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cdf

macrumors 68020
Jul 27, 2012
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I'm curious about something. Would anybody be willing to take a look at the PCB of the Titan Ridge card and tell me if there are any traces attached to the pins indicated in the pictures below?

USB front.png USB back.png
 

joevt

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Jun 21, 2012
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I'm curious about something. Would anybody be willing to take a look at the PCB of the Titan Ridge card and tell me if there are any traces attached to the pins indicated in the pictures below?
I didn't use a probe to check. I don't think the +5V pins are connected to anything. The backside shows the traces for D- and D+. The Ground pins may be connected to the backside ground plane.
PCB GC-TITAN RIDGE back.JPG PCB GC-TITAN RIDGE front.JPG
 

cdf

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Jul 27, 2012
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@joevt thanks so much for the information! So it seems that connecting just D+/- should be enough. Although I don't yet have a Titan Ridge card, I've already put together a tiny hub solution for the bluetooth header. Since the hub is powered by the 3.3V that the header provides, it is only suitable for the data lines.
 

joevt

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Jun 21, 2012
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@joevt thanks so much for the information! So it seems that connecting just D+/- should be enough. Although I don't yet have a Titan Ridge card, I've already put together a tiny hub solution for the bluetooth header. Since the hub is powered by the 3.3V that the header provides, it is only suitable for the data lines.
Shouldn't USB hubs be powered by 5V?
 

cdf

macrumors 68020
Jul 27, 2012
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Good question. My hub uses a controller that works on 3.3V. Although the hub expects to regulate 5V to 3.3V for the controller, powering it by the 3.32V (measured) of the bluetooth header results in something still over 3V, a level at which the controller remains fully functional. I've tested the hub with various storage devices (powered externally) and the bluetooth module of my WiFi card (data lines only), and I expect that it will work with the Titan Ridge card.
 

joevt

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Jun 21, 2012
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Good question. My hub uses a controller that works on 3.3V. Although the hub expects to regulate 5V to 3.3V for the controller, powering it by the 3.32V (measured) of the bluetooth header results in something still over 3V, a level at which the controller remains fully functional. I've tested the hub with various storage devices (powered externally) and the bluetooth module of my WiFi card (data lines only), and I expect that it will work with the Titan Ridge card.
Right. D- and D+ only need 2.8–3.6 V.
 

Woof Woof

macrumors member
Sep 15, 2004
94
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Good question. My hub uses a controller that works on 3.3V. Although the hub expects to regulate 5V to 3.3V for the controller, powering it by the 3.32V (measured) of the bluetooth header results in something still over 3V, a level at which the controller remains fully functional. I've tested the hub with various storage devices (powered externally) and the bluetooth module of my WiFi card (data lines only), and I expect that it will work with the Titan Ridge card.

Hah, I was looking at a couple tiny USB Hubs and wondering the same... if they could be powered from 3.3v instead of 5. I knew many of the USB chips ran at 3.3v, and was thinking about just removing any regulator and jumping over it to provide 3.3v directly to the chip to avoid the regulator voltage drop.

I've got my titan ridge card, now I'm fighting through getting a usable win 10 install.

USB 3.1 already shows up in System Info with the pins jumpered on the titan ridge card.

For now, I'm just going to run a single USB2 from the bluetooth header to the card using just D+/D-. I've got a spare bluetooth 4 pin cable that I can chop up.
 

cdf

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Jul 27, 2012
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For now, I'm just going to run a single USB2 from the bluetooth header to the card using just D+/D-. I've got a spare bluetooth 4 pin cable that I can chop up.

Nice. Make sure to let us know if it works. I've been wondering if the data lines alone are enough.
 

Woof Woof

macrumors member
Sep 15, 2004
94
17
Finally got Win 10 to work with my GPU, got the Titan Ridge installed, driver installed. Now trying to see devices on the thunderbolt ports. Haven't installed the USB 2 jumper yet.

