All Argon ONE Cases for the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B have formidable feature sets, with my personal favourite feature being a safe On and Off button. Once the Pi has been installed to the case you can obtain full On and Off functionality to the button by entering a single line into the Raspberry Pi terminal. Then after a reboot, the case will be fully set-up making it the most intuitive and fastest method to sort a safe shut down button for a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B.
This case also comes with a fan for cooling with the fan profile created through that same terminal command. It also brings all connectors to one side of the case, has excellent Wi-Fi signals thanks to the plastic base, brilliant passive cooling, and accessible GPIO with a colour-coded pinout! The Argon ONE Case offers huge functionality all wrapped up in an aluminum case. If you wanted to you can even upgrade the Argon ONE Case with a M.2 Expansion Board which will extend support for M.2 SATA SSDs so you can boot faster and have a larger storage capacity as compared to the traditional microSD card. The contents of this guide can be seen below.
- Installing an Argon ONE Case
- Set-Up Safe Turn On/Off Button
- Hidden Tricks of Safe Turn On/Off Button
- Adjust Fan Profile
- Differences Between Argon ONE Cases
Minimal clutter and quick to put together makes it no wonder that this is one of the best-selling Raspberry Pi cases. And if your an audiophile and feeling left out, fear not, the Argon Nanosound ONE Case has your back making the Raspberry Pi 4 a ready-to-play High-Resolution Network Music Player packing an onboard Hi-Fi DAC. As always if you've got any questions, queries, or things you'd like to see added please let us know your thoughts!
Installing an Argon ONE Case
Below is the best image you would ever need when installing a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B into an Argon ONE Case. The top left shows all the components that come in the box. Take care to connect the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B to the extension board by lining up the Micro-HDMI and Microphone plugs then pushing them together. Make sure before laying the Raspberry Pi 4 and extension board into the top half of the Argon ONE Case that the thermal pads are placed onto the case (and the plastic covering has been removed from both sides). When laying the Raspberry Pi onto the case make sure the GPIO pins have lined up correctly. Make sure to use the little screws for the marked locations to hold the board to the top of the case. Make sure to take out the Micro-SD card when mounting the plastic base, use the longer screws for the external holes. Add the four little plastic feet and with that your Argon ONE Case has a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B installed.
Set-Up Safe Turn On/Off Button
Flash the micro-SD with Raspberry Pi OS. Plug in all the necessary peripheries (monitor, keyboard, and mouse) and power up the system. A great beginner guide showing how to do this can be found here. Then you will be welcomed by the Raspberry Pi OS desktop. Then connect the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B to the internet.
Then open the Raspberry Pi terminal using the top left button. In the terminal type, the following line and then press enter.
curl https://download.argon40.com/argon1.sh | bash
Then once the install has occurred restart the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B. With that complete, you will have a fully functioning Safe On/Off Button for your Raspberry Pi. See below for an image of the installation occurring. If you are unable to access the Raspberry Pi terminal this way it is possible to access the terminal remotely using SSH (Secure Shell) and then entering that line remotely. To learn how to access your Raspberry Pi Terminal remotely check out this either guide when using a computer or this guide on how to do so using your Phone.
Hidden Tricks of Safe Turn On/Off Button
The Argon ONE Button does have some tricks up its sleeves in terms of extra functionality. Check the table below for everything the power button can do, depending on the state of the Raspberry Pi (whether it is turned on or not) with the default set-up.
Adjust Fan Profile
Argon ONE Cases will keep your Raspberry Pi cool and running perfectly under normal conditions. For the more advanced user if you want to seriously overclock your system or are running your Raspberry Pi in a hot environment changing the normal fan settings is a good idea. By default, the fan will run at 10% at 55°C, then 55% at 60°C, and 100% at 65°C. To customise this profile type the following and enter into the Raspberry Pi Terminal or click on the icon created by the installer on the Raspberry Pi OS desktop.
argonone-config
Typing this will allow you to access and alter the values inside the Argon ONE Fan Speed Configuration Tool, see image below. From here you can adjust to your heart's content and get every last drop of performance out of your Raspberry Pi.
Differences Between Argon ONE Cases
There are four main Argon ONE Cases that you can encounter in the wild. The Argon ONE V1 (which is easily identifiable by the Micro-HDMI Ports, now discontinued), Argon ONE V2, Argon ONE M.2 Case (easily identifiable by the taller height to make space for the M.2 SATA SSD Card), and the Argon Nanosound ONE Case (identifiable by the RCA Out Plugs). It is totally possible to add M.2 SATA compatibility to your Argon ONE Case as the Argon ONE M.2 Expansion Board is also a standalone product. See the image below for three of these cases.
