This is very informative. Actually I own a TS3 Plus and found something very interesting, that if I connect my external audio interface via the USB port on the back next to the USB-C port it will sound crackle. I guess it's because of some kind of additional latency. That's why I googled its internal structure and found your video. Though I still don't know exactly why, I find it makes sense cause that port is connected to a different chip other than the other three USB ports. Very nice video and thank you for your efforts!
Looks like the team had some fun designing that. Must be nice to design something to a spec for once not down to a price. I like the way it comes apart , easy to service. That PCIE socket has also been hand soldered by the looks of it. Must be a low volume product . That 4 port hub is prob driving the SD card reader.
Nice teardown! 18:30 I think you're right that the SD Card slot on the front will be using the 4th "port" of the Fresco Logic controller, hence why the 4th physical USB A port is connected to the ASMedia controller instead. It makes the most sense given the board layout
I did some investigation before but I know the unknown chip is an Intel Thunderbolt Controller (pretty much the only company allowed to distribute TB controllers) and it's there latest series as of the time dock was released. I used to have all the ports mapped to what controller they went to so I could maximize my bandwidth usage. If you look in System Information app you can see the USB controllers layout I think they don't advertise that Type A port as 10Gig is because they maybe could not get it to run at full 10Gig sense Type-A 10Gig is a bit flakey at times and is not as advertised. All around one of the best docking station on the market, I have a new one from a exchange with CalDigit because my last one had issues with it dropping connection from the laptop randomly and screen flickering. So I think my first one had a bad thunderbolt chipset or it died over time. Really good support they even sent me a new one and let me return mine after I got the new one in the mail.
Update I believe its the Intel JHL7540 and here's the datasheet thunderbolttechnology.net/sites/default/files/18-241_Thunder7000Controller_Brief_FIN_HI.pdf
8:40 It is a pcie x4 connector. I don't think its using the pcie standard though. The pcie connector makes a great board to board interconnect even in non pc products, they're strong, high speed, designed to handle large amounts of power and most importantly very cheap. EDIT 11:50 Since it's using pcie for the connected devices the connector could be using the pcie standard.
I expect most of the 8 pin ICs are flash or EEPROM. They all seem to have coloured dots on them - probably indicating they've been programmed with something. I expect they're used for the USB hubs and SD reader. A lot of the USB 3.0 stuff I've worked on has used external memory for either configuration or firmware.
Each of those lines are actually 2 very thin traces close together, looking at the datasheet for the chip, the two on the left connect to the positive and negative receive pins and the two on the right connect to the positive and negative transmit pins. After filming I verified the topology through Mac OS System Information, both of the ports in question (the 10gbps USB-C one and the Type A next to it) are indeed connected through the ASMedia controller.
The type a usb connected to the asmedia chip could be 10gb, according to asmedia's site the asm1142 supports 2 usb 3.1 ports it says nothing about 3.0. It's worth testing.
@@yves2831 thanks for the reply! I really like my ts3+ so far. Only been 3 months but it has been great so far. I use an external DAC for my headphones but as an audio nerd I couldn't help but wonder.
Your suspicion about the USB port topology is correct, found this on the CalDigit website: www.caldigit.com/post/ts3-plus-interface-bandwidth-allocation-diagram
I don’t see why PCIe would need to be “extracted” Thunderbolt IS PCIe, just over an external cable. Apart from that though, this was quite interesting to watch.
Thunderbolt carries PCIe but it's not like having a PCIe slot on a cable. Thunderbolt carries a pair of serial streams which carries PCIe and DisplayPort. Conversion needs to be carried out to transform these streams into regular PCIe lanes.
Great video. I'm interested in creating a custom hub that meets my unique needs. Are these types of boards available for purchase anywhere? Can they be powered by an internal PSU?
