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Comment by TheNewAndy | Hacker News Reader

It is missing Ethernet, which seems to be important to the author.

Having heard positive things about caldigit, I got their USB-C Pro Dock and I get frequent screen blanking with my M1 Mac, and often some of the USB ports fail to work. I don't use the ethernet port, but I think it is a Realtek (so likely the same thing the author is complaining about)

I have spoken to caldigit support and so far they have replaced the dock once, and now have gone pretty quiet.

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> It is missing Ethernet, which seems to be important to the author.

CalDigit's TS4 has Ethernet (2.5 GbE). I've been a happy TS3 user for years.

https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-station-4/

I have a TS3, but it’s been hard to get a second or a TS4 lately.

I have a TS3 for work and looked into the TS4 but it's been out of stock everywhere.

I'm running a CalDigit Connect 10G on a relatively high-end NUC and it's great for a quick little Plex box that also sits on my 10G network segment next to a TrueNAS box doing 2x10G on DAC cables with LACP on a Chelsio T6225-CR.

I had bad luck with the QNAP QNA-T310G1S and Sonnet Solo 10G SFP+ (surprising as their stuff is usually rock-solid) -- both based on the AQC100S chipset and the aQuantia AQtion driver just didn't work for me under LTS Ubuntu.

Does it have an audible coil whine?

I've tested 5+ TS3 Plus docks, and all of them have a coil whine, which can be heard in a quiet room, without playing any music.

Sometimes I like to work in silence, and the coil whine really bothers me.

I usually can detect coil whines to an annoying degree, but I don't hear one in my TS3 Plus. Maybe your ears are more sensitive than mine!

I've had my ts3 for a couple years now. I just noticed a pretty bad coil whine on mine lately. I'm not sure if it's always been there and my environment's changed or the device just suddenly started making the noise.

That sounds like exactly the issue I've just described when I plug a USB C display into mine. I actually notice it, albeit to a much lesser degree, when I move a USB mouse connected to the dock.

Probably time for a change I guess.

I have two 3x4k display Startech hubs, and one developed a very audible coil whine, the other did not. It was so bad it landed in a drawer.

Otherwise both worked fine allowing me to drive 3 screens on the OG M1 mbp. They each cost around 350 eur though.

So, this is really random, but if you can open up the case and figure out what is whining, folding up tinfoil neatly in half about a dozen times will make a really effective shield and cut like 95% of the whine. I found out about this trick from an open-source synth (PreenFM 2, incredible little frequency modulation synth) that had some whine due to the display. Sticking the thick piece of tinfoil between the display and the PCB boosted the SNR an almost unbelievable amount. Give it a shot, it only costs time and tinfoil! Be sure to stick some electrical tape around anything it might contact though, so you don't short anything out.

I hear nothing from mine, but this may well be an example of me being 52.

Coil whine is about the only time having tinnitus works in my favor.

I got a thunderbolt 4 dock from Razer[0] that has all the bits and bobs (and it looks really nice). Almost bankrupted me, but as the GP says, this is just the reality at this point.

[0]: https://www.razer.com/gaming-pc-accessories/razer-thunderbol...

The port arrangement on the front/back of that looks identical to the Kensington and Sonnet docks mentioned upthread, so I'd suspect that Razer are another vendor of a skinned reference design. (Though they're on the cheaper end of the spectrum so far, unless someone turns up the Aliexpress version.)

For the Ethernet I enjoyed the fact the dock was clean and unopinionated, just providing USB ports so I could use a USB-C-to-Ethernet adapter.

Your comments about the Screen Blanking sound bad and are are likely correct, I only have an Intel Mac to compare.

I have used the dock with windows and Linux machines and seen solar issues btw. So I would expect the same with an Intel mac

The screen blanking with M1 was driving me crazy. I went through untold amount of cables, and ended up with miniDP (on the dock) to DP (on the monitor) that doesn't blank, but only flickers occasionally.

The funny thing is that 2015 Intel MBP (with Apple TB2->TB3 adapter) with the same dock and same monitor didn't blank or flicker. I guess it is something about the new Apple TB implementation in M1.

I’ve got the TS 3 Plus dock (which has Ethernet) and it has been working flawlessly on my 2020 MBP (Intel) the entire time. I _think_ there was a firmware update in the early days that unlocked the 85 or 90 watt charging. I had heartburn about the price, but it’s been worth every penny.

I’m not pushing 4K though, so mileage may vary. I’ve got a 27” TB2 Apple Cinema Display via TB2 to USB-C and a Dell via Display port.

As a guy working with Raspberry Pi and 3D printers a lot in my free time it is SO NICE to have the card reader right up front and easy to access. I also love un/plugging just one cord when I’m on the go.

I have the TS3. It's been great BUT.... the Mac has not been great with it in the following ways.

(1) I keep my MBP closed. It take 10-30 seconds for it to wake up on keypress. That's so long that I often have no way to tell if it noticed I pressed key.

(2) If XCode is debugging and the screen sleeps then MacOS 12 never recovers unless I disconnect the cable, open the lid, get it wake up on the laptop monitor, and then plug it back in and finally close the lid.

I get why #2 is rare and therefore not fixed but still (T_T)

I keep my lid closed as well and I’ve never had it not wake up. Though, with the latest is version it has seemed slower to wake at times.

Yeah, I kept running into docking problems trying to keep the lid closed as well. It seemed like it worked less than half the time. Worst-case I'd have to restart. Sometimes it'd wake up with no mouse or kbd working, other times my dual 4K60 monitors would be switched left/right, many times just...nothing...

Pretty lame that one of the "best" laptop mfgs in the world can't make docks work right with one of the biggest CPU / IP mfgs in the world. Laptop sleep states were a problem back in the early 90s on Linux...some things really never change.

By the way, there were bad problems with the TS3+, Intel MacBook Pro 13" 2020 and macOS 12.2 (no USB or Ethernet until reboot after unplugging and re-plugging), which were fixed in 12.3.

I'm using OWC TB3 dock, it has the same (1) problem. In the past, I've used Kanex TB2 dock and it was the same.

So for the feedback on keypress, I'm using devices with backlight. Both keyboard or mouse work fine, once they light up, you know that it is waking up.

Their TS3 dock supports ethernet. I've had mine for well over 3 years now and it still works great. Can't say the same for the 5+ other docks I had before this one.

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