Pi modder successfully adds M.2 slot to Pi 500

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2024-12-13 19:00:07

As I briefly mentioned yesterday, someone mentioned in this blog's comments a successful M.2 socket installation on the empty header on the Pi 500 (something I attempted, rather poorly!). With a few added components, and 3.3V supplied to a pad on the bottom via a bench power supply, the M.2 slot works just fine, allowing the use of NVMe SSDs or other PCIe devices.

First, solder on four minuscule capacitors (rating may be gleaned off the CM5 IO Board schematics, I think?) on the PCIe lines heading to the NVMe slot. These are incredibly small, so a good microscope and decent SMD soldering skills are pretty necessary.

The M.2 socket is comparatively easy—though that didn't stop me from making a mess of mine, which did not look nearly as nice as the one above!

Then, using a bench power supply, apply +3.3V to the indicated pad in red, and ground to the pad in blue, and boot up the Pi 500.