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Idec50

macrumors regular
Feb 22, 2019
108
50
TX
I own the Caldigit TS3+ as well as the new 16" MacBook Pro. It's a mid to high-end spec'd machine as I am throwing a lot at it daily (2.4 i9/32gb ram/8gb 5500M/2TB SSD). With Caldigit's lower PD and the higher, more power-hungry components of the MBP, I indeed need to keep it connected to the Apple power adapter. And there are other issues as well, which may be related to incompatibility between the dock and the new 16" configuration. Here are some observations from a few days of use:

  • Power drain was significant enough with my config that I needed to plug the adapter in within a couple of hours of using the single cable solution.
  • I'm using a 34" Samsung CJ791 (connected through the dock via TB3); when running the display at 100hz, the display often reverts to a black screen for the first few minutes after plugging in the TB3 cable.
  • The ethernet connection is not working/not being recognized (the cable has been tested thoroughly, with both my older 2015 MBP, and my 2018 model through the same dock; it appears to be an issue when connected to the 16" MBP).
  • I've had to plug-in/unplug external devices (like external drives) a few times in order to get them to work; in my case, several of my thumb drives had to be disconnected/reconnected 3-4 times before being recognized.
Obviously I bought the TS3+ for use on my 2018 15" model, and so I'm not that disappointed as I can't expect a product like this to be future proof. And I'm happy to hear Caldigit is working on a solution. That said, even when connected through the power adapter there are several OTHER issues that seem to be related to use with the 16" MBP and I'd like to see those get taken care of as quickly as possible, as I use the machine docked 90% of the time.

Woah yikes thanks. I am not upgrading until those other issues are fixed. I would need to spend $100 on adapters to get my office setup temporarily working.
 

joelhinch

macrumors 6502
Oct 2, 2012
382
764
Woah yikes thanks. I am not upgrading until those other issues are fixed. I would need to spend $100 on adapters to get my office setup temporarily working.
Yeah there’s no official/Mac supported 96w solution at the moment.
 

Silverjerk

macrumors member
May 7, 2015
91
141
Woah yikes thanks. I am not upgrading until those other issues are fixed. I would need to spend $100 on adapters to get my office setup temporarily working.

Just a quick update, along with some context:

My workflow is extremely demanding. I'm a UX Designer and front-end development lead, and often wear multiple hats working with both the product and marketing teams, as well as preparing demos and product tours for users and various stakeholders.

In my day-to-day usage, I will often run an exorbitant number of apps and processes. I'm generally switching back and forth between VSCode, Hyper, Photoshop, Adobe XD/Sketch, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere, Logic Pro X, numerous browsers running multiple tabs, and countless other desktop business apps, like Slack, Skype, Word, Excel, and many more.

Upon further testing the last 2-3 days, a "normal" user shouldn't have any issues with the Caldigit TS3+. In my case, I spent a day just doing what I would consider a normal routine, surfing the web, watching YouTube videos, some light coding and design work, etc. The Caldigit was able to charge the 16" MBP (albeit slowly) and maintain full battery life throughout the entirety of the day. My belief is that I'm only seeing power draw during these particularly demanding work sessions, where I'm taxing the machine considerably. At any one time I might be building our app and deploying to our staging environments, encoding/rendering a video for the marketing team, while having no less than a dozen PSD and XD files open with large files (of our app, Facebook ad designs, large files for product masks for our store, etc.). I just want to highlight that not everyone is likely to be putting this much stress on the machine.

With hesitation, I would say that if there is no other solution on the horizon, the TS3+ might work for most individuals. For any professionals running intensive tasks requiring a lot of resources, it is not recommended.

The trouble is, it's an extremely capable dock outside of the PD issues with the new 16" configuration, so, again, if you have a fairly mid-range workflow and aren't putting the machine through its paces for several hours a day, you could potentially still use the TS3+ as your docking solution.