Question: I’m currently using the front USB-A port of the CalDigit ts3+ for a KVM switcher solely as a power source (5v DC-in). I can easily reroute this to a dedicated power source but for me it’s more convenient using the Caldigit. Should I be concerned about this in the long-term? I don’t know what it is but I have a habit of finding USB ports fail on me over time in general ; I’ve observed this across multitude of older PC’s / ports and adapters in the past - hence my question. I don’t want to bust any of these precious ports on the Caldidgit in the future. Do you guys find USB-A ports are notORIUS for no longer working? Will this be a problem?
I've never known a USB port to fail on me on any piece of equipment I've owned my sister once had a dell laptop, which last time I saw it, it would have been at least 10 years old, and all of its USB ports (it had 4) still worked perhaps you have just been extremely unlucky
Hi Cameron , nice video. i’m looking to buy one of this dock , could you please let me know if get any trouble using it ? any annoying bugs , or unexpected behavour ? thank ..Mike
I've had one now for about a year and have yet to experience any issues. The device can get quite warm depending on what's plugged in/being used, but a small fan facing it keeps it cool.
This is a docking station, it has nothing to do with the lack of ports on the machine, it is so I can dock the machine at my desk with a single cable. At work I use a Dell Latitude with tonnes of ports yet I still have a docking station for convenience. On a cheap Acer without Thunderbolt or a dock I'd have to connect at least 5 or 6 cables to the machine every time I want to use it at my desk.
I used to do that but didn't want to be stuck at my desk - having a powerful laptop I can chill on the couch with but then dock at my desk if I need to work on something more complex is a much better solution for me. I haven't turned my desktop on since I got the MacBook. Then I use my work laptop almost exclusively docked but can then easily undock my laptop to take it to a meeting or to take it home if I'm going to need it.
Very informative and good presentation. Unfortunately your words are just like a Doctor's prescription. Only first two words are understandable on every sentence , the rest is flowing like olive oil. Can't figure out. Please watch Linus Tech Tips RUclips channel. He is speaking perfectly clear to be understood by us. Wish you all success. Subscribed..
That's because Linus Sebastien is a fellow Canadian, and we Canadians are known to have a more 'neutral' accent...you can't ask a guy to change an accent for you. He can try to articulate slower or something like that, but he cannot become Canadian for you...
@@edakimling133 Hi, I just mentioned Linus as an example of presentation. Not recommended to change the channel author's style or accent. A little bit of clarity on sentences may be good so that so many non native English speakers can understand. As these are technical videos, smaller details also matters. Just asked more intelligibility. Still love the content of this channel. The author started 11 years before. May be the intelligibility on vocals bring more subscribers and viewers. IMHO!
![Review: CalDigit TS3 Plus - the best Thunderbolt 3 dock for Mac [9to5Mac]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FPjegKN-CVA/mqdefault.jpg)
This is very informative.
Actually I own a TS3 Plus and found something very interesting, that if I connect my external audio interface via the USB port on the back next to the USB-C port it will sound crackle. I guess it's because of some kind of additional latency. That's why I googled its internal structure and found your video.
Though I still don't know exactly why, I find it makes sense cause that port is connected to a different chip other than the other three USB ports.
Very nice video and thank you for your efforts!
Looks like the team had some fun designing that. Must be nice to design something to a spec for once not down to a price. I like the way it comes apart , easy to service. That PCIE socket has also been hand soldered by the looks of it. Must be a low volume product .
That 4 port hub is prob driving the SD card reader.
Thank You for all your effort to make this video. I found it very informative.
Audio & Electronic Engineer for 50 years.
Nice teardown!
18:30 I think you're right that the SD Card slot on the front will be using the 4th "port" of the Fresco Logic controller, hence why the 4th physical USB A port is connected to the ASMedia controller instead. It makes the most sense given the board layout
Thanks for making this video! just got one of these TS3 Plus docks and immediately wondered what was inside.
I just ordered one before finding your upload. This video is outstanding.
