Last minute problem. About a 10 day delay.
over 8 years ago – Wed, Jan 13, 2016 at 06:07:27 PM

We got an email from our factory with the image shown here, explaining that when the enclosures were opened and sent to assembly, a flaw not previously discovered was found where little dark dots are in certain places. This is frustrating because these enclosures have been sitting for weeks waiting for assembly, they have supposedly been previously inspected, and, the few sent to us weeks ago (that we approved) did not have the flaw.

The plastic supplier has agreed to immediately do a new run next week of the enclosure tops (withOUT the dots), and send them to our factory as quickly as possible. So, we had to decide whether to ship HydraDocks with little dark spots when planned, or to wait another 10 days or so and ship HydraDocks without the spots.

We are choosing to wait and ship products without dark spots.

Based on everything we know, the new ship date is January 28th. We will firm this up over the next few days.

As we have said before, it is really strange having such a large group of other people out there involved in the same roller coaster ride we are taking in getting our new product to market. There are great big exciting moments, as well as deflating, frustrating moments like this one.

Everything else is done and individually tested and inspected and simply now waiting on good enclosure tops. Circuit boards, instruction cards, boxes... just no enclosure tops.

We appreciate your patience and support. We can actually not think of anything else that could possibly go wrong (short of global disaster) to further delay this shipment. The rest is triple verified and just waiting to put it all together and send it to the fulfillment center.

Thank you so much for your support!

The KickShark Team

Status update: All is well!
over 8 years ago – Sun, Dec 27, 2015 at 03:56:11 PM

We haven't posted an update in a while, as there really hasn't been much to report. All of the activities we previously discussed with walking the product through the final steps to mass production are going well, and are on schedule. 

We're doing 35 trial production samples next week, some of which will be passed to 3rd parties for FCC and CE certification, and the rest undergoing rigorous in-house testing as part of the PVT and DVT processes.

As we get closer to the January 11th production date, we will post any last minute information on addresses, shipping, or other topics, ahead of shipping all rewards on January 18th.

We just wanted to let all of you know that all is well, and everything is going according to plan!

As always, thank you so much for your patience and support as we have fought our way forward to get a successful project completed with the HydraDock!

We wish all of our amazing backers a happy and wonderful New Year!

The KickShark Team

Non-Powered Portable Mode 4K + USB Drive
over 8 years ago – Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 10:14:35 AM

We continue to get questions about what the HydraDock will do when only plugged into the MacBook — without the power adapter — just running off the MacBook battery in "portable mode."

Here, we connected a Samsung UHD/4K monitor by HDMI and connected a 2TB Western Digital USB 3 hard disk drive (bus powered), to see what would happen. Well, what happened is they both worked great, with no USB power alert box popping up.

Pretty cool. :-)

And, for those wondering, we are still exactly on track as announced to have all rewards shipped on January 18th. No problems. No delays.

Thanks for everyone's support!

The KickShark Team

USB Technical Talk
over 8 years ago – Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 10:40:17 PM

One of our backers has been talking with us about getting his new Dell XPS 13 (with a USB-C port) to work with the HydraDock, or to simply get an external monitor connected by whatever method. It inspired us to put down a full discussion about the new (and old) USB standards in one place.

If you are ready for a fairly deep dive into a summary of the present situation with the new USB standards and devices, please read the following.

USB-C, USB 3.1 And The New Standards

First, for a few years there have been products on the market called USB 3 external video card adapters for DisplayPort, HDMI, and DVI monitors, generally supporting resolutions to 2560x1600. Single output versions can be found as cheap as $20, with dual or triple output versions out there at $100 and above.

These products put a standalone graphics processing unit (GPU) chipset out at the end of a USB cable, and address the GPU over the USB bus. Because USB 3 had maximum bandwidth up to 5Gb/sec., the best of these adapters can drive 2560x1600 displays or under at 60Hz, assuming the USB bus is only being used for the adapter.

These products have nothing to do with the USB standards. They are simply peripherals that use USB for connectivity. There is no native video signal in the USB 3 data stream. These devices mount a GPU over USB, which the host computer recognizes and to which it streams video over the USB bus.

Second, there is a ton of misunderstanding about the new USB standards. USB 3 is not the same as USB 3.1 Generation 1. It is an included subset of 3.1 Gen 1. But, 3.1 Gen 1 includes a LOT more functionality, such as the new Power Delivery Specification 2.0, device Configuration Channels, and a whole new set of data lane mappings, including Alternate Modes. Anyone dismissing “USB 3.1 Gen 1” as “only the same 5Gb/sec. USB 3 with a new name,” really doesn’t understand the new standards at all.

