Turning the wifi slot into a SIM card slot for cellular internet connection is the #1 most amazing modification that no one feels like they should talk about. This is a high end feature only some business class laptops receive.

the five stages of computer shenanigans - what happens if.. - wait what - no way this works- - oh.. s#!t... - OH F&€K

Oh hey. I made that wikipedia E key edit. It used to be that it was written in a way that could make people think m.2 E could be 2x PCIe x1 but that was not the case. It is a mix of 2 of the following list.

I've used this slot for an additional ethernet port on a hp prodesk mini. I've genuinely considered making a small pcb to split the different functions for different uses.

If you're going to use a PC PSU as external power supply again in the future, try to make a USB Optocoupler to trigger the green wire so you don't need to jumper the psu with paperclip and don't need to remove it because as soon as the board powered on/off, the optocoupler will also get powered on/off, and also it will trigger the PSU on or off. Try a cheap PC817 with some resistor

As a $1 member it's worth it easily. It's my kind of tinker heavy computer content.

You need a common ground thats why it worked when you shorted the both grounds. Anytime to use two different power supplies you'll need to do this. It's not going to hurt anything just make it work!

When you run two PSUs, it's best practice to bond the case ground to case ground (assuming both of them have metal cases) ...AS WELL AS... the zero volt rails to each other. Keep these seperate - for example, bond the cases with one heavy ground wire. Seperately, bond both 0V rails (black wires, usually) together. In your situation here, I assume you#re using a 19V plastic brick PSU and the second PSU is the $5 metal case ATX PSU, so, being unable to bond the PSUs cases because one is plastic, you simply make sure the black wire of the second PSU is very firmly connected to the chassis 0V of the mini PC, usually the metal case is directly connected to the 0V line. I've guessing that there was a potential differance ("a voltage" to most people) between the 0V rail on one PSU and the 0V rail on the other PSU. The only thing linking the two 0V rails together was the screening earth braid on the SATA cables, so current was flowing on the SATA screen. This sort of thing can cause all sorts of wierdness. It's not so much about mains safety grouding (to anyone in the US), or "earthing" (in the traditional British English sense - electrical engineers really call that equipotential bonding of exposed metalwork. Nope, it's actually more about making sure that leakage currents or noise voltages don't affect both the devices you are powering AND the PSU regulators themselves. In simple terms: "it's f-ing complicated" :) The potential difference can easily occur do to RFI Y-capacitors on the mains input of one or both PSUs, as the caps are never perfectly equal value and also have a inherent leakage current. This is why you get a "tickle" from the DC power lead on some laptop PSUs. For years I've wondered how gamers could get away with running 2 PSUs in the same case to power a huge GPU, in reality, without bonding the 0V rails there coiuld be all sorts of unusual currents flowing across their GPU and through the PCIe (or PCI/AGP/IDE) socket in a similar way to the way your SATA lead was trying to equalize the two independetly floating 0V rails. For anyone running NAS systems with lots of disks and 2 or more PSUs, it was less of a problem back in the day because each spinning HDD had a nice fat metal case and was screwed directly to the mounting rails in a metal chassis. The HDD 0V rail was internally connected at or near the power connecter on the disk to the metal disk case via the PCB mounting screw pads. But recently, as people do this with SSD and their plastic cases, the problem is occuring on 2-PSU DIY NAS boxes too.

As others have commented here, I would be extremely cautious using multiple power supplies in a situation like this. I've even had issues using external hard drives on test benches if things aren't properly grounded.

One crazy venezuelan here converted it to and adapter to connect a graphics card in a atom laptop. Awesome video.

I was recently working on an HP SFF pc that only had 2 sata ports, one was in use for the DVD drive and one for the internal hard drive. We added a 2.5" SSD to it but there was no extra sata port. I found on Amazon you can get a little adapter that is the same size as a wifi card that has 2x SATA ports on it so I put that in there and connected the DVD drive to the expansion board and put the SSD into the motherboard. Works awesome. The PC is used on Ethernet so didn't need wifi (and the slot actually came empty on this model of SFF PC!)

