Hold on there now, Partner.
I just received my replacement RP4B yesterday and the single sided FPC cable doesn’t work at all. It looks as if the M.2 connector is double sided, but apparently not.
Just to recap, I fried my RP4B while connecting the new M.2 extender board. So, I never had a chance to actually see it working.
But, I still preferred having the M.2 extender board with the SSD facing away from the heatsink. So, I tried the single-sided FPC cable with the board upside down, so that the pinouts would be reversed. But, the SSD wasn’t recognized at all.
So, I was forced to try the new FPC cable with contacts on opposite sides (both ends facing the PCB) and voila. The SSD was recognized.
So, there’s no way around having the SSD facing the heatsink, if the M.2 board is mounted on it.
The good thing is that the new FPC cables are long enough to allow something to be placed in between to shield the SSD from the heat sink’s
radiation.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for me, because everything fits snuggly inside a case. But, I swapped some standoffs to maximize separation and the cooling fans appear to be doing their jobs. Need to do some temp tests to optimize airflow and minimize fan noise.
Hope this helps.