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CalDigit TS2 Thunderbolt 2 Docking Station

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Original poster
Mar 15, 2013
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For those with the dock, how is your experience with it so far?

For a bit I've had a choice of this, Belkin, Elgato or Akitio TB dock, in the end decided to go with Caldigit because it just dropped to £132/£155 (without/with cable) on Amazon UK last night.

I probably won't make use the eSATA ports on it, but with it being £30+ cheaper than all other docks, couldn't pass up the chance.

Edit: looks like the price went back up.
 
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To be honest with you the dock is annoying me, it leaves all the USB ports fully powered when the computer is off or disconnected, causing all my USB HDD's to remain spinning and other devices fully powered. The odd thing is if I plug a iPhone into the rear ports it wont charge so I dont know what is going on there.

Apart from that no other issues really, but that one is a pretty big issue to me and it affects the original one I have and the replacement. Seriously considering returning it for a full refund as it defeats the point of the dock if I have to go around the back of my desk and unplug everything especially considering the original thunderbolt station was fine.
 
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Oh, that sounds annoying.

It just arrived today, so I'll play with it for bit, see how it is before deciding.
 
I think the always on power is intentional by CalDigit, because I remember people complained that when they turned their computer off their phones didn't charge anymore with the TB1 version.

The Caldiget tb1 version needed a driver to work with the superdrive and iPhone/iPad charging. They show drivers for the TB2 version, I don't know if that will fix the phone charging issue however.

http://www.caldigit.com/support.asp
 
It’s a cost/bandwidth issue. You’d need 3 controllers for a 6-port hub, but you’d be limiting the bandwidth from 60Gbps to 20Gbps into your Mac. Since Thunderbolt is touted as an interface for high performance uses, limiting the bandwidth available to the computer is a no-go. Also, docks like this mean you only have to use the FireWire adapter.
 
There are docks that sleep attached USB drives, StarTech for one. Some docks sleep USB drives but get the Mac confused when the Mac wakes... sigh. Many docks don't provide high current for USB charging, some provide charging power to one of the ports only.
 
Richdmoore said:
I think the always on power is intentional by CalDigit, because I remember people complained that when they turned their computer off their phones didn't charge anymore with the TB1 version.

The Caldiget tb1 version needed a driver to work with the superdrive and iPhone/iPad charging. They show drivers for the TB2 version, I don't know if that will fix the phone charging issue however.

http://www.caldigit.com/support.asp
Click to expand...

You would think this would be the reason, until you discover that it wont charge phones from the rear ports with the computer off, yet it will leave all the USB HDD's spinning :mad:

ColdCase said:
There are docks that sleep attached USB drives, StarTech for one. Some docks sleep USB drives but get the Mac confused when the Mac wakes... sigh. Many docks don't provide high current for USB charging, some provide charging power to one of the ports only.
Click to expand...

Drives sleep properly when the computer sleeps, but the second the machine is disconnected or shut down they all spin up and wont spin back down.

viorelgn said:
It’s a cost/bandwidth issue. You’d need 3 controllers for a 6-port hub, but you’d be limiting the bandwidth from 60Gbps to 20Gbps into your Mac. Since Thunderbolt is touted as an interface for high performance uses, limiting the bandwidth available to the computer is a no-go. Also, docks like this mean you only have to use the FireWire adapter.
Click to expand...

Sorry but what are you on about here?
 
So I bought one of these, the price drop was due to a valentines sale on the UK Caldigit Store. Paid £138 delivered without cable.

Smaller than I imagined and really nice build quality. Main reason for wanting one was to allow me to output to both an LG 34UM95 via Thunderbolt and a TV from the dock via HDMI all at the same time and only using one cable. Can't test this yet because the LG has gone for repairs (backlight bleed).

I also wanted to be able to boot windows 8.1 from a USB drive attached to the dock. This hasn't worked. The drive will boot fine if connected directly to the laptop. It will also show up as a boot drive when holding option on boot. It however returns a "no bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key" under the intel boot agent. The dock should be able to boot USB drives but Caldigit only say support for OS X.

