Link USB Interaction
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Strange thing happened when I plugged in my Link this morning: it disabled my RME Interface.
The RME still had lights, but all the RME devices that appear on my Win10x64 system shut down, as if the RME had been unplugged. When I unplugged the Link, the RME devices immediately re-appeared. (This was really annoying, because I was trying to play the Sylphyo on a Zoom session, and the whole exercise fell apart)
Both the Link and RME were plugged in to USB 2.0 "mid board" ports wired to an Intel X299 chipset.
When the link the Link was moved to a USB 3.1 Gen2 "mid board" port wired to the same Intel X299 chipset, both the Link and RME worked fine.
So ... could it be a power issue? (Both the Link and RME interfaces are USB-powered). I'm not sure if the 2.0 and 3.0 ports on the X299 chipset share the same power supply.
Other ideas??
If more testing would help, I have these USB ports available that I could plug either the RM or the Link into:
- 2x USB 2.0 "back panel" ports on the X299
- 3x USB 3.1 Gen2 "back panel" ports on the X299
- 2x Intel Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C) ports
- 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port on an ASMedia USB 3.1 Gen2 controller
There are two other ports on the ASMedia USB 3.1 Gen2 controller that I do not believe are actually wired to connectors on this workstation: one Type A and one Type C USB 3.1 Gen2.
-- Clint Goss
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@Clint Considering the details you've provided, this sounds like the USB 2.0 ports on the board both share the same power source, and the Link + RME interface together were drawing too much power.
I don't really see any other explanation for it since both devices work fine together when using other ports.
Best,
Maxence
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@Support_AODYO / Maxence ... Thanks for addressing this!
My current configuration is to connect the Link to my Windows machine with a [USB Mini-B to USB-A] cable going from the rightmost "USB Power Supply" connector on the Link to a USB-A port on my computer. I use this to get MIDI from the Sylphyo wirelessly into Catabile and the Kontakt, various soft-synths, etc.
Is that configuration correct? (i.e. using the "USB Power Supply" port)?
Can I alternately use the "USB Host" port on the Link to connect to my computer? (That doesn't seem correct, because it would involve a [USB A to USB-A] connection, which I am guessing is never correct.)
I was thinking that if I could use the "USB Host" port for a computer connection, I could then plug the charger that came with the Link into the USB Power Supply port to power the Link, thus reducing the power load on the computer (probably a good thing). This setup would also allow me to test if the "Interaction" problem I had (halting the RME drivers) was due to excessive power demand.
-- Clint Goss
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@Clint Your current configuration is correct Clint! I think the issue mentioned above came from your computer's power management of the (I am guessing?) PCIe extension card's USB 2.0. USB A to USB A would indeed not work.
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@Support_AODYO Excellent!
I can confirm that it is a power issue with my system. When I turned off the phantom power supplied by the RME interface and plugged in the Link, the RME did not fail ... for a while. (When I played for a bit and the RME had to drive headphones, then the RME failed - presumably because of the power demand of driving the headphone).
Looking at the specs (which I should have done initially), the RME draws 3.7 watts "typical" and 5.4 watts "max". At 5V USB power, that's 740 mA typical and 1,080 mA max ... higher than USB 2.0 max rating of 500 mA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB).
It seems that later versions of USB provide more power: USB 3.0 @ 900 mA; USB 3.2 Gen2 @ 1,500 mA and USB-C at 3,000 mA. Good info for avoiding this problem in the future.
Can you tell me, What is the power consumption of the Link? (I could not find this info in any documents)
-- Clint Goss
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@Clint The Link should only be drawing about 130mA. If you use the USB host port as well, the consumption of the hosted device gets added on.
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Hi Clint
looks like s design fault on the motherboard, or a faulty component. A simple solution would be a powered USB hub.
I have the link with two other USB machine in a case. Hub inside the case, one cable to the computer.
And the link is also powered without a computer
Regards
Frank
