I just received my Pironman 5 Max, and I’m trying to run two nvme drives in it, but it just will not accept two of them at the same time.
I confirmed that the drives are supported (both are Kingston KC3000, 2TB).
My power source is the standard 27W from raspberry pi (5.1V @ 5A).
Right now I’m booting a standard installation of raspberry pi os (trixie) on an SD card.
I’ve tested both drives individually, and I can put either one of them in either one of the slots, and then it works fine. The green light is on at the pip board, and the orange light flashes a bit when booting. I can also see the drive when typing lspci and lsblk. So both drives seem fine individually, and both m.2 slots seem fine individually.
But when I put both drives in at the same time, the green light lights up (good), but the orange lights are blinking very VERY fast and are not even lighting up properly. Both drives then also become VERY hot (like ouch) in a way that they don’t when just one of them is in. The drives sometimes show up in lspci, but it is very random between reboots, and they never show up in lsblk.
I don’t really know if I’ve missed some jumper or setting while assembling, but I can’t find anything that would be related.
he issue is likely caused by insufficient current supplied to the NVMe PIP module. When using high-capacity SSDs that require more power, the module may not be able to meet the demand, resulting in the drives not being recognized.
We are actively seeking a better solution and planning an updated version of the NVMe PIP module to address this. However, a fix will not be available in the short term, and we kindly ask for your patience.
For now, please follow these recommendations for stable operation:
If using two SSDs, we suggest using models with 1TB or less capacity each.
If using an SSD larger than 1TB, we recommend installing only one such drive.
Please also note that it is normal for SSDs to generate heat during operation. You can purchase heatsinks for your SSDs to help transfer the heat away from the drive. The active cooling from our RGB fans will then help exhaust this heat from the case.
Thanks, I had overlooked this, and will do some more experimenting.
I bought another 45W power supply from Raspberry Pi and have tried to power just the pip board with it at the J3 connector, and the rest of the computer with the other 27W adapter.
I’ve tested, but no luck. Only difference is that one of the drives actually works now with both of the drives mounted. To me that confirms that power is indeed the issue.
So if anyone else has this issue and sees this thread, a 45W adapter is not the solution, not even a dedicated one for the pip board.
Alright. Thank you for the reply. I’ll keep a look out for a hardware update to add support for this configuration.
In the meantime, I looked around, but could not find any mention of this in the documentation, so maybe a small note of this should be added, in case someone else wants to maximize their storage.
And yes, I’m fully aware that nvme drives generate heat. My comment was to highlight the discrepancy between a normally working drive - which generates SOME heat - and the drives plugged in in this setup, which will burn your fingers.
Even now with my experimenting, when both drives are plugged in and one of them works as intended and the other one not, the one that works is WARM and the non functioning one is HOT.
Some users have switched to this PD Power supply and confirmed it can reliably maintain normal power operation. You might consider trying it if needed.
“Right now I’m booting a standard installation of raspberry pi os (trixie) on an SD card.”
I could never get openmediavault to run on that OS, I believe there is even a note at the beginning of the software install: “Note
If you want to use the OpenMediaVault OS, please install the Raspberry Pi OS Lite”.
There is another note some where to use: Install the Raspberry Pi OS Lite “Bookworm”.
That OS is what I have installed and have running on my 3 Pironman 5 Max.
#1 has Openmediavault with two Samsung 990EVOPlus 4 TB drives in Raid 1, it runs great. It is used for a file server back up location for anything I do not want to lose.
#2 has Openmediavault with two Samsung 990EVOPlus 4 TB drives in Raid 0, it is also running great. I have transferred 3 Plus TB in the last few days to that box with no over heating at all. It is hosting my PLEX server.
#3 I have installed Raspberry Pi OS “Bookworm” Full (desktop install) its about 3.1 gig install with two one TB drives. I use this box to log into #2 box to play my movies on a PLEX server.
Also I have pironman5 Module running on all three boxes.
I hope this helps, I do not see a way to attach pictures on here sorry. This is my first time on this forum.
Yes, if you plan to install and use OMV and Plex services, we recommend using the Raspberry Pi OS Lite (Bookworm).
Are you currently experiencing any specific issues? From your description, it seems no particular problem was mentioned.
Could you please send a short video or some pictures of the issue so we can know it better.
If the video memory is large, please upload the recorded video to onedrive, share the video link with us, and give us access permissions.
I just told him what I did to get both SSD’s to show up and not run hot. My set up is running great. I liked them so much I got 3 online now. Under your product page is my review:
FWIIW: I am running OpenMediaVault on Bookworm lite. In the Pironman, I have 2 512GB nvme drives in a RAID mirror and boot the OS from an nvme drive on USB 3. One of the RAID drives is 2230, they use less power (but may be harder to keep cool). I am using it as a NAS and backup stuff using rsync. Performance will not win any prizes but it does what I want. The OS drive is in an aluminum housing and sits on top of the Pironman Max to help cooling it. It is just warm to the touch. I set my cpu fan via dtparam. CPU stays below 40C. I wish Sunfounder would get the dual nvme board, for the original Pironman, back in stock.
My comment was to highlight the discrepancy between a normally working drive - which generates SOME heat - and the drives plugged in in this setup, which will burn your fingers.