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Sonnet Echo Express III R

Kaku Ito

Kaku Ito

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We have just received the new Sonnet cho Express III R and I swapped the chassis from Magma EB3T to Express III R and found that Red Rocket does not recognized in the system. The Red Rocket works fine (as long as enough voltage is provided) in the EB3T or Echo Express Pro. I'm wondering the power unit of the Express III R is weak? Has anyone successfully using it?
 
I have the same problem with the Sonnet Echo Express III R

I have the same problem with the Sonnet Echo Express III R

Red card works in another system but not in this unit.
 
You guys should really contact Sonnet support. It probably should work considering they have an entire paragraph on their product web page about how it works with the Rocket:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpressiii.html

I have the Echo Express 3-D version on the way and would be disappointed if it didnt work as advertised.
 
Talked to Sonnet for one hour, no luck getting it to work, card works in other units, sonnet unit shows up, but red rocket card does not show up
 
Few weeks before, Echo Express III-R worked with MacBook Air 13inch (surprisingly) and a RED ROCKET with voltage converter, but it does not work with the latest MacBook Pro nor one model before. Now I'm back from Hawaii shoot and try other combinations.
 
So what other solution is there except sonnet or magma for TB2 expansion box? Does Magma makes TB2? And are those sonnet still with TB1 or already shipping with TB2?

Does anyone knows if the sonnet III D is working with the x4 PCIe eSATA RAID Controller from a G-Speed es? And if it is working with the ATTO R680 (I know it says on their web site that the ATTO work, but just want confirmation from users)?
thanks,
 
Same deal here. Got mine last month and haven't been able to fire up the Rocket. It works fine in my Magma, Mac Tower, and Express Pro. I've tried different Rockets, different firmwares and different slots. No dice. I'll try some ATTO cards, USB3, ESata, and other stuff tomorrow and report back.
 
I get success from those cards but didn't with Rockets. I'll check on it this afternoon now that I've updated to latest RCX build, Latest card drivers AND firmware again (for poops and giggles).

Jeff, have you seen those cards get fully saturated? Also, are you on TB1 or 2? When I load up a Magma I have yet to see it bottleneck and I'm trying to figure out where the breaking point is with regards to which cards and under what scenarios. I've tried the following:

- R680, QIO, Rocket - Where Rocket is transcoding from the R680 to a QIO hosted ESATA drive. No change in FPS vs ditching the QIO or R680
- R680, Decklink, Rocket - Where Rocket is playing back out of Decklink in RCX off footage hosted on R680. No change in playback or transcoding vs no Decklink
- Two Decklinks and Rocket - In Davinci Live or just output out of RCX while the other sits. No change in FPS

I get the same disk speeds regardless of the card arrangement. The only thing that is definitive is that I can't get more than realtime 5K HD 7:1 or 4K 3:1. On a tower with a Rocket I get Realtime 5K FF 5:1 on the same disk array. I'd like to say TB is simply a PCIe 4X slot but yet I seem to get more than a 4X slot worth of performance.
 
So can confirm no Rocket showing up in the box:

Fine in a Magma 3T

I'll see what I can find out from Sonnet support.

Jason - not really had time to do extensive research on it but like you I find there is little difference in performance. I've been using the 3T and now the Sonnet III for jobs that require more lightweight setups over the tower / Blustor PCIE expanders systems I have. Compared to those everything TB seems slow (hopping that will change with new Mac Pro and TB2).


Cheers
 
To get the red rocket working with the new sonnet case I had to add another card, in this case a sonnet eSATA x4 port card, but it worked as long as there was one other card in the case, did not work alone or with x3 cards however!
 
I am having trouble getting the new rMBP to install the firmware with the Sonnet Express 3. The system profiler shows there is a PCIe card in the chassis, but I am unable to run the firmware updater from RED. Any thoughts?
 
Had a response from Sonnet as follows:


"We did some more testing in the lab this morning with the Red Rocket.

Seems like there is some sort of power issue getting the card to consistently mount.

Easy enough workaround, though - just hot plug the power cable, and the card powers back up and re-mounts to the computer."

Anyone out there able to check? - I'm away from the office.

Cheers
 
Okay so I did try this out and it worked!! I am not sure why though. The odd thing I am seeing in RCX is that my computer says that its in a 4X lane even though I have it installed in lane 2 of the Sonnet Express 3. Is anyone else seeing this bottleneck?

Thanks!
Kenny
 
Kenny Mosher said:
Okay so I did try this out and it worked!! I am not sure why though. The odd thing I am seeing in RCX is that my computer says that its in a 4X lane even though I have it installed in lane 2 of the Sonnet Express 3. Is anyone else seeing this bottleneck?

Thanks!
Kenny
Click to expand...

This warning will happen on all external enclosures for the Rocket.
 
Sonnet called me on Xmas eve eve and actually chatted regarding the issues I was having from the forums. Great to see that they go through and follow their customers. We went over the same work around which was pulling the power and rebooting the chassis while the computer is on and thunderbolt attached. Not exactly elegant but works for now. Works on my iMac, Mini and rMBP. Don't have a Pro yet to test.

Bob - my Magma doesn't give 8x vs 4x errors. RCX just opens normally. All of my Sonnets give the 4X warning but don't seem to affect performance by anything measurable.

As for performance with the Sonnet III - I'm actually getting a slight bump versus my Echo Pro. I tried 5K FF 5:1 and was getting realtime playback now. Any 4K resolution and compression worked as well (I scrolled through a 4K FF 3:1 feature with no problem). I know my Echo Pro had issues playing 30FPS 5K HD 7:1 so I'll try that next.

This really is a great unit for anyone trying to rack mount a Thunderbolt expansion down to the locking thunderbolt guard and SDI ports seen below. My QIO card didn't show because I had nothing connected to it. The QIO IS a problem for 10.8.5 AND Mavericks though. Hope they work out a fix.
11648966304_5d95cbe8fe.jpg

11648855033_d95b85fba7.jpg
 
thunderbolt growing pains... Thanks for the tips guys. I hope a stable config comes into play as this looks like a great box for the new macpro to play with.
 
Just wanted to revise my above statement regarding the Echo III vs the 2 Slot Pro. I tested RCX V22 with the new Chassis and was not yet familiar with the improved OpenCL and GPU playback performance in that version. I'll retest between the different enclosures, but I have a feeling they will deliver similar performance. Either way, realtime 5K FF 5:1 on a laptop is great. Two Rockets inside an Echo Pro and Echo III will be next too. Can't do 2 rockets in a Magma due to the heat sink getting in the way.
 
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