Some things I ran into along the way:

After booting into Win 10 with the card installed, the Titan Ridge driver failed to install the first time. I suspect Win 10 hadn't spotted the card yet. Once the unknown device showed up in device manager, the driver installed fine.

I've got a USB 3 BD drive plugged into a USB-C to USB-A adapter, and Windows isn't seeing the drive. I don't know if the adapter is passive or not. Win 10 Device manager sees both a USB 3.1 eXtensible host controller and USB 3.0 root hub.

Changing boot devices is a bit of a pain in the ass. The bootcamp 6.1 startup disk selector just gives generic names to the Mac volumes, so you can't figure out which one is which. The Mac startup disk selector shows the win 10 drive, but selecting it and rebooting just gives the "No boot device found" message. Option boot works to get back to Win 10. The Win 10 drive is an MBR partitioned SSD in bay 1, so I don't see why MacOS is having trouble setting it as the boot volume.
 

Charmandrigo

macrumors member
Jul 3, 2018
94
22
You need two USB 2.0 ports - on for each Thunderbolt port. So maybe you should use a hub if you don't want to take away two ports from the Mac Pro. The hub should be powered so the ports of the hub have the same power as from the Mac Pro. The hub should be USB 2.0 because 3.0 would be a waste..

Can't a compatible USB 3.0 PCI with internal USB ports work? Take the Inateck KTU3FR-5O2U for example which has 2 internal PCI 3.0 ports. Isn't USB 3.0 backwards compatible with USB 2.0 anyways?
 

joevt

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Jun 21, 2012
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Can't a compatible USB 3.0 PCI with internal USB ports work? Take the Inateck KTU3FR-5O2U for example which has 2 internal PCI 3.0 ports. Isn't USB 3.0 backwards compatible with USB 2.0 anyways?
Any Mac compatible USB port should work. Woof Woof's tests with the Bluetooth USB data lines will tell us if power is required (probably not, in which case I will take back my statement that a hub should be powered - extra power is still useful for ports that will not be connected to the Titan Ridge).
 

Woof Woof

macrumors member
Sep 15, 2004
94
17
I'll build the cable today and see what happens. Since I don't have one of the LG thunderbolt displays that use USB for control, I'm going to have to test USB2 some other way. I have a thunderbolt to USB A adapter... and I *think* it is a passive adapter, but I don't know for sure yet.

For most testing, I'm not trying display port passthrough as that might just complicate things. I am fighting with my MVC flashed Titan GPU though. It is seriously pissy about switching from Windows to MacOS. If I boot back and forth between OSes, inevitably the display blanks out. Maybe just finding the right port that behaves properly for both. I can remote control the machine and it is alive... it even knows what kind of display is connected, yet it just says "Built-in Display" in About This Mac.

I could switch to a non-flashed card like a GTX 760, but that means using one of the boot picker utilities instead of Option key booting.

I did get an Apple thunderbolt ethernet adapter working in Mojave after a restart from Windows. (Titan Ridge -> Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter -> Apple Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter) It pulled an IP address, so it was working. One thing of note, Windows refused to boot with the ethernet adapter plugged in, but allows me to hot plug it.

I did briefly test display port passthrough in Windows. I connected GPU to Titan Ridge to TB3 multi-adapter to HDMI Display. Odd thing was, I had to have the displayport bridge cable connected in the lower mini-displayport jack and the multi-adapter in the higher TB3 port (Port 1). It also took a fair bit of time to light up.

Ohh for the days I could just walk into Radio Shack to get more heat shrink tubing.
 
Last edited:

joevt

macrumors 604
Jun 21, 2012
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I'm going to have to test USB2 some other way. I have a thunderbolt to USB A adapter... and I *think* it is a passive adapter, but I don't know for sure yet.
A USB mouse with a USB-C to USB-A adapter is sufficient. You should see the mouse connect to a USB 2.0 port in IORegistryExplorer.app or ioreg or System Information.app.

