Argon ONE v3 NVMe PCIe Expansion Board for Raspberry Pi 5 (CE09857)

Support Product Questions
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This is a placeholder topic for “Argon ONE v3 NVMe PCIe Expansion Board for Raspberry Pi 5” comments.

An add-on that replaces the stock standard base that comes with the Argon ONE V3. Allows you to upgrade your Pi with an M.2 NVMe SSD.

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Does this come with the PCIE Flex Cable required to connect it to the Pi?

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Hi @Andrew88226, Welcome to the Forums!!!

Yes, the expansion NVMe board comes with an included FPC impedance controlled cable.

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Mine came with two flex cables, in different colours, but I don’t know why. The first one worked perfectly and so I haven’t tried the second. The unit is amazingly compact and very high build quality.

One note, I want to add Home Assistant and started with HAOS, but it doesn’t have the ability to update the EEPROM to recognise the SDD, so I had to revert to the Raspberry Pi OS. I now have that OS booting and running from the SDD, but will reconfigure with HAOS soon.

Each time you want to update the micro SD you have to disassemble the case as the flex cable goes over the micro SD slot. So it may pay to minimise the number of times you need to update the card.

Overall, I’m quite impressed!

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Hi @David173576,

Argon had changed the flex cable that comes with the expansion board from a standard FPC to an impedance-matched one.

Performance should be similar between them but the Impedance match one is recommended and should be more stable.

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Hi Aaron,

I’ve finally got around to installing the Argon ONE with the PCIe expansion board, but I can’t seem to get the OS to recognise the Western Digital Green M.2 SATA SSD 240GB that I ordered with it.

Do you have any hints? I’ve followed everything in the installation guide but to no avail.

Thanks in advance,

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Hi @Greg235951

Welcome to the forum!

The Argon ONE v3 NVMe PCIe Expansion Board requires an NVMe drive, the SATA you have is an older type of drive and is not compatible with this base.

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Ah OK. It was suggested as an option to go with the expansion board so I selected it. Can you tell me one that will work so I don’t make the same mistake again?

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@Dan Will this one work? Crucial P3 500GB Gen4 NVMe SSD | Buy in Australia | CE09887 | Core Electronics

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Hi @GregJones60

If you were suggested the WD Green drive from our website, you may have purchased the older Argon ONE M.2 Expansion Board for the Pi4, for this you would need one of the below.

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Hi @Dan I purchased a M.2 expansion board for another Pi I bought last year. I have recently purchased the Argon One V3 case for a Pi 5 I’m setting up for someone so will need the matching PCIe SSD for the newer expansion board. I assume the Crucial P3 500GB is suitable?

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Hi @GregJones60

So long as the drive is NVMe it will work with this case, so the Crucial P3 500GB Gen4 NVMe SSD | Buy in Australia | CE09887 | Core Electronics will work fine.

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No matter which cable, this does not work as advertised. The Crucial P3 500GB Gen4 NVMe that I purchased at the same time to utilise this component is meant to be compatible. Either the Board is rubbish or the NVMe is incompatible. Followed all the instructions, updated everything, installed all that was required. The SSD is never recognised. Waste of money!

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Hi @Roland178291

Welcome to the forum!

Sorry to hear that you’re having issues with that NVMe drive, if it was purchased from us shoot over an email to support@coreelectronics.com.au with your order number and we can have a look into what’s going on with it.

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Hi Roland

Sorry to hear that it is not working for you. I got a Argon NEO 5 M.2 NVMe for my Pi 5 and the set up was a bit more involved than first expected. I don’t know if you’re seeing some of the same challenges.
Other than physical assembly, after getting the Pi running on a microSD, there was a procedure on almost the last page of the booklet, to re-flash an eeprom using the CLI / terminal (more details on the Argon website). Then reboot.
Back in the CLI, you can list the blocks (lsblk) and see if the SDD is visible - adds confidence that the cable was connected correctly.
I then had to download G-Parted to the Pi 5 toformat and partition the SDD, so it could be recognised by the file system. … and rebooted, again.
Of course, to boot off the SDD, I needed to change the boot order in the Pi’s configuration.

Having said all that. I earlier had a Argon One 40 with the SATA interface, and after many hours / days of stuffing around, getting the drive tested, etc, I got in contact with Argon, and followed more of their instructions. After a month or so, I got a new interface board from them and it was all working in an hour. So I can feel your frustration!

Good luck. Cheers, Dave