CalDigit's $199 Thunderbolt Station Shipping November 4

[miamiFLMac]

According to their website, no ethernet driver is needed for Mavericks, only for Mountain Lion.

Thanks for the information. I never found anything provided with the device which stated that nor did I actually see that statement on their site.

At the very least if that driver is targeted to a specific OSX version, don't you think their installer is smart enough to disallow its installation on versions that its not suppose to be installed in? Again, I don't understand they had all this extra time and could not ensure the proper installation at customer sites?

 

[WSFrazier]

@sportsnapper

What happens when you remove the Lacie drive from the chain?

Just connect on monitor to the HDMI port on the station (HDMI <-> DVI) and the other monitor to the Thunderbolt/Display port on the station (TB/mDP <-> DVI)?

 

[sportsnapper]

Bit of an update, from my two display system...

The hdmi connected display seems a little flaky - which is perhaps what we've been lead to believe. It seemed fine, but I went and profiled all three of the displays using a Spyder4. As the last display finished profiling, it then hung the system, and I've been trying to get it back to a stable state since. I certainly can't reboot with the HDMI display connected, yet.

@WSFrazier don't do gaming - sorry, but I was running indesign and lightroom quite happily.

And disconnecting the Lacie it works fine TB->Dvi. Haven't tried reconnecting the HDMI->Dvi screen yet until I've finished this post.

Probably going to do a clean shutdown, then start everything up again before trying to add all three screens.

 

[MacModMachine]

Bit of an update, from my two display system...

The hdmi connected display seems a little flaky - which is perhaps what we've been lead to believe. It seemed fine, but I went and profiled all three of the displays using a Spyder4. As the last display finished profiling, it then hung the system, and I've been trying to get it back to a stable state since. I certainly can't reboot with the HDMI display connected, yet.

@WSFrazier don't do gaming - sorry, but I was running indesign and lightroom quite happily.

And disconnecting the Lacie it works fine TB->Dvi. Haven't tried reconnecting the HDMI->Dvi screen yet until I've finished this post.

Probably going to do a clean shutdown, then start everything up again before trying to add all three screens.

im very interested to see how it holds up with normal usage ,

i have the exact same setup you have except retina macbook pro , i have dual dell lcd's with dvi.

i notice cal digit mentions when using HDMI on dock HDMI on retina will not work (maybe because mbp can only support 3 total displays ?)

interested to see more testing.

 

[WSFrazier]

So just to clarify, you can connect both monitors independently into the CalDigit station without using the LaCie drive as a daisy chain?

This completely contradicts what they claim :/ But good to hear.

Hopefully you get the flaky-ness fixed, very curious to hear how this works for you. I really want something I can plug everything into at once and work like normal.

 

[MacModMachine]

So just to clarify, you can connect both monitors independently into the CalDigit station without using the LaCie drive as a daisy chain?

This completely contradicts what they claim :/ But good to hear.

Hopefully you get the flaky-ness fixed, very curious to hear how this works for you. I really want something I can plug everything into at once and work like normal.

exactly...me too

like a dock , makes life a lot easier and easier on the macs ports.

 

[citi]

Thunderbolt and Lightning have really taken the market by storm, bringing all sorts of advantages over other ports. Well done, Apple.

Are you living in a world different from mine? Where I live, thunderbolt is just another port that most people will never use and if they do, there will be an adapter connected to it to add back all the ports apple took away.

 

[jdechko]

Mystery solved. Presumably the MiniDP-to-DVI connector is daisy-chained from the Lacie?

As discussed above - to connect two displays you need to connect the second display via another thunderbolt peripheral.

Exactly right. Sportsnapper's original post was a little bit misleading, not that I think he intentionally meant to deceive. I just would have expected his setup to work the way he configured it.

And disconnecting the Lacie it works fine TB->Dvi. Haven't tried reconnecting the HDMI->Dvi screen yet until I've finished this post.

Please let us know what happens with the TB-DVI and the HDMI-DVI both plugged in.

This completely contradicts what they claim.

Let's wait to see what he finds out. However, I'm still pretty confident that this is the best TB dock so far, with respect to price and features. And it looks a lot smaller than the Belkin dock too.

 

[paulrbeers]

Hmmmm.... This makes me want to reconsider my Thunderbolt "Docking Station".... I really need a couple of port multiplier aware eSATA ports that the Sonnettech one has, but being able to use two non-thunderbolt display monitors with my Macbook Air would be amazing!

 

[HenryAZ]

Thanks for the information. I never found anything provided with the device which stated that nor did I actually see that statement on their site.

At the very least if that driver is targeted to a specific OSX version, don't you think their installer is smart enough to disallow its installation on versions that its not suppose to be installed in?

Absolutely, the driver should refuse to install on Mavericks. That would be the safest way.

The info is in the FAQ for the Thunderbolt station, and the driver supplied for download in their Support area, says "10.8 Driver".

 

[miamiFLMac]

Absolutely, the driver should refuse to install on Mavericks. That would be the safest way.