I did get an Apple thunderbolt ethernet adapter working in Mojave after a restart from Windows. (Titan Ridge -> Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter -> Apple Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter) It pulled an IP address, so it was working. One thing of note, Windows refused to boot with the ethernet adapter plugged in, but allows me to hot plug it.
Some devices give me problems where I can't warm boot into Windows, but warm booting into macOS works.

I did briefly test display port passthrough in Windows. I connected GPU to Titan Ridge to TB3 multi-adapter to HDMI Display. Odd thing was, I had to have the displayport bridge cable connected in the lower mini-displayport jack and the multi-adapter in the higher TB3 port (Port 1). It also took a fair bit of time to light up.
This problem goes away if you connect both DisplayPort inputs of the GC-TITAN RIDGE :)

Ohh for the days I could just walk into Radio Shack to get more heat shrink tubing.
Now we just buy everything online and wait a few days for delivery.
 

cdf

macrumors 68020
Jul 27, 2012
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I received my Titan Ridge card. I can confirm that the data lines are enough for USB 2. I tested this with one of the ports on the back of the machine. However, I can't seem to get it working with my bluetooth header hub. I wonder if it has to do with noise on the lines, because I'm using unshielded wire...
 
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Woof Woof

macrumors member
Sep 15, 2004
94
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I received my Titan Ridge card. I can confirm that the data lines are enough for USB 2. I tested this with one of the ports on the back of the machine. However, I can't seem to get it working with my bluetooth header hub. I wonder if it has to do with noise on the lines, because I'm using unshielded wire...

Wonder... if you power it (and used the data lines) from the USB cable plugged into the back, does the HUB work? Just trying to eliminate the HUB as the issue.
 

Woof Woof

macrumors member
Sep 15, 2004
94
17
Yep, just D- and D+ work coming off of the bluetooth header. Of course only one TB3 jack works with USB 2 devices this way. The USB-C to USB-A adapter I got is passive, so mouse worked just fine, as did a USB 3 Blueray drive that didn't work before. I think it needed the USB 2 connected to properly negotiate a connection at USB 3 speed... or this particular drive did anyway. Mouse showed a 1.5Mbit connection, the drive showed a 5Gbit connection.

All of this booting directly to Mojave.... but we already knew that USB 3 worked without warm booting from windows.

IMG_3174.JPG
IMG_3175.JPG

[doublepost=1559771127][/doublepost]
A USB mouse with a USB-C to USB-A adapter is sufficient. You should see the mouse connect to a USB 2.0 port in IORegistryExplorer.app or ioreg or System Information.app.


Some devices give me problems where I can't warm boot into Windows, but warm booting into macOS works.


This problem goes away if you connect both DisplayPort inputs of the GC-TITAN RIDGE :)


Now we just buy everything online and wait a few days for delivery.

My GPU only has one DP output ;-(
 

cdf

macrumors 68020
Jul 27, 2012
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Very nice @Woof Woof! I got my hub to work by taping the wires down. It really was a matter of noise. I will need to shield those wires.
 
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kings79

macrumors regular
Sep 16, 2015
227
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Haven't checked here in ages. Has anyone got one of these cards working without a warm-boot?
 

joevt

macrumors 604
Jun 21, 2012
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Got it working.
The single 2 pin connector is from the bluetooth. The heatshrink contains the hub. The two 2 pin connectors go to the GC-TITAN RIDGE. Is that right? What is the four pin connector? Can you post a link to the hub (I don't remember if you already did)?
 

joevt

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Jun 21, 2012
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The 4 pin connector goes to the bluetooth header.
The single 2 pin connector goes to the WiFi card for bluetooth.
Oh right. I forgot you need a third for the bluetooth to remain working. so the 4 pin connector is power, data, and ground for the source of the hub. It's a four port hub but you're only using 3 ports. Exposing the fourth port is probably more trouble than it's worth - you don't want to expose the problems with the power source (only 3.3V instead of 5V) - and who needs more USB 2.0 ports?
 
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