LattePanda Forum

Sharing few use cases (not just GPU/graphics card) Quad gigabit Ethernet card
Radeon R5 240 card

I now use 12V 3A (or 12V 5A if eGPU is used) to supply power to LP-Alpha as well as the 4-lane PCIe daughter card.

Few more (sorry, I lost the "RAID SATA card plugged-into LP-Alpha" picture, but you can imagine such use case...)
Dual Gig-E NIC

Single GigE

The adapter plugged into LP-Alpha's Key-M slot.
The model I use can handle all 4 PCIe lanes.

Add another card: a very classic one, USB 2.0 card (EHCI based)

Hi there !

Those exemple are great; specially for the graphic card.

That said, what if I want to use an M.2 SSD Hard Drive AND a graphic card for exemple ? I cannot find any adapter that is M.2 E (only M.2 M); any references ? What's is the normal use of a M.2 key E connector ?

I want to try to use a Blackmagic Mini Recorder such as this one https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/fr/pro ... s/W-DLK-06 or this one https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/fr/pro ... s/W-DLK-29 with the Lattepanda + a SSD.

How can I plug everything together ?

Thanks !

There is no easy way, the cheapest solution (on order, not yet arrived) is
1. this E-key to 1x PCIe adapter https://www.aliexpress.com/item/M-2-WiF ... 27516.html

2. PCIe SATA controller, and

3. SATA drive

There are other awkward arrangements, none looks nice (mSATA and other methods....)

Similar thread here
https://www.lattepanda.com/topic-f6t16881.html

Thanks for your answer,

This E-Key adapter seems to be really interesting. Please, let me know when you receive it and perform some test; a 1x PCIe should be enough to plug my Blackmagic on it, so I could use the M-Key for the SSD... !

Hey !

I catched this morning a small adapter Key-M to PCIe, just to try the Blackmagic Decklink Mini Recorder, and it's working really, really well. This setup is working fine on Win 10 and OSX.

Next step will be to try this setup with an Key-E to PCIe for the Blackmagic Decklink, so I can use a SSD drive on the Key-M connector (booting from a USB key is not the best).

I also need to find the good and compact power supply (the one I'm using right now is coming from an old computer). BTW, is there a way to use the onboard GPIO 12v to power the PCIe or not ?

re: good and compact power supply (the one I'm using right now is coming from an old computer). BTW, is there a way to use the onboard GPIO 12v to power the PCIe or not ?

1. A quality 12V power supply is recommended. Depend on the external PCIe card the required power rating will be quite different. A powerful GPU can run at 10A to 15A range (i.e., the graphics card may want a 180W all by itself.) On the other hand, a simple PCIe card (say, a simple SATA controller) can be 5W or less.
I'd suggest 12V 3A if no PCIe card is used at all and 12V 5A for a basic PCIe card. A powerful MPEG encoder running at high speed at highest quality may consume a lot. A powerful mining GPU will demand much, much more.

2. I do not like to use the LPA on board Molex connector w/ DuPont wires to supply power.
Get power feed on the power supply side.

3. Be careful if you use USB type-C PD. The PD 3.0 power adapter (including LP provided 45W version) very often will negotiate to 15V (I measure it as 15.3V) output. That voltage is too high for PCIe peripheral card.
That's why I recommend the professional 12V power supply (e.g., designed for a laptop) and use "DC in" jack to supply the power.

P.S. see my "DC power experiment" thread to know more

OK, great, thanks for your advice ! I'll take a look at your DC power experiment thread