One option I have is to try the esata port, thunderbolt is obviously another option but not worth the £££ for a single SSD as far as I can see. Its a shame USB hasn't worked because USB 3 plus an SSD in a decent enclosure is fast and decent value.

Has anyone successfully booted windows 8.1 from a connected esata drive attached to this dock?

Can anyone recommend a good estata enclosure with usb 3. esata 6gbs seems rare compared to 3gbs options. Has anyone managed to see if the ports do run at speeds that would make 6gbs enclosures worth paying extra for. I know they are listed as esata 6gbs but real world experience would be helpful.

Happy to answer any questions any one has about the dock.
 
Just checked and if I disconnect the thunderbolt cable or sleep the computer the drives connected to the back USB ports spin down and switch off gracefully. The light on the front goes out and it all comes back if I wake the macbook. I'm using a program called mountain to eject the drives.
 
I think its a flashy but poor review (unless one is a CalDigit fan). It only has 3 USB ports, which seems to be less functional than many of the others.

All docks are discounted well below list, all seem to be less than $250 (except for the Sonnet vaporware thing). And one may want to factor in the extra charge $40 TB cable some that seem to be a value. Well functioning TB1 docks are much less than $200.

The review also misses a couple other popular docks that perhaps are a better value, and includes one from Sonnet that has yet to be released (it has been on presale for two years). The review just seem to be cut and paste from manufactures literature and not nearly as complete as it should be.

Just saying the review is far from complete and not a nice one IMHO.... far from useful except as an add for CalDigit. Not complete perhaps for money under the table reasons? :)
 
Returned mine.

With or without it, there's no difference in how I use things.

Windows in VMware seems to have an issue* with USB 3 drives, if I attach USB drives or external drives to USB 3 port and use it in VM, Windows won't recognize it, it only works if I plug it in USB 2 ports (Dell monitor has them built in), so because of this the TB dock isn't as useful.

*The issue with USB 3 + Windows VM affects all USB 3 ports, including on the Mac itself, not just the dock.
 
Just in case anyone is interested I wasn't able to boot windows 8.1 via USB or esata using the dock. It does allow you to select the drive in the boot loader but comes back with a drive missing error once selected.

Might be something I'm doing wrong.
 
SnowLucas said:
Just in case anyone is interested I wasn't able to boot windows 8.1 via USB or esata using the dock. It does allow you to select the drive in the boot loader but comes back with a drive missing error once selected.

Might be something I'm doing wrong.
Click to expand...

Something to do with booting off Thunderbolt, I don't think it works unless you do a bit of tweaking.

One more thing I forgot to mention the last time I posted in this thread, HDMI doesn't work if you have a non-TB monitor connected to the TB port (mDP > whatever cable), the first version of this model had that limitation but I couldn't find a mention of this limitation anywhere for this model. It was unfortunate, it was the final straw that made me return it.
 
Have you seen any information that might help with booting windows via Thunderbolt?

I believe that is a limitation of thunderbolt; if you want two external displays from a single cable connected to your mac one has to be thunderbolt. I have read that two thunderbolt docking stations daisy chained will allow for two external displays and get around the thunderbolt requirement.

It is annoying because it makes the HDMI output less useful unless you have a thunderbolt display.
 
You can boot OSX via a thunderbolt connected drive, but not one that is connected to USB3 on a thunderbolt connected "dock". Caldigit explained it to me that USB3 connected in that way does not allow booting.

Not sure if all the same things apply to booting windows either way, but there is definitely a booting limitation to USB3 going through the thunderbolt bus.
 
Questions for owners

Wondered if this would suit my needs.

What I want to achieve is this, but from what I have read the thunderbolt port will only drive a thunderbolt monitor?