You can also buy a PCI X4 adapter for the wifi port, that allow to install whatever card you want. In my case (M710q) i use it to connect a sata card with x6 sata ports i found a really cool way to actually power drives directly from the M710q motherboard, so i have x6 3.5 HDD drives connected

Thanks for showing. I ordered the coral pci a+e key version and after a long battle with my os it's now working like a charm!

I'm using one of these Coral edge TPUs with Zoneminder on an Intel Nuc, have been for maybe 3 years, and it's brilliant.

Great video. Its common to see people never finding true potential of their computers. There are still people who never tried ssd in their computers.

I used this slot for a four port SATA card. A little slow, but not terrible. It's used for the four hard drives that make up the backup in my 40 tb NAS.

Mini PC + Coral TPU + Debian + Homeassistant + Frigate NVR. And cameras. AI security camera video analysis for the win.

I used my wifi slot to go the cheap eGPU route for my laptop. I even made a video about it! It's pretty old now but gives a good look how I did it.

You’re so chill. I enjoy your content man. 🍻

Nice video, actually the first one which talks about that not all are equal since manufacturers are building them differently. Good job! 😊 Btw the Coral TPU driver is also all available for Unraid and the setup process is much easier.

POV my 2009 Lenovo thinkcentre m58 without that slot: I have to use a usb wi-fi adapter but at least I have like 10 usb ports

Whoop whoop. New video in the house!

Literally had my laptop and my NUC opened up earlier today and was wondering about this stuff when I saw the M.2 Wi-Fi Card 😁 KZfaq stalked my brain lol

I had a random 32GB SSD sitting around doing nothing and an unpopulated slot meant for a 4G card. The extra 32GB drive in my laptop is nice to have considering I only have a 250GB NVMe.

Regarding the Sata card, maybe its hitting the power limit since HWInfo shows only 10 watts max on it, or just a weird compatibility issue, not totally sure myself but I've seen other comments try to suggest some tips. Really awesome to see people trying this stuff because I was really curious on how it would work. Great video as always, and keep doing what you do! I aspire to be like you and try stuff to see if it works.

Love those septres. I run the S8s and love them. The imaging is insane. Great vid BTW

I've never heard "SATA" pronounced that way, but I like it.

My HP laptop 14s has a white list, so only special HP wifi cards work in the slot, and whats crazy is that instead of telling me that the card isnt supportet, it just gives me a "defective cooling fan" error and dosent boot until the "unsupportet" wifi card is removed.

Great video on the m2.E key slot. It would be a great follow up for a Frigate / Coral TPU follow up and how its worked out.

Damn, that Wikipedia page about CNVio is better than the Intel page describing it 😂 I had a hell of a time trying to figure out why my PC wouldn't even power on when I tried to switch from a 9560 to an AX201

My laptop Prometheus has 4 of these slots. Two half height, two full height. I have installed in them a combo Wifi AC/bluetooth card, a Google Coral, A Sierra Wireless MC7700 4g LTE modem, and some no name 240gb SSD for my OS boot drive. It's an older core perhaps, but it checks out.

Just a tip: Limine boot loader can help to tie together two completely different operating systems together that want to be the only OS on your system, like Windows and Linux (or FreeBSD). Not super plug and play, as there's no default config file and documentation is fairly thin, but it's super doable to glue virtually anything together with Limine (within reason) and have it stick. I've been dual booting with it between different machines and OS for about a year now, and it's been rock solid.

I used a 2x sata adapter on a jonsbo n2 which as far as I can tell is the only way to get the maximum 5 drives from a modern consumer itx MOBO. Works pretty well!

I shared this with someone else smart enough to appreciate your possible 'ground' issue between the cases of the PSU and computer. Thank you...🇺🇸 👍☕

3:18 you had us in the first half, not gonna lie...

Old Apple hardware could utilize a Broadcom h.264 accelerator called crystal hd which used mini PCIe. These expansion slots are really useful even though very few people realize.

I actually just bought a mini pc the other day, was able to find a cheap e key to m key adaptor and it worked with an m.2 nvme ssd. I installed linux mint and was able to boot off the m.2, no issues so far.

