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Can you connect an ACD 30" to a Mac Studio?

MattA said:
Care to share how this was done?
Click to expand...
I did nothing extra. The 30" ACD is just plugged into my 2014 Intel Mac mini running Monterey, with the Apple OEM mini-DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapter.

MB571.jpeg


My 2014 Mac mini has a Thunderbolt 2 port so it's a direct plug-in for mini-DisplayPort. The USB also has to be connected though to get keyboard brightness control.

However, it also worked fine with my 2017 iMac, also running Monterey. To plug it in, I used a $10 eBay no-name USB-C to mini-DisplayPort adapter, in conjunction with the Apple OEM mini-DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapter. However, again, the USB also has to be connected to get keyboard brightness control.

51Ik33knEVL._AC_SL1500_.jpg


For my 2017 12" MacBook which is also running Monterey, I also had full keyboard brightness control, but since the 12" MacBook only has 1 USB-C port, I had to use a different solution to get the USB connected too. The solution I used was a CableMatters USB-C hub that supports external power, USB-A, and DisplayPort, to which I attached a DisplayPort to mini-DisplayPort adapter. That was in turn attached to the Apple OEM mini-DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapter.

61-GBi9xx9L._AC_SL1500_.jpeg


6162Ih5B4GL._AC_SL1500_.jpeg


The setup for the 12" MacBook was way too many dongles, but nonetheless it worked. After my Mac Pro flaked out in 2021, I used this setup for many weeks until the 2014 Mac mini arrived. This was mostly in Big Sur, but as mentioned it worked in Monterey as well.

But remember, although all these are running Monterey, all of these are all Intel setups. I have not done this on Apple Silicon.
 
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Brightness control for Apple 30" Cinema Display is normally done using USB. The display needs to appear as a device in the USB tab of System Information.app.

Maybe Apple didn't compile the USB driver for Apple Silicon? I haven't checked.

The alternative is to do brightness control using DDC/CI over the DVI connection. That's what third party apps like Monitor Control do.
 
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joevt said:
Brightness control for Apple 30" Cinema Display is normally done using USB. The display needs to appear as a device in the USB tab of System Information.app.

Maybe Apple didn't compile the USB driver for Apple Silicon? I haven't checked.

The alternative is to do brightness control using DDC/CI over the DVI connection. That's what third party apps like Monitor Control do.
Click to expand...

USB tab of System Information.app. ?

Do you mean under:  > About this Mac > Displays ?

or

 > System Preferences > Displays

Can't see a "USB" tab
 
joevt said:
Brightness control for Apple 30" Cinema Display is normally done using USB. The display needs to appear as a device in the USB tab of System Information.app.

Maybe Apple didn't compile the USB driver for Apple Silicon? I haven't checked.

The alternative is to do brightness control using DDC/CI over the DVI connection. That's what third party apps like Monitor Control do.
Click to expand...
For those of you using the 30” ACD on your Apple Silicon Macs, do any of you get brightness control natively? Or are you all running the monitorcontrol.app to get keyboard brightness control? Looking back thru the various threads, it seems most of the posts confirming success with Apple Silicon Macs don’t specifically comment on 🔅 brightness 🔆 control.

Anyone tried Ventura?
 
EugW said:
For those of you using the 30” ACD on your Apple Silicon Macs, do any of you get brightness control natively? Or are you all running the monitorcontrol.app to get keyboard brightness control? Looking back thru the various threads, it seems most of the posts confirming success with Apple Silicon Macs don’t specifically comment on 🔅 brightness 🔆 control.

Anyone tried Ventura?
Click to expand...

No control. I'm using the MonitorControl application to get around this. I'm sure there are other display brightness control applications as well.

Not tried Ventura. Is it out yet?

When I go to Software Update, still says : Your Mac is up to date – macOS Monterey 12.6 (21G115)

No mention of Ventura
 
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sparkie7 said:
No control. I'm using the MonitorControl application to get around this. I'm sure there are other display brightness control applications as well.
Click to expand...
Hmmm... Maybe it is a driver issue specifically for Apple Silicon. That's too bad, especially since I plan on getting an Apple Silicon Mac mini this year. However, if monitorcontrol.app works well in Ventura, then no worries.

