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Which TB3 dock for your 15MBP?
- Thread starter richpjr
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I have been using the Belkin TB3 dock for a few days, and it is rock solid. I used the TB 2 version for two years and now this one and while the Belkins aren't the cheapest or have the most ports, they are very reliable. Also, the Belkin one was the only one out currently that has support for the full 85 watts charge that MBP 15s need.
My CalDigit TS3 came!
I set it up quick and dirty. I'll deal with the nightmarish cable management later.
I have connected to it:
1. crappy 1080p monitor via DisplayPort
2. 4K P2415Q via second Thunderbolt
3. Ethernet, because why not
4. eSata Lacie Quadra
5. Iogear USB switch with Apple Keyboard, Razer Mouse, speakers.
The switch has given me trouble. Connected to two different adaptors, it would give me pauses, but Iogear said they only support it directly connected, which is impossible. I have it connected to the TS3 dock and it seems to be working now, but it wasn't at all 15 minutes ago...I'll probably have to try a different brand. (It works just fine on my PC in Windows).
The dock itself looks great, though I wish it was Space Gray like the TS2 model. It matches the look of my old Lacie drive, however. It's smaller than I thought, though the power brick is HUGE. Like, at least three of my MBP's power adaptors. And it's called a "laptop" charger on the plastic wrap. I'm not sure who would want to lug that thing around. It's actually longer than the dock itself.
The dock itself gets very warm with everything attached to it.
I want to find a utility that will eject drives with a key combination (Caldigit's doesn't do this) so I can quickly unplug. There's Mountain, but it looks overkill. I'll only be connecting one drive.
There's something definitely futuristic about having all of this stuff connected over a single wire. Very cool!
I set it up quick and dirty. I'll deal with the nightmarish cable management later.
I have connected to it:
1. crappy 1080p monitor via DisplayPort
2. 4K P2415Q via second Thunderbolt
3. Ethernet, because why not
4. eSata Lacie Quadra
5. Iogear USB switch with Apple Keyboard, Razer Mouse, speakers.
The switch has given me trouble. Connected to two different adaptors, it would give me pauses, but Iogear said they only support it directly connected, which is impossible. I have it connected to the TS3 dock and it seems to be working now, but it wasn't at all 15 minutes ago...I'll probably have to try a different brand. (It works just fine on my PC in Windows).
The dock itself looks great, though I wish it was Space Gray like the TS2 model. It matches the look of my old Lacie drive, however. It's smaller than I thought, though the power brick is HUGE. Like, at least three of my MBP's power adaptors. And it's called a "laptop" charger on the plastic wrap. I'm not sure who would want to lug that thing around. It's actually longer than the dock itself.
The dock itself gets very warm with everything attached to it.
I want to find a utility that will eject drives with a key combination (Caldigit's doesn't do this) so I can quickly unplug. There's Mountain, but it looks overkill. I'll only be connecting one drive.
There's something definitely futuristic about having all of this stuff connected over a single wire. Very cool!
Actually I believe it. The way these USB switchers work it seems its very hit or miss. I use this one for several months heavy duty and it works well, but it only when I plug it into my dell monitor to act as a hub for the keyboard and mice. Then again, I'm also using a gaming mouse and wireless headset usb.
https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Sharing-Peripheral-Switcher-Adapter/dp/B01CU4QCRS/
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Got my Caldigit TS3 dock too. Looks as solid as their TS2, small, compact and sleek. Working perfectly with MBP15". 85W charging. Finally one single cable solution is here.
i was looking for a utility to mount and unmount externals, thanks for app suggestion that solution is working perfectly, caldigit's utility did not recognize the dock, even though according to their TS3 manual that should work. i have wrtitten their support staff about the issue. frankly i didnt want to wait anymore on anything to do with the brand, so your app suggestion, was spot on!