As a quick aside, I also resolved many of my issues with connected devices (including the display and ethernet connection) after running a supplemental update and restarting the Mac, so those issues I described above are no longer a problem for me as I write this and were only experienced after using the MBP for the first time.
 

matram

macrumors 6502a
Sep 18, 2011
781
416
Sweden
A bit off-topic but, I recently bought a CalDigit to my 2016, 15". Then started seeing faults causing random reboots of my MBP. Disconnected the TS3+ for a couple of weeks and the problem went away. Reconnected it with only power supply to the MPB, again reboots. Disconnected, no problems.

At the moment the TS3+ is sitting on my shelf, waiting for the 16" I have on order. Although it seems a nice dock, I am concerned about what I am seeing. Anyone else have similar experiences?

I looked for a FW update to the TS3+, but there seem to be none at this moment.
 

Whackman

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2012
180
75
I hope someone will have a definitive solution pretty soon. These adapters cost an arm and a leg. I rather buy a good dock.
 

matram

macrumors 6502a
Sep 18, 2011
781
416
Sweden
http://downloads.caldigit.com/

Latest TS3 Plus updates were 10/7/19 and 10/25/19. Download those if it’s been a few weeks.

I have upgraded to the latest drivers along the way. I am a bit unsure about what they actually do, they seem to be dealing mostly with charging. I could not notice any clear effect.

I tried to uninstall the kernel extension that the driver install, but failed to remove it, OS X restores it whatever I do. I had an idea that maybe the driver was the issue not the TS3+ itself.

When I talked about firmware I was thinking about the TS3+ firmware that CalDigit say they will upgrade to improve the wattage. Currently there is no FW offered for download.

The plan now is to do some A/B testing with the new 16", probably starting without drivers and see what happens. I will provide an update if I learn something of interest.
 

bsbeamer

macrumors 601
Original poster
Sep 19, 2012
4,313
2,713
Those aren't firmware updates that affect how the dock charges a Mac.

Correct. @matram stated they had not used the dock in SEVERAL WEEKS. There have been updates for the TS3 Plus within that time.

I've been told to check back after Thanksgiving for the intended firmware update that they're working on for MBP 16".
 

bsbeamer

macrumors 601
Original poster
Sep 19, 2012
4,313
2,713
Does anyone have experience with this dock? It mentions 100W. This will be the first time I've ever had a dock that wasn't work provided, so I've never had to spec one before.

https://us.targus.com/products/usb-...ng-station-100-watt-power-delivery-dock570usz

It was out of stock everywhere when I was previously looking at it, but certainly seems on the surface to provide 100W PD and check that box. If you're looking for some of the monitor/display aspects, be aware DisplayPort Alternate Mode does not usually work well with macOS/mac products.

They have not updated their DisplayLink macOS X SupportTool in a long time. Latest version I'm seeing is 5.2.3241 from February 2019. Does not exactly inspire confidence for 100% compatibility MBP16" right now.
 

veritech137

macrumors member
Jun 11, 2009
35
4
It was out of stock everywhere when I was previously looking at it, but certainly seems on the surface to provide 100W PD and check that box. If you're looking for some of the monitor/display aspects, be aware DisplayPort Alternate Mode does not usually work well with macOS/mac products.

They have not updated their DisplayLink macOS X SupportTool in a long time. Latest version I'm seeing is 5.2.3241 from February 2019. Does not exactly inspire confidence for 100% compatibility MBP16" right now.

Yeah, I usually run 3 displays that are 2 externals and laptop open. But I just upgraded my externals and still have the 2 old ones, so maybe I can see if 4 are too many.

Those are really good points. I didn't know the issues with the DP alternate and the old version of their software is a bit worrying. Also, OSX 10.12 is the latest version they mention on that page. Amazon had this dock in stock and I just ordered it. I suppose I'll see how it does when it arrives tomorrow and post the results.
 