I did some investigation before but I know the unknown chip is an Intel Thunderbolt Controller (pretty much the only company allowed to distribute TB controllers) and it's there latest series as of the time dock was released. I used to have all the ports mapped to what controller they went to so I could maximize my bandwidth usage. If you look in System Information app you can see the USB controllers layout
I think they don't advertise that Type A port as 10Gig is because they maybe could not get it to run at full 10Gig sense Type-A 10Gig is a bit flakey at times and is not as advertised.
All around one of the best docking station on the market, I have a new one from a exchange with CalDigit because my last one had issues with it dropping connection from the laptop randomly and screen flickering. So I think my first one had a bad thunderbolt chipset or it died over time. Really good support they even sent me a new one and let me return mine after I got the new one in the mail.
Update I believe its the Intel JHL7540 and here's the datasheet thunderbolttechnology.net/sites/default/files/18-241_Thunder7000Controller_Brief_FIN_HI.pdf
8:40 It is a pcie x4 connector. I don't think its using the pcie standard though. The pcie connector makes a great board to board interconnect even in non pc products, they're strong, high speed, designed to handle large amounts of power and most importantly very cheap. EDIT 11:50 Since it's using pcie for the connected devices the connector could be using the pcie standard.
Very interesting video. Thanks for your insight!
Nice teardown😎😎
I expect most of the 8 pin ICs are flash or EEPROM. They all seem to have coloured dots on them - probably indicating they've been programmed with something. I expect they're used for the USB hubs and SD reader. A lot of the USB 3.0 stuff I've worked on has used external memory for either configuration or firmware.
Great video! I leaned new things today... lol 😝
14:23 I can only see two traces, which are likely just 5V and Ground, routed through the 10Gbit controller to simplify PCB layout.
Each of those lines are actually 2 very thin traces close together, looking at the datasheet for the chip, the two on the left connect to the positive and negative receive pins and the two on the right connect to the positive and negative transmit pins. After filming I verified the topology through Mac OS System Information, both of the ports in question (the 10gbps USB-C one and the Type A next to it) are indeed connected through the ASMedia controller.
I'd bet the thunderbolt power board will still work without the other board connected. It just won't show the other ports, NIC or audio.
well done m8
well done video. Good job!
It makes it easier to independently replace each board.
The type a usb connected to the asmedia chip could be 10gb, according to asmedia's site the asm1142 supports 2 usb 3.1 ports it says nothing about 3.0. It's worth testing.
Awesome!
I have been curious about the actually chips used for the DAC, OPamp, optical out and USB/TB controllers.
They use a Cmedia 6533 USB Audio Chip for all audio related operations inside the dock; this includes the DAC for headphone out and SPDIF.
@@yves2831 thanks for the reply! I really like my ts3+ so far. Only been 3 months but it has been great so far.
I use an external DAC for my headphones but as an audio nerd I couldn't help but wonder.
great video!
Your suspicion about the USB port topology is correct, found this on the CalDigit website: www.caldigit.com/post/ts3-plus-interface-bandwidth-allocation-diagram
somehow the link above didn't work for me. I've found it on the knowledge base. www.caldigit.com/ts3-plus-interface-bandwidth-allocation-and-diagram/
I don’t see why PCIe would need to be “extracted” Thunderbolt IS PCIe, just over an external cable. Apart from that though, this was quite interesting to watch.
Thunderbolt carries PCIe but it's not like having a PCIe slot on a cable. Thunderbolt carries a pair of serial streams which carries PCIe and DisplayPort. Conversion needs to be carried out to transform these streams into regular PCIe lanes.
@@camerongray1515 What would happen if you plugged that pci-e slot into a pci-e port in a computer? Nothing? Blows up?
@@jordan.rushing I definitely wouldn't be risking it - chances are that while it uses the same connector as PCI-E it won't be wired the same.
Should do the same thing with the recently released Anker clones.
Great video. I'm interested in creating a custom hub that meets my unique needs. Are these types of boards available for purchase anywhere? Can they be powered by an internal PSU?
