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Which TB3 dock for your 15MBP?

I have issues w/both the caldigit TB3(not lite) and the Belkin TB3. Much less issues w/Belkin. The caldigit produces continuous screen flickering using 4K (display to display port). The Belkin is much better has a flicker or screen flash occasionally. I am waiting to see if there is a resolution to any. My monitor is Dell UP3216Q.
 
Cougarcat said:
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.
Click to expand...

my macbook pro thunderbolt firmware is 19 and caldigit's thunderbolt 3 dock is 20. would that help? the caldigit one has been working very well. dual monitors, ethernet, usb ports. just installed their usb superdrive driver, finally I can use Apple superdrive through thunderbolt 3 dock.
 
carestudio said:
my macbook pro thunderbolt firmware is 19 and caldigit's thunderbolt 3 dock is 20. would that help? the caldigit one has been working very well. dual monitors, ethernet, usb ports. just installed their usb superdrive driver, finally I can use Apple superdrive through thunderbolt 3 dock.
Click to expand...

Thanks but I was asking xsdogs72 because we are both experiencing the same eSata issue. My MBP is stuck on 15 for some reason. Maybe I'll try the 10.12.6 beta.
 
Just got the TS3 Lite, amazon has it for $180 for the shortest cable, I see B&H changed their pricing as well. Thats pretty reasonable considering all the the stuff the Lite doesn't have over the full version.

Working very well so far. Infact, I plugged in the dock, plugged in ethernet, put the machine to sleep, disconnected my display and hooked it up to the TS3L via DisplayPort (a very tricky handoff with lots of places to fail). Nope. Buttery smooth. Desk is clean. Life is good. and two free TB3 ports on my Mac!!!!!!
 
Cougarcat said:
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.
Click to expand...
mine says 19.6. and yea i got home lifted the lid there were as many disk did not eject properly notifications as there were warnings that i need to initialize my external hard drive.
 
If your screen flickers, get a better displayport cable. The best cable for me was the Amazon Basics cable. I tried two other, more expenskve brands, but still got problems. Only the Amazon cables made the thing stable.
 
bugout said:
My Elgato TB3 dock just arrived for my TB 15".. So far so good. Feel free to ask any questions.
Click to expand...

would love to hear your general comments after a few days of use... including but not limited to...

- reliability of Ethernet upon connect/disconnect
- reliability of display port upon connect/disconnect
- charging speed
- any issues with USB-A devices and incompatibilities
- any display glitches/flicker/color issues

of course, please share what monitor you are using, etc.

thanks!
 
xsdogs72 said:
mine says 19.6. and yea i got home lifted the lid there were as many disk did not eject properly notifications as there were warnings that i need to initialize my external hard drive.
Click to expand...
Too bad. I was hoping an update would fix it.

That's odd about the initialization warnings. I just get the eject notifications.

I'd open a bug report at http://bugreport.apple.com.
 
The TS3 Lite goes to sleep easily but I had trouble with the ethernet not coming back up immediately, meaning all the safari tabs would start to freak out.

Its very easily reproducible with an extremely crappy netgear gigabit prosafe switch that I decided to try and use. Switch to a Cisco based model and everything is smooth sailing. The netgear is going in the trash. So far I haven't run into any issues described on amazon.
 
Ok Here goes.. Elgato TB3 dock on a 15" touchbar MBpro

- reliability of Ethernet upon connect/disconnect
100%
-- reliability of display port upon connect/disconnect
100%
-- charging speed
As fast as the adapter. It's 85w
-- any issues with USB-A devices and incompatibilities
No issues so far. I have a logitech webcam, an external 4tb HD for time machine, document scanner, and a wired keyboard connected. Everything works 100%
-- any display glitches/flicker/color issues
None

34" Dell U3415W on the TB3 port with a TB-Displayport cable and a Dell U2713HM on a direct displayport-displayport cable. No issues at all.

I'm quite pleased with it. Everything works exactly as advertised. I had an OWC on order since December and cancelled it once they verified that it wouldn't charge a 15". I ordered the elgato last Wednesday the 14th and had it on friday the 16th. OWC hasn't even shipped yet. :)


Derek87 said:
would love to hear your general comments after a few days of use... including but not limited to...

