Final Sample. Firm Shipping Date.
over 8 years ago – Tue, Dec 01, 2015 at 10:06:30 PM

We will have our final sample tomorrow and will post a full suite of video clips demonstrating a ton of use cases. However, the big topic now is the shipping date for the pilot production run — and all of your reward products and pre-orders.

Short version. Pre-production testing and compliance certifications will commence the moment we approve this final sample (tomorrow). That will happen from now until about January 5. Mass production is scheduled for Monday, January 11. All rewards & pre-orders will ship from our Hong Kong fulfillment partner facility on Monday, January 18.

Seriously Cautious

The past few days we have been engaged constantly with our factory folks about the mass production schedule. The bad video chip disaster, along with a strong of firmware issues have really spooked them. So, they are being insistent about proceeding through a normal series of tests, burn-ins, and such that, frankly, are actually part of every complex new electronics product prior to releasing mass production.

This will include a suite of procedures for Design Validation Testing (DVT), and another for Production Validation Testing (PVT), as well as third party testing for FCC and CE compliance.

Frankly, we would love nothing more than to say, “Skip all of that stuff, and just build our products!” However, that would risk having any number of undiscovered problems show up in those same products, after you have received yours.

So, that’s the situation. After the long road to get here, we have a firm shipping date: January 18. And, we have a seriously capable, deeply tested and proven product that should make each of you happy and do everything you ask of it for a long long time.

Project Timing Speculation

We can’t help but calculate backward, remove the 4.5 months lost to waiting for the bad video chip to be fixed, and looking at when we would have shipped had that problem not happened. The math says we would have shipped on September 3rd — if all of our components had worked then as expected — 2.5 months longer than our intended late June ship date. So, going forward, we are going to be much more careful when stating our “expected ship dates” with new projects.

Thanks To Everybody!

All of us — all of you — have gotten an unexpectedly deep look into the difficulties of bringing a 100% new digital electronics products from breadboarded prototype to mass production. We haven’t figured out exactly what, but we intend to do something cool for all of you as we move into our new year plans. Stay tuned, and we’ll let you know what we come up with!

As always, thank you so very much for your support!

The KickShark Team

HydraDock & 4K/UHD Video Demonstration
over 8 years ago – Tue, Dec 01, 2015 at 10:06:27 PM

Here's a clip showing the HydraDock and a 12-inch MacBook driving a new 28-inch Samsung UHD (3840x2160 resolution) monitor connected by a DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort adapter cable bought off Amazon.

Jack - KickShark

HydraDock & 30-Inch Apple CinemaDisplay
over 8 years ago – Tue, Dec 01, 2015 at 10:06:23 PM

We have a surprising number of questions as to whether the new MacBook and HydraDock will drive the older 30-inch Dual Link DVI Apple Cinema Display. The answer is, "Yes, it will!" It drives the 2560x1600 resolution panel at 30Hz refresh, no problem.

We bought an Apple Mini DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI Adapter ($99 at the Apple Store), made some calls to find one of these vintage displays (our local SimplyMac store had one in the back...), tossed everything in the car, and went to run the test.

I had forgotten just how rich the colors were on these old Cinema Displays! If you have one, and a new 12-inch MacBook, you are really rocking!

Jack - KickShark

Cable-Only Rewards All Shipped
over 8 years ago – Fri, Nov 20, 2015 at 04:27:39 PM

To those 65 of you who pledged for ONLY one or both of the cables (on Kickstarter or BackerKit), all of these were delivered to the post office on Wednesday. Again, we apologize for letting this slip by for so long.

Kristin, KickShark Team

Quick Demo: Six Flash Drives - USB-C Explanations
over 8 years ago – Fri, Nov 20, 2015 at 10:52:26 AM

Here's a quick video showing the HydraDock mounting six Kingston 16GB USB 3.1 flash drives to the 2015 Retina MacBook, connected at 5Gb/sec. transfer speed.

USB Terms

This might be the perfect place to post an explanation of current USB terms, as the new world ushered in by USB-C/USB 3.1 brings with it three broad new areas of functionality and naming, which are collectively enough to confuse the hell out of even the most determined person.

USB 3.1 supports data speeds of 5Gb/sec. and 10Gb/sec., whereas USB 3.0 capped at 5Gb/sec. The Kingston flash drives shown in the video are USB 3.1 Gen 1 devices.

The correct name for the new data standard is USB 3.1, as either Generation 1 (5Gb/sec.) or Generation 2 (10Gb/sec.), which is the terminology used by Apple (and Google with its Pixel 2). The new MacBook supports USB 3.1 Gen 1, which is up to 5Gb/sec. bus speed.