RIP Maplin :(
Thanks for the teardown. I am having trouble with the accent, would appreciate some subtitles (non-native)
Other manufacturers list all that stuff and I almost went with startech because of the lack of info.
is it a JHL6540 Thunderbolt Controller?
what if I connect an EGPU on the dock's TB3 port?? will the TB-TB connection bottleneck??
Question:
I’m currently using the front USB-A port of the CalDigit ts3+ for a KVM switcher solely as a power source (5v DC-in). I can easily reroute this to a dedicated power source but for me it’s
more convenient using the Caldigit. Should I be concerned about this in the long-term? I don’t know what it is but I have a habit of finding USB ports fail on me over time in general ; I’ve observed this across multitude of older PC’s / ports and adapters in the past - hence my question. I don’t want to bust any of these precious ports on the Caldidgit in the future. Do you guys find USB-A ports are notORIUS for no longer working? Will this be a problem?
I've never known a USB port to fail on me on any piece of equipment I've owned
my sister once had a dell laptop, which last time I saw it, it would have been at least 10 years old, and all of its USB ports (it had 4) still worked
perhaps you have just been extremely unlucky
Super interesting! Have you ever had any issues with USB3 2.4GHz interference?
Nope, never found any sort of issue with it with this dock or any other devices I've used
Hi Cameron , nice video.
i’m looking to buy one of this dock , could you please let me know if get any trouble using it ? any annoying bugs , or unexpected behavour ? thank ..Mike
I've had one now for about a year and have yet to experience any issues. The device can get quite warm depending on what's plugged in/being used, but a small fan facing it keeps it cool.
In summary (and without the video guesswork):
www.caldigit.com/post/ts3-plus-interface-bandwidth-allocation-diagram
somehow the link above didn't work for me. I've found it on the knowledge base. www.caldigit.com/ts3-plus-interface-bandwidth-allocation-and-diagram/
@@ActionJ322 yeah, looks like they moved some URL pages around. Least others will have the latest link now 👍🏼
next week. video light tear down
I watched the video at 0.75x the normal speed, because he is speaking way too fast with accent and english is not my main language...
I hate to be the guy to point out how all these ports are present on a cheap Acer. Except thunderbolt of course.
This is a docking station, it has nothing to do with the lack of ports on the machine, it is so I can dock the machine at my desk with a single cable. At work I use a Dell Latitude with tonnes of ports yet I still have a docking station for convenience. On a cheap Acer without Thunderbolt or a dock I'd have to connect at least 5 or 6 cables to the machine every time I want to use it at my desk.
@@camerongray1515 Did not think of that! I always used a desktop with a monitor and such.
I used to do that but didn't want to be stuck at my desk - having a powerful laptop I can chill on the couch with but then dock at my desk if I need to work on something more complex is a much better solution for me. I haven't turned my desktop on since I got the MacBook. Then I use my work laptop almost exclusively docked but can then easily undock my laptop to take it to a meeting or to take it home if I'm going to need it.
The big chip probably is an ASIC. So it's no wonder there were no datasheet out there :)
I think it's intel ip
Very informative and good presentation.
Unfortunately your words are just like a Doctor's prescription.
Only first two words are understandable on every sentence , the rest is flowing like olive oil. Can't figure out.
Please watch Linus Tech Tips RUclips channel. He is speaking perfectly clear to be understood by us.
Wish you all success.
Subscribed..
That's because Linus Sebastien is a fellow Canadian, and we Canadians are known to have a more 'neutral' accent...you can't ask a guy to change an accent for you. He can try to articulate slower or something like that, but he cannot become Canadian for you...
@@edakimling133 Hi,
I just mentioned Linus as an example of presentation. Not recommended to change the channel author's style or accent. A little bit of clarity on sentences may be good so that so many non native English speakers can understand.
As these are technical videos, smaller details also matters. Just asked more intelligibility.
Still love the content of this channel. The author started 11 years before. May be the intelligibility on vocals bring more subscribers and viewers.
IMHO!