Daisy Chaining MOTU Ultralites

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Discussion related to installation, configuration and use of MOTU hardware such as MIDI interfaces, audio interfaces, etc. for Mac OSX
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shellac85
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Joined: Fri Jul 21, 2017 5:02 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Daisy Chaining MOTU Ultralites

Post by shellac85 »

I have two (I think they are MK1) but it is very hit and miss setting them up. If the laptop only registers one MOTU (which happens often) the whole computer has to be restarted because nothing will work. Its Thunderbolt to Firewire.

Just wondering has anyone any experience with this?

My laptop is MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)
Yosemite 10.10.5
2.5 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Tks
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mikehalloran
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Primary DAW OS: MacOS
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Re: Daisy Chaining MOTU Ultralites

Post by mikehalloran »

You are using external power supplies and not trying to use bus power, right? TB only passes around 7V while the FW spec is around 22V. Daisy chaining bus powered devices never works as far as I know.

If power is not the problem, you may have to create an Aggregate Device. MOTU has instructions on their site and there are many threads here.

What I don't know is how well that works over Thunderbolt since it does not pass the entire FW spec. Can't say that I recall a thread saying it doesn't.
DP 11.31; 828mkII FW, micro lite, M4, MTP/AV USB Firmware 2.0.1
2023 Mac Studio M2 8TB, 192GB RAM, OS Sonoma 14.4, USB4 8TB external, M-Audio AIR 192|14, Mackie ProFxv3 6/10/12; 2012 MBPs Catalina, Mojave
IK-NI-Izotope-PSP-Garritan-Antares, LogicPro X, Finale 27.4, Dorico 5.2, Notion 6, Overture 5, TwistedWave, DSP-Q 5, SmartScore64 Pro, Toast 20 Pro
shellac85
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jul 21, 2017 5:02 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Re: Daisy Chaining MOTU Ultralites

Post by shellac85 »

I am using external power for the second UL, not the first. Both are on and receiving audio from external hardware. Sometimes the laptop sees both devices straight away but others it only sees one which then means (for some other reason) I have to restart the whole laptop. Was talking to a guy from MOTU today. He seems to think that both UL's should be powered externally even though both are on. Will get another power source and test hopefully over the weekend.

Yes also using aggregate device. When this works, its works great :)
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mikehalloran
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Primary DAW OS: MacOS
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Re: Daisy Chaining MOTU Ultralites

Post by mikehalloran »

shellac85 wrote:I am using external power for the second UL, not the first. Both are on and receiving audio from external hardware. Sometimes the laptop sees both devices straight away but others it only sees one which then means (for some other reason) I have to restart the whole laptop. Was talking to a guy from MOTU today. He seems to think that both UL's should be powered externally even though both are on. Will get another power source and test hopefully over the weekend.
...
Exactly. Even if the TB cable is running full spec, it cannot supply more that 1/3 the Voltage your device wants—no need to get into the lack of amperage.
DP 11.31; 828mkII FW, micro lite, M4, MTP/AV USB Firmware 2.0.1
2023 Mac Studio M2 8TB, 192GB RAM, OS Sonoma 14.4, USB4 8TB external, M-Audio AIR 192|14, Mackie ProFxv3 6/10/12; 2012 MBPs Catalina, Mojave
IK-NI-Izotope-PSP-Garritan-Antares, LogicPro X, Finale 27.4, Dorico 5.2, Notion 6, Overture 5, TwistedWave, DSP-Q 5, SmartScore64 Pro, Toast 20 Pro
shellac85
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jul 21, 2017 5:02 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Re: Daisy Chaining MOTU Ultralites

Post by shellac85 »

Just to update, got the second Power Sully yesterday. Macbook is seeing both UL's all the time now.

Praise the lord!!!
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