Different Naming Factors

So, that's the bus speed part of the "new USB standards." As far as data, USB 3.1 is backward compatible all the way to USB v1.1. However, USB 3.1 includes other features beyond mere fast data. The big one is active device identification for ports and cables. Ports and cables must be "active," with a chip that identifies the characteristics of that port to connect at the higher speeds and to the new features of USB 3.1. Passive ports (like USB 2.0 ports) cannot pass data at the 5Gb/sec. Gen 1 speed, and cannot take advantage of the next USB 3.1 feature we'll mention: USB Power Delivery Specification v2.0 (or USB "PD").

Power Delivery

Standards compliant USB 3.1 devices and cables can pass up to 100 Watts of power from port to port, device to device, within a USB bus, in five fixed steps. If a cable or port is connected to a USB 3.1 bus that is not "active" and does not identify itself as capable of one of the higher PD power levels, it can only receive a maximum of 7.5 Watts. And, all PD compliant products that support the full 100W power at any port must support 100 Watts across the entire internal bus within the product — end to end.

This is why the HydraDock is larger than most of us would like to see. It is 100% USB 3.1 PD compliant, meaning if you ever plug a 100W USB 3.1 PD wall charger into it, that full 100W is available at the connector cable to the computer, and to all ports on the dock (understanding that the port's own controller might limit it to some lower power level). All of the power traces inside the HydraDock are built to carry 100W of DC power.

The Actual Cables

So, to review, USB 3.1 includes fast speeds with Gen 1 at 5Gb/sec and Gen 2 at 10Gb/sec. It adds an active communication scheme among ports and cables to identify the capabilities available. And, it adds a power delivery protocol where power among devices can scale in five steps up to 100 Watts.

When we think "USB Type C" most of us just think of the cool new little bi-directional connector, not all of this other stuff. But, even that has implications we need to understand. You see, there are now three types of USB cables.

There is the sea of existing cables, none of which have the active (chip based) construction needed to access USB 3.1 features. Any cable not specifically engineered for USB 3.1 will not carry power above 7.5 Watts or data faster than 480mb/sec.

New USB 3.1 cables with Type A connectors or USB-C connectors that include correctly implemented active termination can be "data rated" or "charge rated" or both. Data rated cables with a USB Type A connector at either end cannot carry faster than Gen 1 speeds (regardless if a USB-C plug is on the other end). Charging cables with a USB Type A connector at either end cannot carry more than 7.5 Watts (regardless if a USB-C plug is on the other end). USB 3.1 Power Delivery above 7.5 watts requires a Type C plug at both ends, and a charge rated cable.

So, to actually enjoy the new faster speeds and higher power capabilities of USB 3.1, you must buy active termination, high quality cables, rated for data, for charge, or for both.

Alt Modes

Oh... One more thing: Alternate Modes (or "Alt mode"). A couple of the wires in the new 3.1 cable spec have been designated as available for other uses, and the USB-IF is steadily evaluating and ratifying new "Alt Mode" schemes to put other signal types across the new bus standard. The first biggie is DisplayPort Alt Mode, which Apple and Google use on their new MacBook and Pixel 2. And, since HDMI (and VGA) can be constructed passively from data contained within DisplayPort, we have mDP to HDMI and VGA adapters available for these computers.

More Alt Mode joy is coming, with the next Biggie being Thunderbolt 3, which will begin appearing on computers next year. Intel (the Thunderbolt sponsor) decided to ditch the Thunderbolt plug, and to use the new USB-C plug, by embedding Thunderbolt as a USB 3.1 Alt Mode. We'll start seeing products next year.

Other Alt modes have been proposed and are being evaluated by USB working groups, such as PCIe, and 1 Gb and 10 Gb Ethernet.

Our Approach

The data part of all of this is the USB 3.1 standard. The USB-C part is just the connector and cable portions. And, if this short overview blast did not explain it all well enough, here's the best tutorial we've seen on the web for all of it, from the ever-reliable Tom's Hardware.

When we decided to commit resources to products executing the new USB standard back in summer of 2014, we decided to take the high road, and only make 100% fully standards compliant products — zero shortcuts. We chose this approach not for altruistic reasons, but because we knew very few others would do it. We expected the market to be flooded with non-compliant, badly executed, wrongly labeled, wrongly explained, screwed up products — because it is fast, cheap, and easy to make such products and to then use misstatements or outright misrepresentation to get hungry, early adopter buyers to purchase the products.

The many facets of the new USB data and cabling standards make it a breeding ground for bad products and misrepresentation. But, that makes it an astonishing opportunity to step up, do the right thing, invest whatever time and money and effort is needed to produce fully compliant, exceptional products, and to launch a successful new brand.

That's what we're doing — with your help!

So... Thank you!

The KickShark Team