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OWC Thunderbolt Hub issue with connecting to Caldigit Elements on M1 Mini

whodiini said:
if there are 2 DFP then they may not talk to each other, but if one is a DRP/DRD, then it could negotiate to change itself to a UFP.
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Yes, you proved this ealier when you connected the DFP to the host port of the Mac. The host ports are DRP so they negotiate correctly. But the hubs cannot connect to each other.

Which model of Rocketek do you have?
 
Thanks, that helps my understanding of your set up.

whodiini said:
Studio Max-> (master port) Caldigit elements hub -> one of the 3 caldigit elements thunderbolt ports <-> master port of the Rocketek <-> peripheral TB port of the Rocketek <-one of the 3 OWC TB ports TB hub <- (master port OWC TB hub) <- M1 Mac mini

This worked! I have no idea why inserting yet another TB hub made it work. I also tried to reverse the connections on the Rocketek and it also worked:

Studio Max-> (master port) Caldigit elements hub -> one of the 3 caldigit elements thunderbolt ports <-> peripheral TB port of the Rocketek <-> master port of the Rocketek <-one of the 3 OWC TB ports TB hub <- (master port OWC TB hub) <- M1 Mac mini
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Instead of inserting the Rocketek dock between the hubs, did you try replacing one of the OWC or Caldigit hubs with the Rocketek dock in the chain? I think if it works in the middle, it would likely work at the end of the chain.

I think you may be correct regarding your earlier comment suggesting the Rocketek supports DRP. Rocketek may have seen something similar to your use case and modified their firmware to support DRP on the DFP. This is good to know.
 
steve123 said:
@whodiini You have experience with several hubs and docks, which one do you recommend?
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Depends what you need. For hubs, I like my Caldigit elements if you just need a hub. 3 USB4, 4 USB A 10Gbps Caldigit seems to be engineering oriented and I have been impressed by their products. For example, when my computer is powered down, the elements hub powers down as well to a very low energy state. I checked with a watt meter. Other hubs stay powered up and use the full power unless you physically switch them off. These include the OWC, the plugable USB4 hubs. This feature isnt mentioned anywhere in Caldigit's specs, which leads me to believe that Caldigit is run by engineers and not by marketing.

For docks, I have little use for them compared to hubs. I dont need anohter ethernet port that is only 1Gbps. (Why dont they make them at least 2.5? The 2.5 chips arent that $.) I dont need 2 or 3 slow USB A ports. (I use a powered 10 port USB 3.0 hub to power all my slow stuff - keyboard, mouse, scanner, SD card reader, printer, etc... connected to a USB A port on my mac. I do have one dock at work - Caldigit, and one dock at home that I got for cheap. I use that to pass thru my 5k monitor and connect some USB C NVMe enclosures. I would not have bought it if it werent so cheap.

The reason I have so many is because of the macs 4 TB ports and the desire to maximize the use of each ports bandwidth. I have 8TB of NVMe storage, 4 @ 6.5GBps, 2 @ 3Gbps and 2 @ 1GBps speeds. The first 2 take up the bandwidth of 3 ports, the 5k monitor and 1GBps take up the bandwidth of the 4th port.

Bottom line - for quality I get Caldigit, for value I get OWC on sale. Both have very good support and are well made.
 
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