I think that it is meant that the network plug from the ethernet adapter must be mounted against the back plate from the inside and not through the back plate from the outside as you have tried.

0:17 HH has breached containment

You shuld do a dedicated video about the Coral edge TPU and Frigate.

It's a NGFF connector pinned for M.2 E-key, and they're usually only 1XPCI-E lane at the bus. Good enough for a STA SSD or WI-Fi +/- BT.

Note to self: If using more than one power source, you may need to add a ground strap between them so they are at the same DC ground reference.

It helps that Intel's standard non CNVI cards use PCI-E for Wi-Fi and USB for Bluetooth. And they're sooooo cheap it's only worth undercutting them to save PCI-e ports on a low-power system.

Got a HP 800 G4 mini, a newer model that the one showed in the video. Did and experiment with one of those E-key 2.5 gigabit ethernet cards, great fun. Managed to snag an actual Intel-based card (i225) for pretty cheap and mounted it in the G4. Was a tight fit for the E-key card, then the actual Ethernet port (the dangly end like shown in the video) had to be fastened somehow. I managed to get it securely mounted INSIDE the G4 by first of all insulating the metal on it with electrical tape (important), then I used those plastic-coated metal wires you get from packages (I always save those, good to have) and tied the Ethernet port down. There are multiple holes on the back of the PC where you could fasten such wires. The card works great and the port sits flush with the back of the PC.

If you have questions about what each slot is for, the best place to look is your motherboard's manual

The Frankenstein computer with two ssd drives made me think of the iconic phrase "It's Alive!!"

Always ground the devices directly! You never know. I personally think it's good practice. Interesting video tho!

you can get an e-key to M and B keyed adaptor for the slot as well, but I went the same route you did 2 SATA ports since the mobo I bought can't use it as a boot drive and I can't use WIFI with treuNAS. can we get a full video on how to set up home security? with a system like this? I plan to do something like this but I refuse to buy cameras that connect over WIFI and report to a could server.

I bet the e-key sata adapter was shorting to the motherboard. I'd stick some Kapton tape on the bottom of it before you try that again.

That face when everything blacked out was priceless 😂

you can use a USB to sata power cable to over come the grounding issues.

For anyone who tries this under linux, note that 'lspci -vv' command should be executed under root. Otherwhise you will not get all the info you need, and most of it will be hidden in '' brackets.

Peter's video was really cool to come across! I appeciate the run though of all these devices, thanks.

Another great one that is much older is from the original Mario. The devs found a spot that you could get infinite lives with a turtle shell, but left it in the release because they thought it was too hard to do. They were wrong.

thank you to do this demo with these cards! I was searching information about it, specific with the 2.5g because in a future I want to do a homelab with mini/micro pcs, but i was'nt sure if was compatible, but with this video I'm more confident to proceed with my project :D

When I had a dual-core, I always thought of using the M.2 port, To embark on various solutions, Put gps, bluetooth, wi-fi, npu/vpu, Everything on a small plate to make my computer more usable, Too bad it wasn't I have had and I don't even have to do it, but I leave the idea to brilliant minds to do something like this, and postpone the planned obsolescence a lot.

This is way better than Linus Tech Tips. This guy has a great attitude and is informative, humble and legit, compared to the obviously toxic psycho-ex vibes of LTT. I've subscribed today.

I have this HP Elitedesk Mini PC. And this content right now is what im looking for. I want to use the m.2 e into some storage adapter, to make "wannabe" NAS..

i collected a few wifis from laptops that do the same m2 slots

A few months ago, I bought several B, M, A, E , B+M and A+E and maybe B+E key adaptors (they are packed away) for testing on a latte panda delta 3 and one other MB that I just can't recall at the moment. This was a bit of a flashback to some of the headaches I had while attempting this. I'm reasonably certain that many of my problems were related to the BIOS. Not sure if the devices were whitelisted/blocked in the BIOS or how/why an engineer would even go through the trouble to block and/or enable only certain things, but I do recall having issues getting them to work properly. Adding to the frustration was the fact that BIOS (for the most part) is still secret sauce stuff and I just don't know how they limit and/or allow just certain PCIe devices (or any other device). I can only say that I eventually gave up. I really wish I could have found a completely open BIOS that I could have flashed that would just simply treat any PCIe device as something communicating on the PCIe bus - but that doesn't seem to be the case. Before I ever do this again, I want to find a completely open BIOS that I can configure and flash at will. It really shouldn't be that difficult.

