OWC Thunderbay 4 with Thunderbolt 2

[DeepYogurt]

I bought a used Thunderbay 4 enclosure with Thunderbolt 2 interface to use on a 2013 Mac Pro system, and the power supply seems to have gone a bit wonky. Works sometimes but under heavy load or when trying to power up from being turned off, it sometimes just dies. So am thinking the power supply is in the process of going completely dead. So, the problem is that the existing power supply in the case is a Mean Well PPS-200-12 and it's been discontinued by Mean Well (not sure how long ago - anyone know this??) and the recommended replacement is a Mean Well EPP-200-12, BUT...the new power supply has three issues that prevent it from being used:

1. The EPP-200-12 needs elevated mounting posts that are 44mm x 94mm instead of the old posts that are 65mm x 116mm, so a new metal plate for the Thunderbay 4 enclosure needs to be found or constucted. I would have guessed that OWC would have lots of these sitting around in the event someone needs one that fit the EPP-200-12 PS.

2. The EPP-200-12 has a DC connector that needs a 6-socket JST B6P-VH female style connector rather than the 8-pin the old PS has - this is the DC connector from the PS to the SATA controller, plus the wiring seems be a bit different between the older Thunderbay 4 with Thunderbolt 2 SATA interface compared to the newer Thunderbay 4 enclosures with Thunderbolt 3 or 4 as photos of the latter appear to have reversed the position of the positive and negative 12V on the SATA controller compared to the older Thunderbolt 2 SATA controller - I don't know this but am guessing this to be the case due to seeing photo of newer enclosure wiring and comparing them to my older Thunderbolt 2 enclosure. Does anyone know for sure if the SATA controller board on the older Thunderbay 4 enclosures with Thunderbolt 2 interfaces needs +12V or -12V on the outermost two pins of the 8-pin connector, or can I simply use a 6-pin to 6-pin connector to route +12V and -12V power to the center 6 pins?

3. The EPP-200-12 appears to have reversed the AC connector pins as compared to the old PS - again I don't know this for certain, but looking at the labels on the PCB of the new PS and the old PS they are reversed, so am guessing that the pins on the connector need reversing to accommodate this change - don't think it would turn out well if I would try and connect the AC to the power supply without doing this - lots of sparks and flames and who knows what sort of excitement might ensue without this reversing??? I also noticed that the photo I saw of a newer Thunderbolt 3 or 4 enclosure also has the AC wiring differently laid out.


Has anyone here ever swapped out a Mean Well PPS-200-12 with an EPP-200-12 in their Thunderbay 4 enclosure and know if the above issues are indeed correct? Appreciate any feedback about how this update went for you or if you know for sure that the above three points are indeed the case.

I've been trying to get help from the OWC support folks since January 9 - I was able to get the EPP-200-12 power supply from them with no great trouble, but it's been over two weeks and about 20 e-mails between us, and they still haven't been able to supply answers or solutions for any of these three issues. They are great at promising answers will be available "right away" but have yet to deliver, despite many requests from me.

How disappointing - OWC used to have a very good reputation for support but my experience with them in this situation has me questioning their ability to solve problems with their equipment and simply just never come up with an answer and hope you get tired of asking I guess. Maybe they simply aren't interested in helping out anyone who has a defective piece of their older equipment (think this Thunderbay was purchased originally in 2014 or so), but it still worked fine for me on my 2013 Mac Pro system until this latest PS issue. If I only have one or two drives in the enclosure, then no problems except when first powering up, but if I try and fill all four drive slots, then that's when problems start to appear, either under heavy load when all four drives are being read/written to or when powering up from scratch. The PS appears not to be able to handle the increased stress.

Anyone else have any comments or experience about OWC support and how abysmal they seem to have become?

Please make sure to vote in the poll associated with this post - curious to see some data on how people rate their OWC support experiences and whether the trend is up or down. Don't bother voting unless you really have had some experience with OWC support. Thanks for participating...

And thanks for any suggestions...

 

[DeepYogurt]

I bought a used Thunderbay 4 enclosure with Thunderbolt 2 interface to use on a 2013 Mac Pro system, and the power supply seems to have gone a bit wonky. Works sometimes but under heavy load or when trying to power up from being turned off, it sometimes just dies. So am thinking the power supply is in the process of going completely dead. So, the problem is that the existing power supply in the case is a Mean Well PPS-200-12 and it's been discontinued by Mean Well (not sure how long ago - anyone know this??) and the recommended replacement is a Mean Well EPP-200-12, BUT...the new power supply has three issues that prevent it from being used:

1. The EPP-200-12 needs elevated mounting posts that are 44mm x 94mm instead of the old posts that are 65mm x 116mm, so a new metal plate for the Thunderbay 4 enclosure needs to be found or constucted. I would have guessed that OWC would have lots of these sitting around in the event someone needs one that fit the EPP-200-12 PS.