- reliability of Ethernet upon connect/disconnect
- reliability of display port upon connect/disconnect
- charging speed
- any issues with USB-A devices and incompatibilities
- any display glitches/flicker/color issues

of course, please share what monitor you are using, etc.

thanks!
Click to expand...
 
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thanks for the helpful reply and sharing your experiences.

when you "undock" do you have to eject or properly disconnect any of the devices you listed? i'm assuming at the minimum you need to eject your Time Machine drive?

thanks again!


bugout said:
Ok Here goes.. Elgato TB3 dock on a 15" touchbar MBpro

- reliability of Ethernet upon connect/disconnect
100%
-- reliability of display port upon connect/disconnect
100%
-- charging speed
As fast as the adapter. It's 85w
-- any issues with USB-A devices and incompatibilities
No issues so far. I have a logitech webcam, an external 4tb HD for time machine, document scanner, and a wired keyboard connected. Everything works 100%
-- any display glitches/flicker/color issues
None

34" Dell U3415W on the TB3 port with a TB-Displayport cable and a Dell U2713HM on a direct displayport-displayport cable. No issues at all.

I'm quite pleased with it. Everything works exactly as advertised. I had an OWC on order since December and cancelled it once they verified that it wouldn't charge a 15". I ordered the elgato last Wednesday the 14th and had it on friday the 16th. OWC hasn't even shipped yet. :)
Click to expand...
 
Elgato has an "unplug thunderbolt dock" app that I click on before I disconnect.

Derek87 said:
thanks for the helpful reply and sharing your experiences.

when you "undock" do you have to eject or properly disconnect any of the devices you listed? i'm assuming at the minimum you need to eject your Time Machine drive?

thanks again!
Click to expand...
 
bugout said:
Elgato has an "unplug thunderbolt dock" app that I click on before I disconnect.
Click to expand...
ah, perfect! that makes good and efficient sense if you have multiple devices that need to be properly unmounted/disconnected.

thanks for the helpful info.
 
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Glad to see Elgato delivering quality solutions. I remember using their TV tuner back in the day and it worked pretty well.

The Elgato dock will probably be one of if not the only one available in Apple stores. They should really have one hooked up to a MBP with a massive array of peripherals and a few screens to show off the capabilities through a single cord.
[doublepost=1498019368][/doublepost]
bugout said:
I'm quite pleased with it. Everything works exactly as advertised. I had an OWC on order since December and cancelled it once they verified that it wouldn't charge a 15". I ordered the elgato last Wednesday the 14th and had it on friday the 16th. OWC hasn't even shipped yet. :)
Click to expand...

I'm not shocked. I know OWC is big on the Mac scene for years. I mean, who else is still including Firewire on their TB Docks in 2017? I respect the hustle, but the reviews for the TB2 model are abysmal. And with so many decent offerings shipping today, they just need to start over and drop the price.
 
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bugout said:
Ok Here goes.. Elgato TB3 dock on a 15" touchbar MBpro

- reliability of Ethernet upon connect/disconnect
100%
-- reliability of display port upon connect/disconnect
100%
-- charging speed
As fast as the adapter. It's 85w
-- any issues with USB-A devices and incompatibilities
No issues so far. I have a logitech webcam, an external 4tb HD for time machine, document scanner, and a wired keyboard connected. Everything works 100%
-- any display glitches/flicker/color issues
None

34" Dell U3415W on the TB3 port with a TB-Displayport cable and a Dell U2713HM on a direct displayport-displayport cable. No issues at all.

I'm quite pleased with it. Everything works exactly as advertised. I had an OWC on order since December and cancelled it once they verified that it wouldn't charge a 15". I ordered the elgato last Wednesday the 14th and had it on friday the 16th. OWC hasn't even shipped yet. :)
Click to expand...
Question for all - Can the Elgato TB3 Dock to 4K @ 60Hz over HDMI? (Obviously this would require a USB-C to HDMI or Displayport to HDMI cord, but with a proper one, would that work?