The info is in the FAQ for the Thunderbolt station, and the driver supplied for download in their Support area, says "10.8 Driver".

Thanks, yes the OSX version is listed there and I should have known better. I have 4 OSX installations at home and when I see the version number, knowing I use both 10.8.x and 10.9.x it did not dawn on me in my late night quest to install this that I was actually installing it on my 10.9.x system. My mistake completely.

I still feel that installer program could have been more restrictive. After all, aren't those installer programs pre-packaged items which would easily provide the creator with the ability to have a check in place for OS version?

 

[cuestakid]

Well, it's arrived, it's plugged in and WOW. Lots of people said I couldn't do this with the Thunderbolt station. Three screens - Laptop, one TB->Dvi, one HDMI->Dvi. So happy.

I've also got a Seagate 3Tb USB device attached, and a Lacie 2 Tb Little Disk on the thunderbolt chain.

I almost didn't order this as people said it wouldn't work. I almost didn't try it, but it was worth 15 mins of my time to try it out.....

I also didn't install any drivers. All I did was re-configure my audio out, and create a new location to use hard wired Ethernet rather than use wireless.

BTW, Macbook Pro early 2011 running Mavericks. Might even fire up Parallels now and see what happens with that!

what speeds are you getting on your USB3 devices. I tried my WD passport and got speeds like the ones on the attached image. My best guess is that the device is just a bit slower on USB3. I will have to test my other drives when I get back in town on Sunday.

 

[sportsnapper]

Well,

What I concluded was that the colour profile I created for the HDMI->Dvi screen was faulty. In trying to delete t using System Preferences, I ended up setting that profile as the Macbook screen profile, and I was completely messed up (being polite there).

I managed to get logged in eventually - and deleted the profile in terminal.

Below is irrelevant, but left in in case anyone else ever has this sort of problem...

I've now restarted the system, but I still can't get the third (HDMI->Dvi) screen to come on reliably. When I first connected it, to a running system, the screen stayed on and there was no instability. Now having created a bad profile for it, it comes on, then blanks out again. I can get the screen to come on again by powering off and on again - but after 10-15 secs it turns off. The system sees it though - you can see all three screens in system profiler, and also in System Preferences.

Any ideas at this point would be welcome.....I'm going to try factory reset on the screen. This appears to work now....!!! No idea why creating a bad colour profile makes the screen timeout!!

And....I've tried connecting the TB->Dvi screen directly to the ThunderboltStation again without the Lacie in the chain, and it just disappears. This is with the HDMI->Dvi connected as well - so I think the advice from CalDigit was correct, and thus expected. Sorry if this has caused confusion earlier. My reading of all this advice was that you could only have two screens, however you connected them. I didn't think putting the LaCie in the chain would make a difference.

So to summarise....
1. Macbook pro screen
Tb->Lacie->Dvi
Hdmi->Dvi
This works - 3 screens

2. Macbook Pro
Tb->Dvi
This works - 2 screens

3. Macbook Pro
HDMI->Dvi
This works - 2 screens

4. Macbook Pro
Tb->Dvi
HDMI->Dvi
Doesn't work -only 2 screens - Macbook and HDMI

Right, I need to do some work now, but happy to answer any other queries if I can.

 

[theluggage]

Any ideas at this point would be welcome.....I'm going to try factory reset on the screen. This appears to work now....!!! No idea why creating a bad colour profile makes the screen timeout!!

Did this flakiness happen with or without the other screen connected, either directly or through the Lacie?

 

[sportsnapper]

@cuestakid
see attached - seems faster than yours. Never do speed tests, but as I didn't have USB3 before the Thunderbolt station it's faster then before ;-)

@theluggage since I did the factory reset on the sscreen it's been very stable - no blackouts, no problems. Just got to be brave now and re-profile all the screens...

 

[sportsnapper]

Attachment

 

[MacModMachine]

Well,

What I concluded was that the colour profile I created for the HDMI->Dvi screen was faulty. In trying to delete t using System Preferences, I ended up setting that profile as the Macbook screen profile, and I was completely messed up (being polite there).

I managed to get logged in eventually - and deleted the profile in terminal.

Below is irrelevant, but left in in case anyone else ever has this sort of problem...

I've now restarted the system, but I still can't get the third (HDMI->Dvi) screen to come on reliably. When I first connected it, to a running system, the screen stayed on and there was no instability. Now having created a bad profile for it, it comes on, then blanks out again. I can get the screen to come on again by powering off and on again - but after 10-15 secs it turns off. The system sees it though - you can see all three screens in system profiler, and also in System Preferences.

Any ideas at this point would be welcome.....I'm going to try factory reset on the screen. This appears to work now....!!! No idea why creating a bad colour profile makes the screen timeout!!

And....I've tried connecting the TB->Dvi screen directly to the ThunderboltStation again without the Lacie in the chain, and it just disappears. This is with the HDMI->Dvi connected as well - so I think the advice from CalDigit was correct, and thus expected. Sorry if this has caused confusion earlier. My reading of all this advice was that you could only have two screens, however you connected them. I didn't think putting the LaCie in the chain would make a difference.

