Raspberry Pi enthusiasts interested in setting up Raspberry Pi 4 PCIe support may be interested to know that research and technology consultant Tomasz Mloduchowski has discovered a way to implement support for external PCIe devices on the latest mini PC from the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
The Raspberry Pi 4 relies on PCIe for its USB chips but as standard doesn’t offer a way for users to connect external devices to the standard. Check out the video below to learn more about the modification which is a little messy and requires you removing chips from the board but is definitely doable if you have the inclination.
“The desoldering is pretty simple – except that the chip has a massive ground pad, which is connected straight to the ground plane of the Raspberry Pi – it required some work with the hot air gun to get it off the board, and I managed to ruin some of the surrounding components. The crocked oscillator above the VL805 serves as the clock for VL805 only – I did end up removing it entirely, but it’s not strictly necessary.”
For more details on implementing Raspberry Pi 4 PCIe support jump over to the official Tomasz Mloduchowski website by following the link below.
Source: TM : Toms Hardware