I recently installed the coral dual TPU in my wifi slot, however, it did not work at all. The bios picked it up as a GND device, but it does not show up under the PCIe devices on Linux. I have an "asrock z690m-itx/ax" motherboard, which according to the specifications supports: "type 2230 WiFi/BT PCIe WiFi module and Intel® CNVi (Integrated WiFi/BT)". So if you see this, be aware!

Holy vocal fry Batman

Lol, that shot of a mPCIe wifi keeps coming back 🤣

I know Peter, he knows his stuff. I am getting a couple usb corals in a week or 2.cant wait

I think this video is meant for me. I have a 2012-ish Acer 5750G which has a slot which I can not decipher, may be an E or A type M.2 slot, or a mSATA one. Can't wait.

Perfect opportunity for you to add a Oculink Adapter for the new GPD G1 External eGPU.

Watching the video and it's clear you've never experienced the thrill of running 2 PCUs together! 😂😂 Reminds me of the good ol' days when I first started mining; we had to make sure they were properly earthed together. Ah, the memories! ⚡

Great idea. Just tried and now have an extra 2.5G Lan on my mini PC running proxmox.

Happy that the Thinkpad X1 keeps the sim card slot accessible outside and sd card as well

bros music is to good

2:09 love the steady hands 🤣

I hear on the ones with a "whitelist" the computer will just show an error message and not boot. I also heard that they have been stopping that. It is no guarantee that you don't have a whitelist restricted computer. I think the main reason they did do it at all was to keep someone from using WiFi cards intended for other countries that don't meet or follow all of the FCC regulations. When it comes to these things it is amazing all of the things the manufacturers must do to avoid upsetting the FCC (or similar organization where you might live).

He didn't mention that Coral TPU's are way backordered. Keep that in mind if you're going to go ahead with one! Additionally, consider the dual TPU model since that is typically more available.

4:05 What a beautiful switch!

Step 1 of joining different electronic parts: always make sure the grounds of both are properly linked 😅

4:24 I'm using a WD SN740 nvme drive in the wifi card slot as a boot drive for my home NAS (with the J4005DC motherboard), I just had to buy the "M.2 A/E Key Slot To M.2 M"

I've used the EXP GDC Beast Video Card Dock on my HP Thin Client t630 to use an external graphics card using the Mini-PCie/NVMe slot. While it's VERY limited, it's 100x better than the onboard graphics. It's interesting to see a low-power 4 core APU boosted by an RTX 3050. XD

I actually have an m.2 e key nvme drive in my parts bin somewhere. I bought a late 2012 Mac mini a few years back and swapped out the stock nvme drive for a Samsung something or other, and had to get an adapter to do it. The drive I pulled outta the mini was an e key drive. I tried to sell it on eBay but no one wanted it lol

how did you know that I was googling this last week, great video as always!

I have been using E-key M.2 PCIe for a while now. Mostly converting ebay special board-only Gen 4 or 5 Intel NUCs to turn them into gateway routers for family members and friends. Better solutions than consumer routers off the shelf and much more manageable. Low power, low noise, reliable performance... Yea... People should explore the world of PCIe m.2 E-Key and sometimes you can find some weird B/M key adapters as well. I've even seen 10Gbps adapters, but you'll want to be careful with those, they get hotter than a m.2 NVMe drive. I have used a E-Key cellular card for a family member that had a house in a rural beach area, worked great to make a WAP/Router to monitor a security camera, some sensors and provide internet access when people are using the property.

The TPU was probably the one I'm most interested insince Frigate kind of requires having a TPU installed to work. Part of a much larger project for me and not sure when I'll get started on it.