Thanks in advance, been trying to figure this out for a while now! Know it is possible directly through one of the ports on the MBP, but not sure if it can be done through the dock...
 
It appears so:

An active DisplayPort, to HDMI 2.0 adapter (HDMI 2.0, up to 4K/60)

https://dock.help.elgato.com/custom...-thunderbolt™-3-dock-and-dual-display-support

BigTomCallaghan said:
Question for all - Can the Elgato TB3 Dock to 4K @ 60Hz over HDMI? (Obviously this would require a USB-C to HDMI or Displayport to HDMI cord, but with a proper one, would that work?

Thanks in advance, been trying to figure this out for a while now! Know it is possible directly through one of the ports on the MBP, but not sure if it can be done through the dock...
Click to expand...
 
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Picked up the Elgato TB3 Dock at Micro Center the other day (shocked they had 1 in stock..) and it's been flawless so far. I haven't tried Ethernet yet, but everything else works perfectly. Waking up the laptop from sleep works very well too, everything powers up quickly and there's no fuss. I do wish it had a couple more USB ports, but that's a minor complaint. The dock itself is very compact and the build quality is excellent. Also for anyone wondering, there is no LED on the front to let you know it's on or connected. Personally I like this feature as it keeps everything very unobtrusive.

It's some kind of awesome to just need 1 cable for power and data when I want to switch to a desktop setup.
 
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i have had my Elgato TB3 for a week and it works as advertised. i use the ethernet port, charging, USB-A, and they all work flawlessly. thanks for the experiences dugout and glad to hear monkey likes his too.
 
epca12 said:
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
Click to expand...
If you connect and disconnect a plethora of peripherals it will get old extremely fast. Suddenly the high prices of those docking stations are not so high any more ;)
When comparing to old docking stations you also need to factor in the additional power adapter for the notebook. The entire package is no more expensive than those Thunderbolt 1 and Thunderbolt 2 docking stations we've had since 2012.

And no, these prices are not exceptional as docking stations have been around for more than 2 decades and prices haven't changed throughout the years. What has changed is the proprietary connector, the docking stations now come with universal ones. Funny thing is that this is actually a game changer when it comes to cost for businesses (which have been and still are the primary audience for these kind of devices). These new USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 docking stations can be used with many different notebook models and for years to come. So you can now buy in bulk, get a large discount on them and keep on using them for years and for everyone. That allows for more flexible workplaces as well which can also save costs.

The other option is to buy a USB-C/TB3 display and use that one as a docking station solution. For some that might be a more cheaper option than to go for a separate display and docking station. I'd have bought one of those if I didn't have my current NEC display.

But as with anything: convenience is going to cost you money. It's entirely up to yourself whether or not you want to spent money on that (and how much). Docking stations aren't silver bullets either. If you need to connect legacy stuff then these devices are not very useful, you need to look at cables and adapters since those you can carry with you.
 
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I'm in the market for a TB3 dock soon, testing the waters. Based on my reading of several reviews the Elgato and the Caldigit are the only contenders. I preferred the Caldigit at first given it has 2 extra ports (2 e-Sata), however based on some of the comments here it seems to have some issues. I really like the design of both devices, and I suppose if I had to buy today I'd choose the Elgato given some of the comments here. I also don't have much particular use for e-Sata ports but the more the merrier. I just want something that works for the amount of money this thing will cost.

My main gripe though: I really wish someone would release a space gray dock! It's crazy that neither of these companies are offering any other color options. The main reason I'm waiting it out currently is due to the fact that I know someone will release a very functional space gray dock within the next year. Okay, I don't really know, but I'm confident lol. I know the OWC space gray option exists, however I am highly skeptical of OWC and their products from past experience. These TB3 docks and just USB-C in general seem to be still developing the necessary standards (Power Delivery certifications being an example) at this point-- they're immature technologies. And given all the potential issues immature technologies introduce, I wouldn't count on OWC to work out all the kinks that'll eventually rear their head. If you think I'm wrong, go read some reviews of OWC's Thunderbolt 2 dock ;)
 
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The issues are also with the other docks since all of them are using the same reference design from Intel.
 
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