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MBP 16" Compatible Docks with 96W/100W Power
- Thread starter bsbeamer
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Woah yikes thanks. I am not upgrading until those other issues are fixed. I would need to spend $100 on adapters to get my office setup temporarily working.
Just a quick update, along with some context:
My workflow is extremely demanding. I'm a UX Designer and front-end development lead, and often wear multiple hats working with both the product and marketing teams, as well as preparing demos and product tours for users and various stakeholders.
In my day-to-day usage, I will often run an exorbitant number of apps and processes. I'm generally switching back and forth between VSCode, Hyper, Photoshop, Adobe XD/Sketch, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere, Logic Pro X, numerous browsers running multiple tabs, and countless other desktop business apps, like Slack, Skype, Word, Excel, and many more.
Upon further testing the last 2-3 days, a "normal" user shouldn't have any issues with the Caldigit TS3+. In my case, I spent a day just doing what I would consider a normal routine, surfing the web, watching YouTube videos, some light coding and design work, etc. The Caldigit was able to charge the 16" MBP (albeit slowly) and maintain full battery life throughout the entirety of the day. My belief is that I'm only seeing power draw during these particularly demanding work sessions, where I'm taxing the machine considerably. At any one time I might be building our app and deploying to our staging environments, encoding/rendering a video for the marketing team, while having no less than a dozen PSD and XD files open with large files (of our app, Facebook ad designs, large files for product masks for our store, etc.). I just want to highlight that not everyone is likely to be putting this much stress on the machine.
With hesitation, I would say that if there is no other solution on the horizon, the TS3+ might work for most individuals. For any professionals running intensive tasks requiring a lot of resources, it is not recommended.
The trouble is, it's an extremely capable dock outside of the PD issues with the new 16" configuration, so, again, if you have a fairly mid-range workflow and aren't putting the machine through its paces for several hours a day, you could potentially still use the TS3+ as your docking solution.
As a quick aside, I also resolved many of my issues with connected devices (including the display and ethernet connection) after running a supplemental update and restarting the Mac, so those issues I described above are no longer a problem for me as I write this and were only experienced after using the MBP for the first time.
A bit off-topic but, I recently bought a CalDigit to my 2016, 15". Then started seeing faults causing random reboots of my MBP. Disconnected the TS3+ for a couple of weeks and the problem went away. Reconnected it with only power supply to the MPB, again reboots. Disconnected, no problems.
At the moment the TS3+ is sitting on my shelf, waiting for the 16" I have on order. Although it seems a nice dock, I am concerned about what I am seeing. Anyone else have similar experiences?
I looked for a FW update to the TS3+, but there seem to be none at this moment.
At the moment the TS3+ is sitting on my shelf, waiting for the 16" I have on order. Although it seems a nice dock, I am concerned about what I am seeing. Anyone else have similar experiences?
I looked for a FW update to the TS3+, but there seem to be none at this moment.
http://downloads.caldigit.com/
Latest TS3 Plus updates were 10/7/19 and 10/25/19. Download those if it’s been a few weeks.
Latest TS3 Plus updates were 10/7/19 and 10/25/19. Download those if it’s been a few weeks.
I have upgraded to the latest drivers along the way. I am a bit unsure about what they actually do, they seem to be dealing mostly with charging. I could not notice any clear effect.
I tried to uninstall the kernel extension that the driver install, but failed to remove it, OS X restores it whatever I do. I had an idea that maybe the driver was the issue not the TS3+ itself.
When I talked about firmware I was thinking about the TS3+ firmware that CalDigit say they will upgrade to improve the wattage. Currently there is no FW offered for download.
The plan now is to do some A/B testing with the new 16", probably starting without drivers and see what happens. I will provide an update if I learn something of interest.
Correct. @matram stated they had not used the dock in SEVERAL WEEKS. There have been updates for the TS3 Plus within that time.
I've been told to check back after Thanksgiving for the intended firmware update that they're working on for MBP 16".