13:45 the hdd only got recognized because there is a common ground between the power supply in the HP pc and the external power supply, the only path to join these two grounds together are the sata cables to the hdd, so yeah, you might run into some issues if you don't have a proper grounding between the power supply's

Awesome video! Was trying to figure out what to use that slot for on my own HP Elitedesk mini. I think a 2.5gbs network card would be perfect. Thanks!

I’m fairly certain that the mini PCIe slot can be used to add GPUs to mini machines that have no other PCI slots

I transformed mini pcie slot into M2 with adapter, then put some random Samsung nvme - it didn't detect it bcs it had bios from like 2015, I had to mod bios with nvme driver and now I can boot from it!

I got one of those super jank M.2 to PCIe 16x adapters and put a video card in it and used it for my TV for a while.

I was recently looking for something to use the Wi-Fi socket on a Fujitsu FUTRO-S920 and found a M.2 NGFF to PCI-E Adapter Card to accept an NVMe, which is a nice boost to the mSATA that it came with.

very useful thank you 👍👍

If you decide you want to do the 2.5gbe in one of those hp mini's let me know Ill print and send you a couple adapters so the port isnt just hanging out the back.

I've found the slot useful for non wifi, much like you. With the Dell MFF PC's they have Realtek NIC's onboard. Which suck as vmware ESX 7 or later doesn't support them. Rather than have USB adatpers hanging out, put in an Intel 210 gigabit NIC in to slot. The older dell MFF PC's have a VGA hole, which nicely takes the RJ45 connector. It looks almost factory fit. Vmware 7 or 8 will then install. Once vmware is running, you can pass the onboard Realtek NIC through to an OS to use natively if you want. Is how I did my openense firewall - use the Realtek NIC as the external interface, and use the Intel as the internal bridge, alongside other VMs. I don't have an overly quick internet connection, so not an issue for me with regards to the internal NIC contention

laughed out loud, hope it all survived,

Thanks. Working on a 9th gen, ATX with this slot.

omg i had this exact idea when i was refurbishing a laptop for a customer yesterday. Thanks this came in a pinch lmao this is great

for me the coolest thing i found was esim or lte or whatever adapter

Great inspiration...liked the 2.5G NIC atapter idea. SATA drives not realy practical because those SFF boxes dont offer enough power to run HDs anyway....But still thanks for another great video. For 2.5G is a 2.5G switch sufficient or don't you also need to add a special 2.5G router?

I work in the tech industry, it was brought to my attention several months ago that tech industry started moving away from whitelist/blacklist terminology in 2020 to allowlist/blocklist as its replacement. Searching through my corporate repositories I then found that all our documentation and KBs had been updated accordingly. To prevent unwanted negativity online, and keep people's focus on your content, you may want to follow this trend. Here is a UK government hosted blog article from their National Cyber Security Centre: www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/terminology-its-not-black-and-white Glad to see more content on the m.2 E slot showing up!

I heard that they used to whitelist like that but don't really any more. I heard HP was one of them that used to do it. I had a more modern HP laptop from the last couple years and upgraded its WiFi myself. I used an AX200NGW and that is even though it wasn't listed as one of the cards that the laptop could have came with if it was a model based off the same motherboard. I just had to get another antenna for it. It only had the cable for one antenna. I just stuck it down somewhere inside the case, it seems asenine to make us mess with the display bezels and do all of that work to get to it. I just made sure to put it where it will not short something. I also taped down the small bit of excess cable but never sharply bent it anywhere. I just needed it to stay in place so it won't move and get pinched when I close it again. I have a new roll of 3M electrical tape for that. The new card worked, none of the computer refusing to boot with it or any of that

Those Coral modules are UNOBTAINIUM at any reasonable price or without exorbitant shipping fees!

For AI in an M.2 A+E-key 2230 slot, look at the Hailo-8. No affiliation, I just like it better than Coral.

My old Lenovo laptop whitelisted only 2 wifi modules. My new laptop doesn't have those issues, luckily.