This is a limitation of TB3 itself and not the dock. It’s best to connect the 5K display to the Mac directly so that it has all the bandwidth to itself.
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Review: CalDigit's 'TS3 Plus' Dock Gives You 15 Ports, 85W Charging, and an SD Card Reader for $250
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This is a limitation of TB3 itself and not the dock. It’s best to connect the 5K display to the Mac directly so that it has all the bandwidth to itself.
djbuddha. Thanks for the testimonial! Regarding your Logitech webcam issue, if you can email me I will add CalDigit Support to the email and they can look into it for you. My email is kosta@caldigit.com. Thanks!
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SheridanMac. The maximum number of displays any Thunderbolt 3 device can connect to is 2x 4K 60Hz displays or one single 5K display. You would not be able to connect one 5K and one 4K to the TS3 Plus. The previous generation of Thunderbolt 2 was only capable of one 4K display. Thunderbolt 3's 40Gb/s throughput has increased that to dual displays or a single 5K, in addition to laptop charging. Hope that helps.
It is a great dock. The only issues I have is what I listed above in my quick overview, and also, I find this dock emits more interference compared to the OWC. I'm still having some noise issues through my audio interface connected to it.
My dock shipped to Australia on Sunday (super fast DHL express shipping from B&H photo).
It's a brilliant dock, and after coming so close to buying the OWC I'm glad I waited.
I'm running it with the LG UltraFine 5K attached and it's seamless. You can't underestimate how awesome it is to plug a single reversible TB3 cable into a MacBook Pro to suddenly have a 5K monitor, wired keyboard, wired mouse, SD Reader, reliable Ethernet and various lightning docks etc for charging / connecting multiple iOS devices. Plus a headphone jack that brings my headphones a lot closer as well.
I like the look of it too - they emit a fair amount of heat, so it's no coincidence that the shell looks a bit heatsink like, which I guess allows it to be nice and compact. And the push-to-eject SD reader is super nice too after having a flaky USB-C hub which needed the card to be wiggled around a bit sometimes to get them to mount.
Great work CalDigit!
It's a brilliant dock, and after coming so close to buying the OWC I'm glad I waited.
I'm running it with the LG UltraFine 5K attached and it's seamless. You can't underestimate how awesome it is to plug a single reversible TB3 cable into a MacBook Pro to suddenly have a 5K monitor, wired keyboard, wired mouse, SD Reader, reliable Ethernet and various lightning docks etc for charging / connecting multiple iOS devices. Plus a headphone jack that brings my headphones a lot closer as well.
I like the look of it too - they emit a fair amount of heat, so it's no coincidence that the shell looks a bit heatsink like, which I guess allows it to be nice and compact. And the push-to-eject SD reader is super nice too after having a flaky USB-C hub which needed the card to be wiggled around a bit sometimes to get them to mount.
Great work CalDigit!
I wonder what the brokerage import fee is? I shipped mine within the US to a post office box. Paid $5 to release it and paid the tax at the border to bring it back (I'm about an hour away and had to cross to the US for other reasons anyway).
I also got the $100 off- but that was a special preorder price. I think that date passed.
Below is my latest update to my original post about this dock (my mini-review). If you'd like to read the entire post, here it is:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...d-reader-for-250.2103609/page-3#post-25838067
I am floored by how responsive and helpful the technical support side of things are with Caldigit. Definitely worth its weight in gold if not more. As I explained above, I was having a noise floor issue. I changed outlets, the problem went away then it reared it's ugly head again. On Friday, Leslie from their team e-mailed me & had expressed that they had acquired not only the webcam for my strange webcam flashing issue from my last update, but they even acquired the same audio interface I was using, then offered to ship me a brand new power supply and active 2m Thunderbolt 3 cable to test on my end (The 2m cable is the same length cable I ordered with my dock originally). Keep in mind I live in Canada. I received it this afternoon (they express-shipped it to me quickly without even telling me they were going to ship it, which was a wonderful surprise). After a few tests, the noise is GONE! I even plugged it back into my original outlet and the noise is STILL gone. This type of service pays for the dock. Those who complain about the price need to understand that you're not just paying for the dock, you're paying for service like this. If I wasn't impressed by this dock already, this sealed it.
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...d-reader-for-250.2103609/page-3#post-25838067
I am floored by how responsive and helpful the technical support side of things are with Caldigit. Definitely worth its weight in gold if not more. As I explained above, I was having a noise floor issue. I changed outlets, the problem went away then it reared it's ugly head again. On Friday, Leslie from their team e-mailed me & had expressed that they had acquired not only the webcam for my strange webcam flashing issue from my last update, but they even acquired the same audio interface I was using, then offered to ship me a brand new power supply and active 2m Thunderbolt 3 cable to test on my end (The 2m cable is the same length cable I ordered with my dock originally). Keep in mind I live in Canada. I received it this afternoon (they express-shipped it to me quickly without even telling me they were going to ship it, which was a wonderful surprise). After a few tests, the noise is GONE! I even plugged it back into my original outlet and the noise is STILL gone. This type of service pays for the dock. Those who complain about the price need to understand that you're not just paying for the dock, you're paying for service like this. If I wasn't impressed by this dock already, this sealed it.
The TS3 Plus arrived today. GST and PST (Canadian sales taxes) were collected at the door by Canada Post along with a $9.95 handling fee. Altogether the bill was $48.47.