P.S. I wonder if monitorcontrol.app works with my old 2010 27" iMac in Target Display Mode. Probably not, but I never tried it. I would always just keep an extra keyboard attached for brightness control on that. BTW, despite Apple's claims, this works as a monitor with any computer, including a Mac running Monterey, and even a Windows PC.

Mind you these days, after I installed an SSD in the 2010 iMac, I've gone back to running it as a standalone Mac with High Sierra for the kids. Performance is very decent. The main problem is Safari is too old, so we stick with Chrome.

Not tried Ventura. Is it out yet?

When I go to Software Update, still says : Your Mac is up to date – macOS Monterey 12.6 (21G115)

No mention of Ventura
Click to expand...
Ventura doesn't come out until later this month. However, they are in late beta (both developer and public). In the past I sometimes used to run late betas on my laptop just for fun since it was a secondary machine, but these days I don't bother anymore.
 
joevt said:
About this Mac > System Report > USB
Click to expand...

Both 30" ACD's are showing up:

Apple Cinema HD Display:

Product ID: 0x9221
Vendor ID: 0x05ac (Apple Inc.)
Version: 1.15
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/s
Manufacturer: Apple Computer, Inc.
Location ID: 0x05141200 / 8
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 2
Extra Operating Current (mA): 0

Apple Cinema HD Display:

Product ID: 0x9221
Vendor ID: 0x05ac (Apple Inc.)
Version: 1.15
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/s
Manufacturer: Apple Computer, Inc.
Location ID: 0x05111200 / 9
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 2
Extra Operating Current (mA): 0



But interestingly we have to use third party applications like MonitorControl to control brightness.. 🤔
 
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joevt said:
The alternative is to do brightness control using DDC/CI over the DVI connection. That's what third party apps like Monitor Control do.
Click to expand...
Does this mean you can save a USB port on the Mac (or hub) by plugging in the Apple mini-DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapter into an external USB power adapter?

I know the Apple mini-DP -> DL-DVI adapter needs power, but it doesn't actually need to be plugged into the Mac to work. If you plug it into an iPhone charger, it works fine, but without keyboard 🔅 brightness 🔆 control.
 
EugW said:
Hmmm... Maybe it is a driver issue specifically for Apple Silicon. That's too bad, especially since I plan on getting an Apple Silicon Mac mini this year. However, if monitorcontrol.app works well in Ventura, then no worries.
Click to expand...

Probably, Monterey has a ton of bugs and seems rushed. Hopefully Ventura addresses these.

It should work on an Apple Silicon Mac mini. The only issue is the wake from sleep issue. But sorta found a way around it via Energy Saver settings

EugW said:
P.S. I wonder if monitorcontrol.app works with my old 2010 27" iMac in Target Display Mode.
Click to expand...

Try it, it's free

EugW said:
Mind you these days, after I installed an SSD in the 2010 iMac, I've gone back to running it as a standalone Mac with High Sierra for the kids. Performance is very decent. The main problem is Safari is too old, so we stick with Chrome.
Click to expand...

Chrome is out of date on some websites now too
 
EugW said:
You can run the latest Chrome on High Sierra. Same with Firefox and even Edge.

The kids run Chrome instead of Safari anyway even on Monterey Macs, since that's what their schools support.
Click to expand...

Yeah, not on my Mac Pro 2008, running OS X El Capitan
 
sparkie7 said:
Yeah, not on my Mac Pro 2008, running OS X El Capitan
Click to expand...
Yup. I was running a patched OS X on my MacPro2,1 to get it up to El Capitan (since the MacPro2,1 officially only supports up to Lion), but Chrome became an issue, and it started having other problems, so I bought the 2014 Mac mini last year to hold me over until the M2 / M2 Pro Mac minis come out.

Anyhow, now I have a MacPro1,1 (traded for a 6-pack of beer :)) flashed to 2,1 and running non-OEM lower power Xeon 8-core chips I got uber cheap on eBay, and a native Xeon 3.0 8-core MacPro2,1 (purchased for US$75) here... just sitting unused. One is on display on a shelf just because I like the look of the case.

I wonder how much longer my 2010 27" High Sierra iMac will continue be supported by the latest Chrome. Hopefully at least a couple more years.
 
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EugW said:
Does this mean you can save a USB port on the Mac (or hub) by plugging in the Apple mini-DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapter into an external USB power adapter?