So to summarise....
1. Macbook pro screen
Tb->Lacie->Dvi
Hdmi->Dvi
This works - 3 screens

2. Macbook Pro
Tb->Dvi
This works - 2 screens

3. Macbook Pro
HDMI->Dvi
This works - 2 screens

4. Macbook Pro
Tb->Dvi
HDMI->Dvi
Doesn't work -only 2 screens - Macbook and HDMI

Right, I need to do some work now, but happy to answer any other queries if I can.

sorry , i read through this a few times.

can i attatch 2 displays with the dock and close my laptop to have both work ?

 

[WSFrazier]

sorry , i read through this a few times.

can i attatch 2 displays with the dock and close my laptop to have both work ?

This...

Sorry to keep bugging you to test somethings, but does closing the MBP screen make a difference in trying to get both external monitors to work, without needing the LaCie daisy chain?

The answer is probably no, but good to know atleast a TB device makes it work.

 

[jdechko]

4. Macbook Pro
Tb->Dvi
HDMI->Dvi
Doesn't work -only 2 screens - Macbook and HDMI

This is the expected behavior. The thunderbolt stream only has 1 DisplayPort Signal, and it's being passed through to the HDMI port. (Though I thought it should have been the other way around, but anyway...)

sorry , i read through this a few times.

can i attatch 2 displays with the dock and close my laptop to have both work ?

Likely not, unless you have another thunderbolt device (like the Lacie eSATA thunderbolt hub). It's not that the GPU can't handle it, it's that there is only 1 DisplayPort signal. (See my previous post showing how the TB signal is created).

This...

Sorry to keep bugging you to test somethings, but does closing the MBP screen make a difference in trying to get both external monitors to work, without needing the LaCie daisy chain?

The answer is probably no, but good to know at least a TB device makes it work.

Almost certainly not, as it's not how TB works. However, as you surmise, a TB peripheral between the dock and the display should work.

 

[WSFrazier]

Well it looks I am in the market for a TB device, I guess I can replace my USB external hdd with a LaCie thunderbolt drive.

Keep us updated on any other stability issues you encounter, I know the Belkin dock got a lot of bad reviews, caused kernel panics and such.

 

[cuestakid]

Attachment

is your drive an SSD or spinning?

 

[MacModMachine]

This is the expected behavior. The thunderbolt stream only has 1 DisplayPort Signal, and it's being passed through to the HDMI port. (Though I thought it should have been the other way around, but anyway...)



Likely not, unless you have another thunderbolt device (like the Lacie eSATA thunderbolt hub). It's not that the GPU can't handle it, it's that there is only 1 DisplayPort signal. (See my previous post showing how the TB signal is created).



Almost certainly not, as it's not how TB works. However, as you surmise, a TB peripheral between the dock and the display should work.

i know but the hdmi is not a display port signal right ?

isnt that why it disables my hdmi if i use it on my retina?

this is pretty confusing.

 

[nateo200]

Well it looks I am in the market for a TB device, I guess I can replace my USB external hdd with a LaCie thunderbolt drive.

Keep us updated on any other stability issues you encounter, I know the Belkin dock got a lot of bad reviews, caused kernel panics and such.

Make sure you get one that supports daisy chaining! My Rugged mini is GREAT but it only has one TB port.

 

[toke lahti]

So with that being said, what is the cheapest thunderbolt daisy chain device I could get to make this work?

Sadly this caldigit box is pretty much the cheapest option.
Other options with same price are Seagate's sata-dock (only one hdd/ssd at time) or LaCie's esata-hub (AFAIK no port multiplier capability).

 

[TheMatador]

Absolutely. From everything I know about Thunderbolt (which is limited), Each Thunderbolt device in a chain can extract 1 video signal, whether it's a monitor or not. This is why you can hook up 2 TB monitors, but not a TB monitor and a DP-DVI monitor (ie: only one signal gets extracted).

By adding a second TB device to the chain, the second TB device can extract a video signal and pass it along via DP->DVI.

This dock is only a single TB device which means it has a single video signal in it. If you use a DP-DVI adapter, that takes up the video signal, as it has priority over the HDMI port. However, if you hook up a TB display, it adds a second video signal to drive the display and the CalDigit TB signal can be passed to the HDMI.

It might sound a little confusing, but there really are technical limitations to why it works the way it does.

For the mathematically minded, the TB signal looks somewhat like this:

TB = TB + DisplayPort

therefore:

TB = (TB + DisplayPort) + DisplayPort

and so on...

This is how you can daisy chain multiple displays and/or multiple devices.

So does that mean that you can connect multiple Thunderbolt Stations and get a display single of at least one per device?

rMBP -> TS -> HDMI -> Dvi
v
TS - HDMI->Dvi
v
TS - HDMI -> Dvi
v
TS - HDMI -> Dvi

and so forth?


I doubt this is the case.