I had two expensive caldigit docks (TS3 i believe). One was warranty replacement for the first one. Each died after about a year.
After that I had an expensive alogic dock. Seemed great when it was working, but after just over a year it went dead (warranty is for two years).
The dock i had is out of stock. After weeks of “checking” I was offered an exchange for a cheaper version (whatever) that doesn’t include features i rely on (3 screens).
As “compensation” I was offered about 30% of the original price, since “the item was used”.
Thanks but no thanks. Standard amortization time for computer equipment is 5 years. And in either case, who has patience to go for weeks without their familiar computing environment? And my cost is replacement of the item, i did not rent it.
I got a Kensington dock sold by amazon at slightly less than the original price of that one, with better features and a brand name that is worth more than the piece of paper it is written on.
$DAYJOB issues us Mac laptops. (Seems like a waste of money, but it's not MY money.)
So, I've been using a CalDigit TS3 Plus device for the last two or three years. I have USB 3, Ethernet, and DisplayPort going out from it, and a Thunderbolt cable going into it. Other than sometimes having to unplug and replug the DisplayPort cable to get the screen to wake [0], it works fine.
[0] To make this easy, I have an F<->F coupler near the display that doesn't have latches. I just slip out one end of the cable from the coupler and slip it back in. Quick and easy, if slightly annoying that I have to do it at all.
Yep that was my exact story too, before the first sock gave out shortly before warranty, was replaced (at least regarding customer service im happy), and then same exact story with the second one.
Given that i had a third unrelated dock fail recently it wouldn’t be unreasonable to suspect something on my end might be causing this, but then again that’s the only hardware that failed on me in a while and i don’t do anything that unusual besides having 3x4k screens plugged into it and the occasional mouse charging/flash drive drawing power off it.
In all cases the PSU of the dock died with it (but also the docks themselves) so i suspect current DL chipsets overheat and eventually burn out when pushing clost to their max resolution.
Off topic but why refer to it as $DAYJOB (is it really a variable like that?) rather than just saying “work” or “my job”? I see it all over HN but I’ve actually never understood why people do this. Sorry for veering off topic.
The syntax is written like a bash shell variable, the idea (I assume) is that the actual job itself doesn't matter but the idea of it being something they do for work does (because contextually it means they have less decision power.) So, if it were me, saying I work for Puzzmo is about as useful as me saying I work for $DAYJOB in a sentence like that.
Nah, there's no need to apologize. If folks don't want to read and/or participate in the subthread that changes the topic, then they can just fold up the subthread using the handy "fold up the subthread" button.
And yeah, with the exception of the fellow who called it "HN slang" (or whatever) the folks who replied to you all have good answers to your question.
I'm using a CalDigit TB4. It's two years old and no issues.
I don't push it too often, but when I do, it's fast enough to play six or more concurrent 1080p video layers in Resolume from a single Gen4x4 NVMe. It's not as fast as my M1's internal storage, but it does the job.
I have been using a TS3+ daily for more than 4 years now without any major issues, there was a firmware update a few years ago but since then it's been very reliable ever since.
> 2. Don’t expect to run any USB hubs behind any of the USB ports on this dock whatsoever... even if the downstream hub is only powering wimpy devices like wireless mouse dongles. You might not have this problem if you plug the hub into the dock’s extra Thunderbolt port...
I have this device and don't have this problem? I have a couple of self-powered hubs downstream of this thing and have plugged them into the USB-A-shaped ports on the back.
I don't have any downstream Thunderbolt devices plugged into this thing. Maybe that's the major difference between my setup and the author's? (Or maybe I'm running better firmware on this thing than he is?)
I haven't tried any hubs, but my problem was using a 2.5 Gbps USB Ethernet controller off of one of the Fresco Logic USB ports (the front 5 Gbps ones or the rear right-hand 3 USB-A ports), after a few hours it would drop. I thought the cheap USB adapter was bad, replaced it, same thing.
I found this blog post, switched to one of the ASMedia ports (the rear 10 Gbps USB-C port or the most left-hand USB-A port) and both of the Ethernet controllers are rock-solid now.
I now have it in the Thunderbolt port which ekes out another 100 Mbps or so compared to the ASMedia USB ports.
The blog post is probably a bit sensationalistic but I still can't recommend the dock to anyone when half the ports on it are flakey, especially at that price.
Sounds like I should plug the subset of the ports that are on that Fresco Logic controller so that I don't unwittingly use them at some point in the distant future.
> ...I still can't recommend the dock to anyone when half the ports on it are flakey, especially at that price.
This is understandable.
However, I'm pleased with my purchase and I'm only using the built-in Ethernet port, the built-in DisplayPort port, and a couple of USB ports. If it lasts me five years, I will have paid ~60 USD per year, which I think is a bargain when you compare it to fighting with something that's flaky no matter what you do, or just fails after a year or two... requiring you to go on the hunt for a new "dock".
Honestly, I think it's pretty damn stupid to have so many USB ports on the thing to begin with. Decent USB hubs are inexpensive; remove all but one or two of the USB ports and use now-spare bandwidth to put additional DisplayPort ports on the thing!
I like my Kensington a lot, don’t seem them mentioned a lot but the build quality is very high, lots of ports and it even has an official mount for under-desk use
Note that as all docks it requires displaylink software on mac to use more than one screen, and the software is a bit buggy - needs to be restarted every couple of times i reconnect to the dock for the displays to work right. TBH this is the first dock i experience this with but then again os and software updates, and ive seen weird flaky behavior before, just not specifically this.
Not all docks need DisplayLink. Thunderbolt-powered ones like this [0] or this [1] can support multiple displays for Macbook Pros without it, so if you want to avoid having to use DisplayLink, they're solid picks. The one thing you need to watch out for is that if you go with the second one, there are no HDMI ports, so you need a USB-C to HDMI converter, which in my experience can be flaky at higher refresh rates. If on the other hand your monitors support DisplayPort, then USB-C to DisplayPort is native, doesn't need a converter (just an adapter), and works better.
Base M2 or M3 won't work either; a Thunderbolt dock cannot work around a lack of display pipes on the SoC. The M4 is the first base M-series chip that supports two external displays in addition to the internal display, hence the slightly different phrasing in your quote for the M4 generation.
Aside from my justified negative opinions about caldigit, i was referring to docks that offer 3+ (simultaneous) screen outputs (eg not one with 2 hdmi+2dp that can use either set but not all 4 together).
What you actually have to use is two thunderbolt ports on the MacBook. Then you can power not just two but four 6K screens, as each TB port can push 2 externals (in addition to built-in screen).
So this iVANKY dock is native TB quad screen, for example:
Im sorry, despite their marketing, this is a 2 output dock. Offering TB passthrough doesnt count, just like we wouldnt call regular usb hubs "multiple display docks" if some manufacturer came out with usb screens (whih im sure exist already for lowres output).
