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End of the road?: 1st/2nd gen Motu 896 and thunderbolt 3
Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 7:41 am
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)
Re: End of the road?: 1st/2nd gen Motu 896 and thunderbolt 3
Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 5:00 pm
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!
Re: End of the road?: 1st/2nd gen Motu 896 and thunderbolt 3
Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 5:50 pm
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/
Re: End of the road?: 1st/2nd gen Motu 896 and thunderbolt 3
Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 10:16 pm
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.
Re: End of the road?: 1st/2nd gen Motu 896 and thunderbolt 3
Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 11:26 am
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.