Does anyone have experience with this dock? It mentions 100W. This will be the first time I've ever had a dock that wasn't work provided, so I've never had to spec one before.
https://us.targus.com/products/usb-...ng-station-100-watt-power-delivery-dock570usz
https://us.targus.com/products/usb-...ng-station-100-watt-power-delivery-dock570usz
It was out of stock everywhere when I was previously looking at it, but certainly seems on the surface to provide 100W PD and check that box. If you're looking for some of the monitor/display aspects, be aware DisplayPort Alternate Mode does not usually work well with macOS/mac products.
They have not updated their DisplayLink macOS X SupportTool in a long time. Latest version I'm seeing is 5.2.3241 from February 2019. Does not exactly inspire confidence for 100% compatibility MBP16" right now.
Yeah, I usually run 3 displays that are 2 externals and laptop open. But I just upgraded my externals and still have the 2 old ones, so maybe I can see if 4 are too many.
Those are really good points. I didn't know the issues with the DP alternate and the old version of their software is a bit worrying. Also, OSX 10.12 is the latest version they mention on that page. Amazon had this dock in stock and I just ordered it. I suppose I'll see how it does when it arrives tomorrow and post the results.
Hi all, coming from the coil whine thread on the MBP 16, but wanted to mention that I've got the CalDigit USB-C ProDock still in the box, knowing full well it won't fully power the machine. But I may have no other choice but to use it because the cost of getting all the dongles to connect 2 DisplayPort screens and USB accessories would add up very quickly. I suppose that, should a new dock come out to fully support 96W of power that I could sell the dock on eBay and take a small loss on it.
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let us know how it goes. I‘d be interested in this dock over the more expensive CalDigit model.
It would be nice if Caldigit finds a way to give 96 watts to th TS3+ with a firmware update, but really, even of they don't, I have no problem connecting external power. It's not like connecting two Thunderbolt cables instead of one is so back breaking.
The issue isn't that it is "back breaking" to plug a cable in. The main issue (at least for me) is that this effectively puts two ports out of commission - consuming one for power and one for TS3 Plus. This really should/could all be done through only one port. Unfortunately, not every device has daisy-chain in/out for TB3 and USB-C/USB-3. Even those that do, it's not even 100% reliable all the time.
FYI - Just received a promo email for the $295 OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock (85W charging). They're giving away the OWC Travel Dock with every purchase. Unfortunately, their "new" rebranded AKiTiO products (AKiTiO Thunder3 Dock Pro and AKiTiO Thunder3 RAID Station) are only 60W PD. Wouldn't expect to see any new products from OWC for 96W until these are cleared out a bit. Maybe some will preview at CES 2020.
FYI - Just received a promo email for the $295 OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock (85W charging). They're giving away the OWC Travel Dock with every purchase. Unfortunately, their "new" rebranded AKiTiO products (AKiTiO Thunder3 Dock Pro and AKiTiO Thunder3 RAID Station) are only 60W PD. Wouldn't expect to see any new products from OWC for 96W until these are cleared out a bit. Maybe some will preview at CES 2020.
It just arrived and I set it up. My 16in should arrive today, but it's powering my old one just fine. Also, the drivers just got updated this morning. I hooked up my two external displays and they're good too.
So far, I'm pretty satisfied.
Which drivers? Targus is not showing any updates available for macOS since February 2019:
https://www.targus.com/form/download.aspx?regionid=7&sku=DOCK570&tab=other
You are right, of course. The three reasons I care: a) my desk looks more profressional with only the one (black) cable and b) I transport my laptop often and will forget the power cable if I use it at the office and c) it’s just nice to not have to plug it in everyday. None of this is back breaking but neither is ditching all this for a cheap Windows laptop.
The instructions in the box directed me to the displaylink website.
https://www.displaylink.com/downloads/macos
I solved (b) by buying two additional 96w adapters. Including the one in the Macbook box, I have three - one for home, one fpr work and one for the carry bag.
That update should actually apply universally to nearly all USB-C dock solutions since the majority use DisplayLink drivers.