6. Argon One

M.2 Add-on

The Argon One M.2 add-on allows you to use an M.2 2280 SSD card to boot a pi supported OS from, or use as storage media.

NOTE 1: NVME Storage is not supported by the Argon One M.2 case or expansion unit. You must have a supported M.2 2280 Key B or Key B+M SSD card. This one is confirmed working:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B073SBX6TY

NOTE 2: You must have an image on an SD card to update the EEPROM on your Raspberry Pi 4 device. Use Raspberry Pi Imager to write the raspbian OS to an SD card or use another raspberry pi supported OS/image.

Part Links

Argon One M.2 Expansion Board Only:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MHYWJCP

Argon One M.2 Full Kit (Case and M.2 Expansion. No SSD Included)

https://smile.amazon.com/Argon-Raspberry-Support-B-Key-Compatible/dp/B08MJ3CSW7

Recommended Power Supply:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TW4Q693/

NOTE: The above power supply may or may not already be included with your Argon One kit. Check product details before making an additional purchase. Alternative Power supply:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07TYQRXTK/

USB Male to Male cable (used for connecting the Argon M.2 board to your PC):

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B088G16CL8

Update Bootloader/EEPROM to support USB Boot

These can be run from almost every other image/OS made for the Raspberry Pi, however It helps to have an SD card with Raspbian OS installed. This can be installed using Raspberry Pi Imager found in the Imaging section. You can use an SD card with a different image on it, however it has been found that this works best using a separate SD card with Raspbian OS and is the method used by the following instructions.

Reference:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/booteeprom.md

Using a separate SD card with Raspbian OS installed, boot the raspbian OS.

Connect to the internet via WiFi or Wired connection.

Access the terminal from the raspbian OS desktop or SSH into the Raspberry Pi

Run the following commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt full-upgrade

sudo reboot

Alternatively, you can run the following commands to just update the bootloader/eeprom

Check for Update:

sudo rpi-eeprom-update

If update is available, apply update:

sudo rpi-eeprom-update -a

sudo reboot

Set the Boot Order

UPDATED: You can flash the bootloader without having to follow manual steps of entering command line options and editing files.

To perform these steps, it requires Raspberry Pi Imager, You can find this in the Imaging section of the wiki.

After downloading and installing Raspberry Pi Imager, perform the following steps:

1. Insert an SD card. It's contents will be erased, so use one that you do not mind losing data on. However, it can be repurposed.

2. Open Raspberry Pi Imager

3. Select 'Choose OS'

4. Scroll down and select 'Misc utility images'

5. Select 'Bootloader'

6. Select 'USB Boot'

7. Select the Storage media you are writing to, Ensure you select the right one, and then select 'Write'

8. After the USB Boot image finishes writing and verifying, you can remove the SD card and insert it into your Pi.

9. Boot the Raspberry Pi with the new image and wait for at least 10 seconds.

10. The green activity LED will blink with a steady pattern and the HDMI display will be green on success.

11. Power off the Raspberry Pi and remove the SD card.

Source:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/booteeprom.md

Refer to this documentation on the boot order setting:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/bcm2711_bootloader_config.md

NOTE 1: When booting from the SSD after finishing the rest of the steps in this guide, if you have not booted from the SSD for the first time already to let it run through a bit of setup. If you have an SD card inserted with a different OS or image, you may need to remove the SD Card and allow the SSD image to get through it's first boot. You can then shutdown the image after it has fully booted. If you have a secondary image on an SD card you want to have available for use, add the SD card into your Pi. DO NOT use the SD card that was used to flash the USB Boot update. This is only if you have a second image of something like RaspbianOS that you want to be able to boot to when you remove the USB connector for the SSD.

NOTE 2: Once you have the image written to your SSD card, you will now be able to remove the USB connector for the SSD and boot from the SD card if you wish to boot from another image on the SD card instead.

Write desired image to the M.2 card

This can be accomplished using a variety of methods. Both in how to connect the device to the PC you will be writing the image from, and the software. Options known to work are detailed below.

NOTE: It is helpful to have an SD card with Raspbian OS installed on it in the event you need to boot your pi to troubleshoot or access any configurations.

How to connect the M.2 Drive to your PC

The method used for this was to connect the M.2 board of the Argon Expansion device to my PC using the USB slot on the expansion device and a USB Male to Male cable. The Argon One case does not need, and should not have, power connected to it or for the Pi to be on.

This can also be accomplished using an M.2 SSD Enclosure. Like the one linked below:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08JV3HZ9S

If you have neither of these options, you can check to see if the PC or laptop you are using has a spare M.2 2280 Key M or Key M+B slot and install it in your PC to access it for writing the image.

NOTE: When plugging in the SSD, if it is a new un-formated drive, it will not be recognized in windows explorer. This is fine and it will be recognized by the Raspberry Pi Imager.

Write Image to M.2 SSD

Software:

Raspberry Pi Imager (see section 1 Imaging for further information)

• When selecting a custom image, scroll down to the bottom and select "Use Custom".

• Then browse to the file you wish to write.

• Select the destination drive (In this test case, this was listed as "Argon Forty SCSI Disk Device")

• Select Write

Once the image has been written, connect the device to your Pie and boot.

Argon One case Utilities

If the Argon Utilities do not come pre-installed on an image you are using, you can install them by following the instructions in the manual provided with your Argon One case. These instructions and more information is included in the manual you should have received with your Argon case.

Make sure you have SSH access to your raspberry pi.

Steps to install utilities (at the time of this writting):

curl https://download.argon40.com/argon1.sh | bash

NOTE: Always make sure you are following the steps provided as the case vendor may have changed these steps or different steps may apply if you have a different model.

NOTE: This has to be installed on each image you wish to use the utilities on. For example, you cannot install this on an SD card with Raspbian OS and expect it to work on a separate image you install to another SD card or SSD. You will need to run the commands again on the new SD card or SSD to get the functionality.

For more information you can visit:

https://www.argon40.com/learn/

Wagner's Tech Talk provides a very good overview of the Argon One case and utilities for additional configuration including fan curves and over clocking.

http://wagnerstechtalk.com/argonone/