The M.2 slot is usually used for solid-state storage devices. However, [bitluni] had another fun idea for how to use the interface. He built an M.2 compatible LED matrix that adds a little light to your motherboard.
He then hooked up the serial interface to a CH32V208 microcontroller, which was tasked with driving a 12×20 monochrome LED matrix. Even better, he was even able to set the microcontroller up to make it programmable upon first plugging it into a machine, thanks to its bootloader supporting serial programming out of the box. Some teething issues required rework and modification, but soon enough, [bitluni] had the LEDs blinking with the best of them. He then built a web-based drawing tool that could send artwork over serial direct to the matrix.
While most of us are using our M.2 slots for more traditional devices, it’s neat to see this build leverage them for another use. We could imagine displays like this becoming a neat little add-on to a blingy computer build for those with a slot or two to spare. Meanwhile, if you want to learn more about M.2, we’ve dived into the topic before.
Nice! I love both LED lights thingies, AND unusual re-purposes (see my TechnicsPC and AIWAndroid :) ). Great work on this!
Honestly surprised there aren’t more projects like this.
M.2 has so many possible interfaces, yet most of the time we are just using it for Storage and the occassional Wireless module. Why aren’t we doing things like Led Matrices such as this? Or miniature OLED screens we can hack ourselves instead of paying way too much for an embedded screen that is dependant on stupidly buggy proprietary software?
I applaud this project for embodying the spirit of hacking.
i love cruising aliexpress for m.2 adapters. there’s some -wild- stuff out there. wanna hook u.2 up to a laptop?
please tell me it can play Bad Apple…
It can but we´ve all had enough of it.
I could see this using a USB interface and the board header connected by wire, leveraging am RP2040 or similar.
Very interesting using a Serial (and Parallel port) to PCIe bridge chip.
I think there is enough bandwidth in the M.2 interface that you could probably play a low-resolution version of Doom on that display.
He is using a pcie to UART bridge though, so only 8mbps is available.
That glorious (Chinese, not the overpriced crap from FTDI) WCH chip can not only PCIe 2xUART but also LPT bridge, aka a perfectly valid printer port that might be super useful to support older software.