Thunderbolt Pegasus R4 Experience?

FWIW, I feel like I have to articulate my experience with the R4 on my MBP retina again. In reading the most recent post, my problem may in fact have had something to do with interference in hight sight. That said, Im no longer a customer of Promise and thus can no longer test the idea. My problem was much more fundamental- receving what effectively a product DOA and then having a *horrendous* experience with Promise customer (don't) care. My decision to send the unit back to Apple (they were great about taking it back!) was based primarily by my fear of a company not doing what it takes to help their customers. This unit is VERY pricey...one could argue easily priced so high simply because of the I/O interface is not worth the risk. The company better re-create their customer experience soon or they will be gone.

Not sure if this has been discussed in this thread; but, what about power fluctuations? I would think that dirty power could be a factor. I know it is anecdotal, but I have my R6 plugged into a UPS that regulates the power and I don't have any connection issues with my 2011 Macbook Pro (which I also have plugged into the UPS). Is anyone with connection problems using a UPS or other type of power filter?

I, too, have my R6 plugged into a UPS (along with my iMac) and have had no disconnection issues since my chassis was replaced shortly after purchase. So there's a second anecdote.

I also purchased a UPS and Voltage Regulator as part of my testing: does not fix.

I think one potential element here is the fact that success stories are happening on 2011 mac models. I too did not have issues with my 2011 MBP. This issue is for mid 2012 models.

Promise is very responsive and very quick to point you to some other possible cause other than their product.

I use the same Thunderbolt cables purchased directly from Apple on a Western Digital My Book Thunderbolt Duo, and it never has a problem. I swapped the cables between the Western Digital and the Promise, same result. WD works properly, Promise does not. It's not the cables.

I tried both ports on the back of the Promise. Same problem. It's not the port.

Both the Promise and the WD are plugged into the same TB port on the Mac and the same UPS. They sit about 6 inches apart in the same air conditioned office. It's not the Mac, or the power or the temperature or the airflow.

But, in my case, the Pegasus R4 looses connection. The WD does not. The WD has never dropped a connection in over 6 months of continuous use.

Promise keeps trying to point us to cables, to power, to cooling, to the Mac, etc. If they took all of the effort that they currently spend on directing us toward other causes and redirected that effort to fixing their box, it would probably be fixed already.

Never again.

Michael

After this recent flurry of comments, nearly all negative, I must point out that there is at least 1 R6 out here that works flawlessly and has for several months... both in connectivity and in restores. Annecdotally, about every week, I power down my iMac (mid 2011) for some reason or another, and the R6 happily shuts itself off and happily starts up again when I start up my iMac. no fuss, no muss. I'm sure there are many of us out here who have these fully functioning Pegasus RAID devices, but we aren't prompted to post our successful experieces on a forum like this where the purpose is understandably to solve problems.

I wonder if Pegasus would ever share the percentage of units shipped with no issues v. those with horrific persistent problems. It could be telling... because I wonder if my situation is in the minority or the majority. Just wondering because not all of us out here thinks that Promise makes a rotten product with rotten support.

P.S. I DO NOT work for Promise nor do I own their stock 🙂

I also have to say that touch wood my R4 has performed without a single problem. I use it as my startup disk. When I switch off my imac the R4 switches off. When I switch on my imac my R4 switches on. No drops in connection at all.

I have used it with UPS and with UPS.

I'm not in any way protecting Promise, and feel really sorry for those poor people who are having issues.

Just reminding people that a few of us do have units that work fine.

Here's a good potential solution. I've had several days of connectivity now, which is definitely not a sign that everything is solved, but a good indicator none the less: move your computer speakers away from the R4 AND the thunderbolt plugs on your mac.

The last few days of testing have revealed that, among other devices such as phone, computers speakers (yes, even magnetically shielded ones) can cause drop-outs. Even if the speakers aren't pumping out loud music, just having them "on" beside the R4 or the TB port on the mac caused disconnects.

I have the Sans Digital RAID5 unit beside me also, and it is a huge relief to have a working, no-hassle solution that allows me to troubleshoot this pesky Promise R4 with some peace of mind.

How about trying to cause dropouts to get a better grip in this sithation by moving speakers, phones, etc, towards the cable to see if these can actually cause it.

Once we know what really causes it, we can get in touch with Pegasys and get this solved for good.

After reading entire posts I think that:

Probably these are hardware bugs of the Pegasus that cannot address by simple firmware update, only reduced but not fixed.

I'm sorry, but I think we have to wait for a new thunderbolt product generation.

Yes, sometimes there was true interference cases, thinfoil can solve this cases, sometime defective cables, but the main reason is the Pegasus unit that is a bugged hardware.

As seen on this pages there are in fact some guys that has problems with Pegasus and not with western digital thunderbolt device using same cable, mac , ac outlet, speakers, cell phones and so on....

I suggest to sell Pegasus ang get something else if you are becoming crazy with this units.

Of course, customers who have had no problems aren't reporting problems here. It's a self-selecting thread. Now, I don't boot from my R4, and rather use it as a file and backup server using symbolic links for the real-time file storage. I've had no problems.

However, some of the discussion reminds me of the early SCSI days with cables that didn't have adequate shielding. I can really believe this. But I've also seen EMF problems with people's setups being located near power transformers, either on the bottom floor of a building (the transformers were in the basement), or outside of a flat (where the power came off a pole to a transformer on the side of a building).

Perhaps this is a combination of EMF from local devices as well as problems with bigger sources.

david m.

Replacement arrived last week. I swapped the drives over and it came back up with all data intact. Running for 5 days now with no problems seen.

hi agent42b

I have had the same problems with my R4.

Video and image files would get massive glitches in them. This only started to happen after the firmware update (sept 19) on the MBP retina.

I have replaced my MBP Retina, cables, and tested the Pegasus on several machines.

The problem is the firmware on the R4. It is not compatible with the newer macs.

.d

I've got some important news... well, at least it was important for me:

I recently bought a Lacie eSATA Hub, which is another thunderbolt device. I immediately had the same disconnects as the Promise RAID. Now I knew that the issue wasn't specifically related to the Promise unit. I'll skip the massive back-and-forth between Apple - I must have spoken to 6 different people over the course of a week. Apple told me "it's a firmware issue," but they were wrong.

I had already wrapped my cable in foil... but that wasn't solving the issue. I decided to move my whole rig to the other side of the office... and guess what? The Lacie and Promise units worked perfectly! So... I now knew that it was definitely interference related... but what could it be?

It was my cable TV wire. Having cable internet, the regular copper cable TV wire was running near the ground - close to my Promise and Lacie thunderbolt units. No amount of foil was enough to stop the interference, strangely enough.

Long story short: I have moved my thunderbolt devices "up" about 4 feet from the ground on the top shelf of my desk. All problems dissapeared. And Yes, it works perfectly with my Retina Macbook Pro.

So glad I figured this out.

My hat's off to you sir, Agent42b. I was not one having any problems with my R6, however, I now can assume that it was because I set my R6 up on the highest shelf of my desk credenza to get it away from the heat-producing devices sitting down at lower levels. And I also have the cable TV coax running along the floor to my desk, like many folks probably do, so I, unknowingly, did not have the setup that was producing so many frustrations. I'm glad to know that this is not a Promise problem because I hope to have many years of use from their products. Shame that they have taken such a hard hit over this issue. Thank you for reporting this to help others solve their problem!