Adapt a HP DL380 Gen10 NVME backplane to a standard ATX power supply?
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I got one of these in hand today. I was able to confirm it doesn't appear to have any re-drivers or any PCI stuff. The only uC's on the board are some PIC's and various other things (opamps, etc). There is and eeprom, but this is all twiddled over over the SPI bus. I pinned out the PCI from each NVME u.2 connector to the SFF-8654s on the rear, and they appear to check out.
I'm 99% certian that +12v is the only voltage needed.
I have some pics and a partial chip listing here: HPE G10/G11 DL380 NVME Cage 826689-B21 - W9CR
When you used this, how did you have it hooked up the the host? Were you using a re-driver or a short cable?
I'm 99% certian that +12v is the only voltage needed.
I have some pics and a partial chip listing here: HPE G10/G11 DL380 NVME Cage 826689-B21 - W9CR
When you used this, how did you have it hooked up the the host? Were you using a re-driver or a short cable?
What pin on the LM368 (assume that's what you mean, there's 4) did you trace 4 to? I can trace 1,6 (+12v) and 2,3 (ground) to these chips, vcc on pin 8 and ground on 4. I suspect this is a sense amp that detects activity and lights the light on the caddy.
I've been unable to find power pin 3 or 4 connected to anything.
I used both a c-Payne adapter and the Broadcom P411W-32P. The cPayne is a redriver and the Broadcom one is a nvme switch
Absolutely. The cards are working fine. The cPayne adapter is currently running some drives from a MB699VP-B enclosure.
Did you manage to get anywhere with your cage?
Oh cool, who makes that cage? I've not seen anything else out on the market that support NVME other than just using a U.2 adapter cables. Plenty of LFF stuff, but again nothing on the u.2 interface side, it's all craptastic consumer SATA/SAS stuff at best.
Not yet, I'm waiting on parts to show up, but I should have them in a few days. My intent is to hook this to a TB4/USB4 adapter and then hook that to NVME. All the products on the market do that, but don't have a switch, they just spin off 1x pcie lanes to the NVME. Also nothing support u.2, only m.2, but not the 110mm long ones. The used u.2 market is cheaper and better than anything from the consumer side in u.2.
IcyDock - MB699VP-B V3_4 Bay 2.5" U.2/U.3 NVMe SSD PCIe 4.0 Mobile Rack Enclosure for External 5.25" Drive Bay (4 x OCuLink SFF-8612 4i). Some of the IcyDock products do support Tri-mode adapters however those cause the drives to appear as SCSI drives and NOT as NVMe drives.
The other option is to use SuperMicro chassis and their backplanes - which can do hybrid NVMe and SAS/SATA. But SM chassis are usually very expensive after market
I have that MB699VP-B V3 and I hope that I can connect it directly without tri-mode adapter? I'd like to use something like this:
Can someone please recommend quality cables to connect them? I read somewhere here that without controller length and signal could be problem.
Can someone please recommend quality cables to connect them? I read somewhere here that without controller length and signal could be problem.
Well as an update, I'm still waiting on my NVME disks, but I was able to hook the thunderbolt to PCIe 3.0 4x to the PCI switch, and confirm the mac sees 8 new PCI bridges now.
At a minimum I expect the NVME should connect and work, even if the backplane doesn't.
At a minimum I expect the NVME should connect and work, even if the backplane doesn't.
Mind sharing the current components you're using for TB4 -> PCIe Switch -> 826691-B21 ? How are you powering the cage?
Yes, I have a ADT-Link TG3 TB4 to PCI 3.0 4x, then a CEACENT CNS44PE16 PCIE switch.
I was able to confirm the two test Micron NVME U.2 disks work today on my mac directly connected to the u.2 interface from the bridge. I tried the backplane and it didn't work.
I powered the backplane up on the 12v supply with 1,6 and 2,5 as ground, and the PSU went into current limiting until I upped it to 500mA. It then drew about 400 mA with out a disk installed. I installed a disk and got some flashing lights, but nothing on the PCI port. The current draw peaked at 950 mA, and settled to about 880 mA.
I confirmed 5v and 3.3v from on the on board regulators.
The pin 3 on the PSU connector (the only other wire present in the included backplane to 5 pin HP server power cable) has 5.1v on it and it could send no more than 5 mA of current, so it's likely some kinda sense cable.
What i did notice here was significant heat from the board on the lower back side behind where port 7 NVME is. It appears that some part there (a cap perhaps?) is drawing several watts of current from one of the rails.
Are you able to confirm what the backplane draws without anything other than 12 hooked to it?
I'm thinking I may have a defective backplane.
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