't attached to anything, which is taped to the top of the connector for the ribbon cable on the CPU board. It needs to be moved for access.
The NVME board is attached via 3 mount points to the right of the trackpad, with 2 screw holes closer to the hinge and 1 further away. On my machine, there is some tape partially obscuring the right hole closest to the hinge.
There is tape holding down another twinned black/red power connector. that is between the two screw sockets closest to the hinge on the NVME board.
The ribbon cable connecting the trackpad is of a type I hadn't seen before, metallic sheath I guess. It had 1 crisp fold, and one soft kink in it. There are places where this ribbon cable has a tape attached to it, which looks like the ribbon cable (metallic).
The thread where they were modifying the trackpad mounting, shows that they are shifting the metallic ribbon cable towards the hinge, so that the NVME doesn't either go over top or underneath the NVME board.
A problem, not of Pine's making, is that I will 60 in 7 weeks and my eyesight isn't quite as good as it used to be. A pair of tweezers with a bit of a point, was sufficient to open the two ribbon cable clamping mechanisms.
Inserting the ribbon cable one finds that things don't seem to be aligned well, the ribbon cable has a bit of a twist to it. I tried to bend he trackpad ribbon cable to be out of the way of the NVME. Installing the screws in the back, starting with the 2 short ones at right and left, and then the back hinge, finally the rest went okay. I started each screw, by turning screw diver in reverse to reduce chance of cross threading, and then inserted part way (to catch). When others in that set also done, I came back to tighten further. When all screws were inserted, I check them all.
Flipping over the laptop, and trying to start it, it doesn't want to start. I am going to guess this is a problem with the ribbon cable and that twist. But, I have other appointments to deal with now. Maybe someone will have advice on the ribbon cable by the time I return. I hope nothing bad happened when I turned the unit on.
The NVME is formmated into multiple partitions (to be booted from microSD):
/ ext4
/tmp ext2
/usr ext4
/var ext4
/usr/local ext4
/var/log ext4
/home btrfs
I took the bottom off again, disconnected the ribbon cable on both ends, reconnected the end at the NVME first and then reconnected the end near the CPU. Put bottom back on. Attempting to boot (on battery) doesn't work. Plugging in the power supply, achieves the same result.
Disconnecting one end of the ribbon cable, the laptop boots again. I'll pull the NVME SSD out, and see if it still works in an external enclosure later.
This twist and shear that the ribbon cable seems to need, in order to be plugged into both ends seems a little high to me. But, I have never manufactured electronics. But, if one of the ribbon cable connectors was "flipped" and the cable changed to a L shape (instead of a "stylize" L shape that it has now), I think a person could plug in the end into the NVME board and have the "upright of the "L" extend a bit to the right of where the socket near the CPU is for the other end. Bend the ribbon cable over and then insert it (flipped) into the CPU end connector. Wouldn't that stand up to small movements better?
Still haven't tested if the SSD still works. Later today.
Okay, pulled the SSD out, and tried it in an external USB carrier. It works fine, no damage that is obvious.
Having the NVME SSD board mounted, does change the feel of the trackpad, especially the left button function.
The SSD in question is a HP EX920 1TB. According to a review of this series of SSD, the power draw at idle is 0.73W and for this particular size when active is 6.23W. I believe some people have working drives which are drawing more than 7W.
I read the first impressions thread, and was under the impression that there was some kind of tutorial elsewhere about installing the NVME board. The wiki has a paragraph or two, the forum has a thread about this with respect to modifying things for an interference with the trackpad. But, if there is a tutorial or set of instructions on the installation outside of those 2; I missed them.
The NVME kit comes with a board, a non-straight ribbon cable, 3 small black screws, 1 small silver screw and a brass/bronze spacer.
I haven't tried to open either of the connectors that are meant to hold the ribbon cable in place, but I assume you need something vaguely sharp to "lift" it open.
I had no problems removing 9 of the screws holding the bottom on. The 10th (for me, the middle on the left side) one was more stubborn. I had to grip it with pliers to remove it. The instructions on replacing the back, say that screws should only be finger tight, the middle screw on the right side had significantly more resistance to unscrew it than the others.
There is a yellow "engineering change" note which is attached to the underside of the board, which "intrudes" on the area the ribbon cable has to travel through. There is also a black and a red wire to some connector which isn't attached to anything, which is taped to the top of the connector for the ribbon cable on the CPU board. It needs to be moved for access.
The NVME board is attached via 3 mount points to the right of the trackpad, with 2 screw holes closer to the hinge and 1 further away. On my machine, there is some tape partially obscuring the right hole closest to the hinge.
There is tape holding down another twinned black/red power connector. that is between the two screw sockets closest to the hinge on the NVME board.
The ribbon cable connecting the trackpad is of a type I hadn't seen before, metallic sheath I guess. It had 1 crisp fold, and one soft kink in it. There are places where this ribbon cable has a tape attached to it, which looks like the ribbon cable (metallic).
The thread where they were modifying the trackpad mounting, shows that they are shifting the metallic ribbon cable towards the hinge, so that the NVME doesn't either go over top or underneath the NVME board.
A problem, not of Pine's making, is that I will 60 in 7 weeks and my eyesight isn't quite as good as it used to be. A pair of tweezers with a bit of a point, was sufficient to open the two ribbon cable clamping mechanisms.
Inserting the ribbon cable one finds that things don't seem to be aligned well, the ribbon cable has a bit of a twist to it. I tried to bend he trackpad ribbon cable to be out of the way of the NVME. Installing the screws in the back, starting with the 2 short ones at right and left, and then the back hinge, finally the rest went okay. I started each screw, by turning screw diver in reverse to reduce chance of cross threading, and then inserted part way (to catch). When others in that set also done, I came back to tighten further. When all screws were inserted, I check them all.
Flipping over the laptop, and trying to start it, it doesn't want to start. I am going to guess this is a problem with the ribbon cable and that twist. But, I have other appointments to deal with now. Maybe someone will have advice on the ribbon cable by the time I return. I hope nothing bad happened when I turned the unit on.
The NVME is formmated into multiple partitions (to be booted from microSD):
/ ext4
/tmp ext2
/usr ext4
/var ext4
/usr/local ext4
/var/log ext4
/home btrfs
I took the bottom off again, disconnected the ribbon cable on both ends, reconnected the end at the NVME first and then reconnected the end near the CPU. Put bottom back on. Attempting to boot (on battery) doesn't work. Plugging in the power supply, achieves the same result.
Disconnecting one end of the ribbon cable, the laptop boots again. I'll pull the NVME SSD out, and see if it still works in an external enclosure later.
This twist and shear that the ribbon cable seems to need, in order to be plugged into both ends seems a little high to me. But, I have never manufactured electronics. But, if one of the ribbon cable connectors was "flipped" and the cable changed to a L shape (instead of a "stylize" L shape that it has now), I think a person could plug in the end into the NVME board and have the "upright of the "L" extend a bit to the right of where the socket near the CPU is for the other end. Bend the ribbon cable over and then insert it (flipped) into the CPU end connector. Wouldn't that stand up to small movements better?
Still haven't tested if the SSD still works. Later today.
Okay, pulled the SSD out, and tried it in an external USB carrier. It works fine, no damage that is obvious.
Having the NVME SSD board mounted, does change the feel of the trackpad, especially the left button function.
The SSD in question is a HP EX920 1TB. According to a review of this series of SSD, the power draw at idle is 0.73W and for this particular size when active is 6.23W. I believe some people have working drives which are drawing more than 7W.