Yeah, was asking caldigit's utility. The support said they will release new utility to support TS3 in few days. I guess they did not expect one could get the TS3 dock this week. The earlier the better, no complain J
The real thunderbolt 3 dock is here, what more can I ask for when I'm truly blessed
Hmm, so I woke up my Mac this morning and had about a dozen "your drive was ejected unexpectedly" notifications. I had power nap enabled so Time Machine would run at night (which it did) but why did the drive keep getting ejected?
Nice. Hopefully they'll update it to work with a key combination too. It's an obviously missing feature.
Nice. Hopefully they'll update it to work with a key combination too. It's an obviously missing feature.
I did not have such problem with any of my USB drives. Did you uncheck "put hard disks to sleep when possible"? that's located in system preference > energy > Power adapter.
Yes, I did. I've emailed Caldigit but no reply yet. I suppose it could be something with the cable, this is the first time I've used it.
I can't remember, is there a verdict on the TS3 Lite. Anyone here have it?
I think the TS3 Lite might actually be better for my situation because I could really use additional USB-C ports such as the one on the front because of the higher power draw (such as Dual 2.5" Drive enclosures that you would traditionally see on FW). Whereas the TS3 doesn't not have this.
Amazon has it on sale too..hmm...
I think the TS3 Lite might actually be better for my situation because I could really use additional USB-C ports such as the one on the front because of the higher power draw (such as Dual 2.5" Drive enclosures that you would traditionally see on FW). Whereas the TS3 doesn't not have this.
Amazon has it on sale too..hmm...
Having same issues plus Ethernet quit working via the dock had to revert back wifi....reported it to Apple as I I thought it was related to the machine... but could be something with TS3... I’ll ping caldigit and see what they say
Hah, more like I'm glad to know it's not something with my hardware. What hard drive are you using? They claim that they can't reproduce it, though they only have an unspecified dual-drive enclosure that they are testing (you would think they would have more drives). They suggested I reset the NVRAM and contact Lacie. Lacie will probably go, "LOL you're still using a ten-year old drive?!"
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Yeah it's essentially an adapter that gives you the ports you could have had, I don't understand how people can justify the price
Completely agree…
They remove all the ports, raise the prices of the units, and then everybody has to spend several hundred dollars replacing what was removed…
And this is somehow lauded as "Apple pushing technology forward"…
"Hooray for Apple, you guys are amazing"
It's mind blogging how some people will defend basically anything they do.
Yeah I do really like thunderbolt 3 but they could have kept older ports. They are trying to push everyone to USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 but its not working, they've just pushed people to use the older ports, just a few inches away from the computer
And as has been said in this thread, if you really want this to go well you offer your own first party dock that presumably would meet really high standards and work great and look great and really get people on board…
Instead Apple just offloaded all these problems to third parties and it's a minefield of trying to weed through reviews and find ones that are actually good, etc.
I think that was a way to push people to buy type C accessories instead of adapt to older ports, sell overpriced 1st party adapters that aren't in the box and don't support anyone that needs more than that. I saw an employee using 2 adapters with the new MBP in the Apple store the other day
its a seagate, connected via a hard drive docking station. its carry over from my old imac. but didnt have any issues prior to TS3. this ones pretty old also, but it keeps working, so i keep using.
Well, it's a bit heartening this is happening on more than one kind of drive. Hopefully it's a bug that can be patched via a Firmware or OS X update. Caldigit informed me that Apple has been patching Thunderbolt bugs through 10.12.5 (probably one of the reasons for the delay.)
for all having docking issues with new caldigit TS3, the utility is now available, http://www.caldigit.com/Support.asp#TS3, hopefully this alleviates issues.
That just manages charging over USB. Not going to solve our problem.
What does your Firmware say under Thunderbolt in System Report? I have 15.14 but apparently the latest is 19 something. They recommended I do a combo update of 10.12.5 but the OS doesn't seem to want to install it as I'm already on 10.12.5. They also recommended I do a NVRAM reset but that didn't do anything.