In case anyone wondered...
I got mine, and NO, it only ejects USB connected storage devices. Although I get error messages when using the eject utility, so it looks like best thing is to use an alternative one.
For example, there's an Eject All function in "Parallels Toolbox" AFAIR, and I'm sure there's likely a utility in Setapp, if you're on that. Shame have to resort to third party's though really.
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I've had this unit for about three weeks now. The performance has been flawless -- no issues, no crashes, no hiccups at all. I wanted something that would be seamless and just blend in to my setup and 'just work'. The CalDigit TS3+ does just that. I have two monitors, an iphone dock, network and a USB-C cable plugged in and all work without issue. When i first got the unit I was seeing some slow transfer speeds over USB. That was traced to the TB cable that came with the unit being faulty. CalDigit sent a new one quickly. I ended up using the new Apple TB USB-C cable, as I needed a slightly longer cable.
Unfortunate that it does not have eSATA. I have NAS, and it would come handy in case I need drive expansion.
Anybody looked at "System report" on this and figured out whether all the USB-3 sockets are "first tier" ports directly driven by the controller, or if there is an internal USB-3 hub?
(Working out whether its worth buying for an iMac for optimum USB-3 connectivity vs. a USB hub at a fraction of the price).
(Working out whether its worth buying for an iMac for optimum USB-3 connectivity vs. a USB hub at a fraction of the price).
eSATA is on the TS3 model, so get that one if you're in the 1% of users wanting that – but given that virtually no one uses that in the age of USB 3 speeds, expecting it on yet another of CalDigits docks catering for the other 99% of users, is rather selfish really isn't it. There's one eSATA dock for you, and there's one non-eSATA dock for us.
Yeah me too, that'd be good to know. There's 5x A's and 2x C's (5+10 speed) in fact. I wonder how you can tell though...?
You call us selfish just because you have an "authority of some kind"? We did not address this question/wish to you. The reason to use it I stated above and I am aware of tech specks of previous docks. BTW your % numbers taken from your head are laughable.
Sorry, but like FW, eSATA at this stage is very old legacy. I know what it does, but in the age of USB 3 and beyond (10Gbit USB-C, for example), it's usefulness has significantly diminished.
So really, regardless of you dreaming something into existence for your use cases, it's simply not for the vast majority of users out there, regardless of the percentages.
If you actually think about it, if they had eSATA on there, to accommodate the maximum bandwidth requirements of the controllers inside, they'd likely have to cut the other ports back down to the level (or near to) those of the plain TS3 model; hence why they didn't bother, accordingly. It's either technically not possible, or not worth doing from a cost perspective, without potentially adding to the retail price. Something has to give.
You can get a USB "device tree" in About This Mac -> System Report.
Does anyone with the TS3 Plus have startup problems on their Mac while the dock is connected?
I'm on a 13" 2016 MacBook Pro (4 Thunderbolt Ports) that's encrypted with FileVault and noticed that if I shutdown while the dock is connected, I'm unable to start it back up by pressing the power button on the laptop. If I disconnect the thunderbolt cable, press the power button, then reconnect the dock before unlocking the drive at the FileVault preboot screen, the built-in keyboard and trackpad on the laptop are unresponsive. Disconnecting the thunderbolt cable doesn't fix it, I have to hold down the power button on the laptop to shut it, start it back up without the dock connected, authenticate, then plug the dock back in in anytime after I authenticate at the FileVault prereboot screen.
Edit: I should also note that I'm aware the peripherals connected to the dock itself won't function until after the FileVault preboot screen, but it's a bit bizarre that the internal keyboard and trackpad on the laptop become responsive.
One more edit: It seems this happens when either or both of my external drives are connected to the dock. I'll put a ticket in with CalDigit and see what they have to say.
Final edit: It seems I just wasn't being patient enough. With my external drives connected, it seems to take up to 20 seconds before the laptop gets to the preboot screen, then everything works as expected. I'm just impatient!
I'm on a 13" 2016 MacBook Pro (4 Thunderbolt Ports) that's encrypted with FileVault and noticed that if I shutdown while the dock is connected, I'm unable to start it back up by pressing the power button on the laptop. If I disconnect the thunderbolt cable, press the power button, then reconnect the dock before unlocking the drive at the FileVault preboot screen, the built-in keyboard and trackpad on the laptop are unresponsive. Disconnecting the thunderbolt cable doesn't fix it, I have to hold down the power button on the laptop to shut it, start it back up without the dock connected, authenticate, then plug the dock back in in anytime after I authenticate at the FileVault prereboot screen.
Edit: I should also note that I'm aware the peripherals connected to the dock itself won't function until after the FileVault preboot screen, but it's a bit bizarre that the internal keyboard and trackpad on the laptop become responsive.
One more edit: It seems this happens when either or both of my external drives are connected to the dock. I'll put a ticket in with CalDigit and see what they have to say.
Final edit: It seems I just wasn't being patient enough. With my external drives connected, it seems to take up to 20 seconds before the laptop gets to the preboot screen, then everything works as expected. I'm just impatient!
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It's still slower than normal from what you said (FV not on, on my MBP) – so your original support ticket with CalDigit is likely still warranted.
Well explained trouble-shoot methodology though, so thanks for adding it so others using the dock with FileVault encryption turned on can read it.
