End of the road?: 1st/2nd gen Motu 896 and thunderbolt 3

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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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TheRealRoach
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End of the road?: 1st/2nd gen Motu 896 and thunderbolt 3

Post by TheRealRoach »

Macbook 13" 2017 touchbar with 4 thunderbolt 3 ports and High Sierra. I tried using a comical amount of adapters but I couldn't get my 1st gen MOTU 896's or MOTU 896HD to work to show up at all.

Had to buy $100+ dollars in adapters to try it: thunderbolt 3 -> thunderbolt 2, thunderbolt 2 -> FW800, FW800 -> FW400 cable.

I know these bastards are really old, but they still work great and I'd like to keep using them. Anyone have any tips?

(FWIW I've only been using MAC for a few months, so I don't know the tricks of the trade)
Mike Rocha
http://www.mikerocha.ca
Custom ADK, Quad 3.0ghz, 4gig ram, Win7 64-bit, Motu 3.6.7.3 x64 drivers
Macbook Pro 13" touchbar, High Sierra, 73220 drivers
Motu 896 x 4
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TheRealRoach
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Re: End of the road?: 1st/2nd gen Motu 896 and thunderbolt 3

Post by TheRealRoach »

Alright so, it IS working now. I decided to give it another whirl despite hours trying to get the MOTUs to register. I uninstalled all of the drivers, restarted the system, installed the newest available drivers on the website. I slowly connected each adapter, tried a different FW800->FW400 cable, and then powered up the MOTU and it registered my two 896 first gen and 896HD in daisy chain. Good!
Mike Rocha
http://www.mikerocha.ca
Custom ADK, Quad 3.0ghz, 4gig ram, Win7 64-bit, Motu 3.6.7.3 x64 drivers
Macbook Pro 13" touchbar, High Sierra, 73220 drivers
Motu 896 x 4
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waxman
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Re: End of the road?: 1st/2nd gen Motu 896 and thunderbolt 3

Post by waxman »

TheRealRoach wrote:Macbook 13" 2017 touchbar with 4 thunderbolt 3 ports and High Sierra. I tried using a comical amount of adapters but I couldn't get my 1st gen MOTU 896's or MOTU 896HD to work to show up at all.

Had to buy $100+ dollars in adapters to try it: thunderbolt 3 -> thunderbolt 2, thunderbolt 2 -> FW800, FW800 -> FW400 cable.

I know these bastards are really old, but they still work great and I'd like to keep using them. Anyone have any tips?

(FWIW I've only been using MAC for a few months, so I don't know the tricks of the trade)

Look into Landing Zone instead of all the adapters. Also not every USB C connector is a Thunderbolt port. I have the 15" with touch bar. The closest one on the left is NOT Thunderbolt. The two on the right and the top left one are. Check and see which ports are Thunderbolt for you. Then you should be able to use your i/o. Call MOTU tech support. I think there are some issues with High Sierra.

https://landingzone.net/products/macboo ... touch-bar/
waxman
DP9.5, Macbook Pro (2018) Mojave, Slate VMS mic, Everything Bundle, Dual Raven MTI 2, Apollo Twin Quad, UAD Arrow, UAD Satellite Octo Tbolt and all the UAD plugs, NI Komplete 11 Ultimate & Arturia V Collection 6, Maschine Studio MK3 Hardware, NI Komplete Kontrol 61s MK 2, Spectrasonics Ominisphere, Superior Drummer, BFD3, Ozone 7, Altiverb, Sound Toys, Waves, Final Cut X. PT 11.
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mikehalloran
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Re: End of the road?: 1st/2nd gen Motu 896 and thunderbolt 3

Post by mikehalloran »

Reminds me of older Mac portables where some USB and FW ports supplied bus power while others didn’t. If you didn’t know which ports were which, it could affect your peripherals.

That dock looks like a good piece of gear.
DP 11.31; 828mkII FW, micro lite, M4, MTP/AV USB Firmware 2.0.1
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TheRealRoach
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Re: End of the road?: 1st/2nd gen Motu 896 and thunderbolt 3

Post by TheRealRoach »

waxman wrote: Look into Landing Zone instead of all the adapters. Also not every USB C connector is a Thunderbolt port. I have the 15" with touch bar. The closest one on the left is NOT Thunderbolt. The two on the right and the top left one are. Check and see which ports are Thunderbolt for you. Then you should be able to use your i/o. Call MOTU tech support. I think there are some issues with High Sierra.

https://landingzone.net/products/macboo ... touch-bar/
Thanks for the reply Waxman! I looked here: https://www.apple.com/ca/macbook-pro/specs/ and apparently all 4 ports are thunderbolt 3 on my 13" touchbar.

Also that landing dock looks pretty cool, but holy shite $400 Canadian. I'll pass on that for now as I need a mobile solution.
Mike Rocha
http://www.mikerocha.ca
Custom ADK, Quad 3.0ghz, 4gig ram, Win7 64-bit, Motu 3.6.7.3 x64 drivers
Macbook Pro 13" touchbar, High Sierra, 73220 drivers
Motu 896 x 4
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