HatDrive! Top

M.2 M-Key PCIe x1 NVMe with support for 2230 and 2242 drives. Compatible with Raspberry Pi 5.

Purchase

Packaging contents

- HatDrive! Top board
- 25mm PCIe FPC cable with controlled impedance
- 40 pin GPIO header
- 4 standoffs
- M.2 drive standoff
- 9 M2.5 screws


Assembly instructions

  1. Begin with inserting the FPC ribbon cable into your board. Use the alignment triangle to determine the proper direction, check the picture above for reference.
  2. If you intend to stack the HatDrive! Top with another HAT+ board or use the GPIO insert the 40 pin GPIO header into your board.
  3. Insert the NVMe drive using the provided standoff.
  4. Attach 4 metal standoffs to the board using M2.5 screws.
  5. Insert the PCIe cable into your Pi 5.
  6. Install the board on top of your Pi 5.
  7. Power on the board, the PWR LED should be now on. If this is not the case please update the firmware on your Pi 5 or enable PCIe (check tutorials below).

Drivers

No drives are required for NVMe SSDs on the Raspberry Pi 5. We recommend regularly updating the firmware to benefit from constantly improving drive compatibility.

Important Notice: Please be aware that booting from NVMe storage through a PCIe switch is currently not supported. Users planning to utilize NVMe storage should consider this limitation when designing their projects.


Compatibility

HatDrive! Top is compatible with Raspberry Pi 5 and other Single Board Computers with the 16-pin PCIe connector (for instance the Radxa 5C/5C Lite).