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milhous

macrumors member
May 17, 2007
67
20
Hi all, coming from the coil whine thread on the MBP 16, but wanted to mention that I've got the CalDigit USB-C ProDock still in the box, knowing full well it won't fully power the machine. But I may have no other choice but to use it because the cost of getting all the dongles to connect 2 DisplayPort screens and USB accessories would add up very quickly. I suppose that, should a new dock come out to fully support 96W of power that I could sell the dock on eBay and take a small loss on it.
 
Last edited:

m0nkeyb0y

macrumors regular
Jun 16, 2009
167
119
Hi all, coming from the coil whine thread on the MBP 16, but wanted to mention that I've got the CalDigit USB-C ProDock still in the box, knowing full well it won't fully power the machine. But I may have no other choice but to use it because the cost of getting all the dongles to connect 2 DisplayPort screens and USB accessories would add up very quickly. I suppose that, should a new dock come out to fully support 96W of power that I could sell the dock on eBay and take a small loss on it.

let us know how it goes. I‘d be interested in this dock over the more expensive CalDigit model.
 

Rafterman

Contributor
Apr 23, 2010
7,267
8,809
It would be nice if Caldigit finds a way to give 96 watts to th TS3+ with a firmware update, but really, even of they don't, I have no problem connecting external power. It's not like connecting two Thunderbolt cables instead of one is so back breaking.
 

bsbeamer

macrumors 601
Original poster
Sep 19, 2012
4,313
2,713
The issue isn't that it is "back breaking" to plug a cable in. The main issue (at least for me) is that this effectively puts two ports out of commission - consuming one for power and one for TS3 Plus. This really should/could all be done through only one port. Unfortunately, not every device has daisy-chain in/out for TB3 and USB-C/USB-3. Even those that do, it's not even 100% reliable all the time.

FYI - Just received a promo email for the $295 OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock (85W charging). They're giving away the OWC Travel Dock with every purchase. Unfortunately, their "new" rebranded AKiTiO products (AKiTiO Thunder3 Dock Pro and AKiTiO Thunder3 RAID Station) are only 60W PD. Wouldn't expect to see any new products from OWC for 96W until these are cleared out a bit. Maybe some will preview at CES 2020.
 

veritech137

macrumors member
Jun 11, 2009
35
4
It was out of stock everywhere when I was previously looking at it, but certainly seems on the surface to provide 100W PD and check that box. If you're looking for some of the monitor/display aspects, be aware DisplayPort Alternate Mode does not usually work well with macOS/mac products.

They have not updated their DisplayLink macOS X SupportTool in a long time. Latest version I'm seeing is 5.2.3241 from February 2019. Does not exactly inspire confidence for 100% compatibility MBP16" right now.

It just arrived and I set it up. My 16in should arrive today, but it's powering my old one just fine. Also, the drivers just got updated this morning. I hooked up my two external displays and they're good too.

So far, I'm pretty satisfied.
 

Idec50

macrumors regular
Feb 22, 2019
108
50
TX
It would be nice if Caldigit finds a way to give 96 watts to th TS3+ with a firmware update, but really, even of they don't, I have no problem connecting external power. It's not like connecting two Thunderbolt cables instead of one is so back breaking.

You are right, of course. The three reasons I care: a) my desk looks more profressional with only the one (black) cable and b) I transport my laptop often and will forget the power cable if I use it at the office and c) it’s just nice to not have to plug it in everyday. None of this is back breaking but neither is ditching all this for a cheap Windows laptop.
 

Rafterman

Contributor
Apr 23, 2010
7,267
8,809
You are right, of course. The three reasons I care: a) my desk looks more profressional with only the one (black) cable and b) I transport my laptop often and will forget the power cable if I use it at the office and c) it’s just nice to not have to plug it in everyday. None of this is back breaking but neither is ditching all this for a cheap Windows laptop.

I solved (b) by buying two additional 96w adapters. Including the one in the Macbook box, I have three - one for home, one fpr work and one for the carry bag.
 
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