Thunderbolt rMBP to Caldigit

Caldigit
USB HDD
USB - iPad for duet/charging
USB - iPhone charging etc
audio out - sound system
audio in - microphone
Thunderbolt port via apple DVI cable to monitor (will this but work?)
Ethernet/esata to eventual HDD

Also if anyone can figure out how to get Windows off my internal SDD and onto an external HDD for booting etc, that would be great.
 
bcburrows said:
Wondered if this would suit my needs.

What I want to achieve is this, but from what I have read the thunderbolt port will only drive a thunderbolt monitor?

Thunderbolt rMBP to Caldigit

Caldigit
USB HDD
USB - iPad for duet/charging
USB - iPhone charging etc
audio out - sound system
audio in - microphone
Thunderbolt port via apple DVI cable to monitor (will this but work?)
Ethernet/esata to eventual HDD

Also if anyone can figure out how to get Windows off my internal SDD and onto an external HDD for booting etc, that would be great.
Click to expand...

Can't answer your real question for sure as I use a LG Thunderbolt display however some comments on the other bits...

The USB port on the front remains powered all the time so perfect for phone charging etc. The ports on the back do not provide power when there is no active Thunderbolt connection. This works well for Hard Drives but might not be what you want if you are wanting them for charging purposes.

The audio in and audio out are both on the front. I find this useful because I use the audio out for headphones and its easy to find on the front as I unplug them while not in use. This might be annoying if you leave something connected like a speaker system for example.
 
http://bleeptobleep.blogspot.ca/2013/02/mac-install-windows-7-or-8-on-external.html

Also following that post I made a bootable Win 8.1 USB 3.0 disk. Worked great when directly connected to my Macbook Pro USB but failed to boot if connected to this dock via USB 3.0 and esata.

I believe some people have had success with a Thunderbolt drive instead, not sure if this can be at the end of the chain as I can't justify the price at the moment.
 
SnowLucas said:
http://bleeptobleep.blogspot.ca/2013/02/mac-install-windows-7-or-8-on-external.html

Also following that post I made a bootable Win 8.1 USB 3.0 disk. Worked great when directly connected to my Macbook Pro USB but failed to boot if connected to this dock via USB 3.0 and esata.

I believe some people have had success with a Thunderbolt drive instead, not sure if this can be at the end of the chain as I can't justify the price at the moment.
Click to expand...

Forgive my ignorance, how did you make the bootable external win HDD? I tried in the past, but no joy. Ideally I would love windows off my SSD but would like to have it available as a go to if needed
 
Have you tried that blog?

I tried in the past and got nowhere but this one worked like a charm.

I have a late 2014 15" and I used an old 1tb Buffalo ministation USB 3.0

If I could get it to boot through the caldigit I would have bought a smaller SSD and USB enclosure and had windows available through that.
 
I was interested in this because it has 2 eSATA ports, but I don't think the audio out supports optical. If so, this is a no-go.

The Startech 2 has a toslink port, plus an additional USB charging port. It is a pity that it only has 1 eSATA port. I ordered one because of the charging port, as I only need 1 eSATA in this case, but I would prefer the Caldigit for home if it had optical out because I cannot do without an USB hub anyway.
 
I connected my new 4K TV to the Caldigit, and I got 4K from my 2011 MBP. Amazing!

But only at 30Hz. The HDMI port is already obsolete, 1.4 .

I guess I will have to get an eGPU in the end. But I don't want to buy a graphics card without VP9 decoding.
 
macmanHEG said:
To be honest with you the dock is annoying me, it leaves all the USB ports fully powered when the computer is off or disconnected, causing all my USB HDD's to remain spinning and other devices fully powered. The odd thing is if I plug a iPhone into the rear ports it wont charge so I dont know what is going on there.

Apart from that no other issues really, but that one is a pretty big issue to me and it affects the original one I have and the replacement. Seriously considering returning it for a full refund as it defeats the point of the dock if I have to go around the back of my desk and unplug everything especially considering the original thunderbolt station was fine.
Click to expand...

I think this might be on purpose because of power management issues with some USB enclosure chipsets that often result in a corrupted drive.
 
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