I know the Apple mini-DP -> DL-DVI adapter needs power, but it doesn't actually need to be plugged into the Mac to work. If you plug it into an iPhone charger, it works fine, but without keyboard 🔅 brightness 🔆 control.
Click to expand...
Yes, you can use an external USB power adapter for the DVI adapter.
I think Apple's adapter is the only DisplayPort to DVI adapter that has a USB passthru.
If you don't want to connect the USB of the display (for the built-in USB 2.0 hub or for brightness control over USB) then you don't have to.
Others have stated that a third party app can do brightness control using just the DisplayPort/DVI connection.
 
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EugW said:
Anyhow, now I have a MacPro1,1 (traded for a 6-pack of beer :)) flashed to 2,1 and running non-OEM lower power Xeon 8-core chips I got uber cheap on eBay, and a native Xeon 3.0 8-core MacPro2,1 (purchased for US$75) here... just sitting unused. One is on display on a shelf just because I like the look of the case.
Click to expand...

The cheesegrater? It looks cool

appleinsider.com

The cheesegrater Mac Pro could still be the best Mac ever made | AppleInsider

The original Mac Pro was launched in August 2006 — and it's still remembered as a high point in Apple history. AppleInsider celebrates the old favorite workhorse — and its rather varied sequels.
appleinsider.com appleinsider.com
 
sparkie7 said:
Is it possible to update a Mac Pro 2008, running OS X El Capitan > Monterey?
Click to expand...
If you have the right GPU, you can run later OSes.

Back in 2021 I thought about buying a Mac Pro 2008 and installing a later OS on it, but in the end I decided it wasn't worth the hassle, esp. since it meant buying a new GPU on top of that, and it gets into Hackintosh-like territory (eg. no boot screen). Getting the 2014 Intel Mac mini was a better all-around solution (since I didn't need GPU performance), and was actually cheaper. Plus my wife is already annoyed at the fact I have two cheese grater Macs in the house. A third would have mean I'd be out on the street. ;)
 
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EugW said:
I did nothing extra. The 30" ACD is just plugged into my 2014 Intel Mac mini running Monterey, with the Apple OEM mini-DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapter.

View attachment 2085014

My 2014 Mac mini has a Thunderbolt 2 port so it's a direct plug-in for mini-DisplayPort. The USB also has to be connected though to get keyboard brightness control.

However, it also worked fine with my 2017 iMac, also running Monterey. To plug it in, I used a $10 eBay no-name USB-C to mini-DisplayPort adapter, in conjunction with the Apple OEM mini-DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapter. However, again, the USB also has to be connected to get keyboard brightness control.

View attachment 2085019

For my 2017 12" MacBook which is also running Monterey, I also had full keyboard brightness control, but since the 12" MacBook only has 1 USB-C port, I had to use a different solution to get the USB connected too. The solution I used was a CableMatters USB-C hub that supports external power, USB-A, and DisplayPort, to which I attached a DisplayPort to mini-DisplayPort adapter. That was in turn attached to the Apple OEM mini-DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapter.

View attachment 2085023

View attachment 2085026

The setup for the 12" MacBook was way too many dongles, but nonetheless it worked. After my Mac Pro flaked out in 2021, I used this setup for many weeks until the 2014 Mac mini arrived. This was mostly in Big Sur, but as mentioned it worked in Monterey as well.

But remember, although all these are running Monterey, all of these are all Intel setups. I have not done this on Apple Silicon.
Click to expand...
I've used both the Apple MDP->Dual Link DVI adapter and a third party one. They both worked perfectly on my 2014 Mac Mini, and I had full brightness controls. The problem was when I got my Mac Studio, the brightness controls disappeared. This third party app fixed the problem.

I'm still using my third party MDP->dual link DVI adapter, and then I have an MDP->USB-C adapter on my Mac Studio, and the picture quality is as good as the 30" can look. The USB-C->dual link DVI adapter that I had caused little green sparkling lines to appear, so I think the setup is sound, at least for the moment.
 
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EugW said:
Plus my wife is already annoyed at the fact I have two cheese grater Macs in the house. A third would have mean I'd be out on the street. ;)
Click to expand...

Time to buy a tent, just in case. At least you won't have to go out on the street 😅
 
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