2. The EPP-200-12 has a DC connector that needs a 6-socket JST B6P-VH female style connector rather than the 8-pin the old PS has - this is the DC connector from the PS to the SATA controller, plus the wiring seems be a bit different between the older Thunderbay 4 with Thunderbolt 2 SATA interface compared to the newer Thunderbay 4 enclosures with Thunderbolt 3 or 4 as photos of the latter appear to have reversed the position of the positive and negative 12V on the SATA controller compared to the older Thunderbolt 2 SATA controller - I don't know this but am guessing this to be the case due to seeing photo of newer enclosure wiring and comparing them to my older Thunderbolt 2 enclosure. Does anyone know for sure if the SATA controller board on the older Thunderbay 4 enclosures with Thunderbolt 2 interfaces needs +12V or -12V on the outermost two pins of the 8-pin connector, or can I simply use a 6-pin to 6-pin connector to route +12V and -12V power to the center 6 pins?

3. The EPP-200-12 appears to have reversed the AC connector pins as compared to the old PS - again I don't know this for certain, but looking at the labels on the PCB of the new PS and the old PS they are reversed, so am guessing that the pins on the connector need reversing to accommodate this change - don't think it would turn out well if I would try and connect the AC to the power supply without doing this - lots of sparks and flames and who knows what sort of excitement might ensue without this reversing??? I also noticed that the photo I saw of a newer Thunderbolt 3 or 4 enclosure also has the AC wiring differently laid out.


Has anyone here ever swapped out a Mean Well PPS-200-12 with an EPP-200-12 in their Thunderbay 4 enclosure and know if the above issues are indeed correct? Appreciate any feedback about how this update went for you or if you know for sure that the above three points are indeed the case.

I've been trying to get help from the OWC support folks since January 9 - I was able to get the EPP-200-12 power supply from them with no great trouble, but it's been over two weeks and about 20 e-mails between us, and they still haven't been able to supply answers or solutions for any of these three issues. They are great at promising answers will be available "right away" but have yet to deliver, despite many requests from me.

How disappointing - OWC used to have a very good reputation for support but my experience with them in this situation has me questioning their ability to solve problems with their equipment and simply just never come up with an answer and hope you get tired of asking I guess. Maybe they simply aren't interested in helping out anyone who has a defective piece of their older equipment (think this Thunderbay was purchased originally in 2014 or so), but it still worked fine for me on my 2013 Mac Pro system until this latest PS issue. If I only have one or two drives in the enclosure, then no problems except when first powering up, but if I try and fill all four drive slots, then that's when problems start to appear, either under heavy load when all four drives are being read/written to or when powering up from scratch. The PS appears not to be able to handle the increased stress.

Anyone else have any comments or experience about OWC support and how abysmal they seem to have become?

Please make sure to vote in the poll associated with this post - curious to see some data on how people rate their OWC support experiences and whether the trend is up or down. Don't bother voting unless you really have had some experience with OWC support. Thanks for participating...

And thanks for any suggestions...

Well, I finally got my Thunderbay 4 enclosure working again - no thanks to OWC or their less-than-useless support department.

I cut a piece of steel plate the same size and thickness as the original plate and drilled 4 holes to match the original plate so it could be screwed into the same mounting holes, then drilled four more holes to match the new EPP-200-12 power supply and found some #4/40 screws and washers and nuts and some 1/4" spacers so that the power supply PCB would sit up off the metal plate to avoid shorting out any of the many solder points on the bottom of the power supply.

Then I hooked up the AC cord connector so that the white and black wires went to the correct pins on the CN1 connector on the power supply. It turns out that it works either way due to the way AC works, but there is a way to tell which is the "correct" way. Ask if you don't know.

Then I found a 6-pin connectors on Amazon that would work and wired one up so that the center four pins were wired to the center four pins of the 8-pin connector attached to the SATA controller and the outermost two pins on the 6-pin CN2 connector had two wires coming from each that in turn went to the outer-most pins on the original 8-pin DC connector that attaches to the SATA controller in the back of the Thunderbay 4 enclosure. Everything appears to working fine - no thanks to OWC. What a bunch of lame never-deliver-anything but empty promises group of do-nothings. Worst customer support in my life!!!

I will never ever have anything to do with OWC or any of it's other entities. They simply are the perfect example of bad customer support and useless do-nothing-but-make-promises-that-never-ever-get-anything-done-but-lip-service. If and when this Thunderbay dies again, then I will just find another external multi-drive enclosure vendor and OWC can kiss my rosy rear end.

If anyone else runs into a similar problem, let me know and will be happy to include the few gory minor details that I've left out.

Thanks for listening and hope you never have the misfortune of experiencing the OWC "support" squad of inept and un-professional individuals. STAY AWAY FROM OWC - they are clueless except when it comes to making empty promises - which they are very good at.