Third, USB 3.1 is the most aspirational USB standards revision in history, in that it is very forward looking and extensible. USB 3.1 Gen 1 may only support max data at 5Gb/sec., but, the same Phy supports 10Gb/sec. in Gen 2. And, there will be a Gen 3 that supports 20Gb/sec. Again, with the same physical layer architecture. And, by clever lane management, there are Alt Mode methods that can support up to 40Gb/sec. with a USB 3.1 Gen 2 bus (Thunderbolt 3) today.

Fourth, the new USB Type C connector and cable standard has also come along, and many people are conflating all things related to the new batch of USB technicalities into the simple term “USB-C.” That’s a serious error, as USB-C is a standard for cables and connectors, not for the data inside those cables and connectors. The data can be anything all the way back to USB v1.1. The USB-C standard has no requirement to support USB 3.1, or even USB 3, or USB 2. Any manufacturer can put a USB-C port on a device with whatever flavor of USB signaling they choose. And, that is just what a LOT of manufacturers have been doing recently. The most common thing is to take a USB 3 product, and put a USB-C connector on its cable, and to market it as a “USB Type C” product.

Fifth, there is also no requirement for a legitimate USB 3.1 host device to support any of the optional Alternate Modes, such as DisplayPort. Dell and Lenovo now offer laptops with USB-C connectors, and USB 3.1 data, but without DisplayPort Alt Mode, for instance. Instead, they use the Thunderbolt 3 Alt Mode (which Intel steadfastly refuses to refer to as an Alternate Mode implementation of USB 3.1, even though that is exactly what it is).

Sixth, host products that include USB 3.1 DisplayPort Alternate mode embed a complete USB 1.2 video signal into the lanes of the USB port. No GPU is needed to extract this signal (a chip called a de-multiplexer, or “demux”, is used). The DP video is “just there” inside the USB data stream. And, it is resolution limited only by bandwidth. Gen 1 systems supporting up to 5Gb/sec. can pass enough data to drive DP monitors up to 4K at about 30Hz. Gen 2 systems can support 4K at 60Hz from the exact same DP Alt Mode signal.

Seventh, there are no USB Gen 2 hub controllers or other device side silicon at this time. Thus, there are no Gen 2 hubs or docks. There will be such silicon sampling soon. And, we will have a HydraDock Gen 2 dock perhaps mid-2016 using the first available chipsets. But, for now, there just are no chips, so there are no hubs or docks supporting 3.1 Gen 2 or video at 4K/60Hz. It is a case where the supply chain does the host side silicon first, observes to see if the device side market is going to development, and then invests into the needed device side chips.

So, yes, there are all sort of “external video card” type USB adapters on eBay, Amazon, and elsewhere that can get you to 2560x1600. A few have come along and snipped off the USB 3 A plug and replaced it with a USB-C plug, so it can plug right into the XPS 13. And, that’s a fine solution for just driving a monitor.

We decided back in 2014 that we would ignore the opportunities for short term gadgets, and we would focus our development on pure USB 3.1 standards compliant products for the future. So, we support the new DisplayPort Alt Mode only, from which we extract HDMI as well — both ports to (bandwidth limited) 3840x2160 at ~30Hz. As components become available in 2016 for Gen 2 client devices, we will update our products to support Gen 2, and will then be at 3840x2160 at 60Hz. If the parts are available, we may even support Thunderbolt 3 (Alt Mode).

For now, HydraDock products require fully standards compliant, full featured USB host computers in order to deliver all of our features — especially DisplayPort Alt Mode.

The KickShark Team

Final Sample. 100% Functional.
over 8 years ago – Thu, Dec 03, 2015 at 10:50:46 PM

A quick update to let you know we spent the whole day trying our best to find something about the final HydraDock approval sample that didn't work right. No such luck. It works absolutely flawlessly. :-)

The SD, HDMI, and audio issues in the previous sample are all fully fixed. mDP and HDMI video work perfectly to 3840x2160 resolution. Ethernet and all USB ports scream. Audio in and out are both crystal clear. The final case is perfect.

Nothing at all to complain about. As long as it took to get here, at least the result is amazing. :-)

Thanks to everybody again! We'll post clips of the different features over the coming days.

The KickShark Team