Q: Thunderbolt Pegasus R4 Experience?

I absolutely agree to this. As I posted here already last October: Tinfoil is the solution. Meanwhile we found out: you don't need to cover the whole cable. Just the plugs. So wrap the two plugs with small bands of tinfoil (2 or 3 layers are enough), cover them with a scotch tape – AND YOU'R DONE! No more problems.

I for one think wraping a Thunderbolt connector in Tinfoil isn't an aceptable solution, it may well work, but this is a (very expensive) premium product, someone at Apple should be hanging their head in shame.

We're in Canada and had the issue - I think it was completely unrelated to cell phones. As I've mentioned, since we turned off "put harddrives to sleep" we have no encountered the issue.

Still does not negate the fact that customer service has been completely ignoring us, even after we told them we were willing to purchase at least 2 more of these drives if they were simply to get their act together and respond to us.

No reply.

@FireFish, plugging into the left port on the back of the unit is the opposite of what is shown in their leaflet/manual/diagram. 

And HOW THE HECK CAN CELL PHONES PLAY A ROLE?

I'm going to stick my iPhone on top of my R6 and start calling and texting it over and over again...

Is it also true that tinfoil hats will bridge the gap and allow us to talk with aliens?  I sure hope so... Maybe they'll know how to fix the issue.

Spent an hour and a half on a craft project.  Fun for the whole family !

1.5" foil strips. Full coverage.  Shrink wrap ends.........

Bubkus !

Doesn't work.  Sole device plugged  into my 9 mo. old MacBook PRO.... nada.

What does it take for this company to realize I have a defective product?

Again,

Many thanks to everyone that posted.

Just curious - did you check to ensure that you dont have "put hard disks to sleep" checked? No one else has seemed to of noted whether or not they do.

If it's NOT checked and your still having issues then I'm not sure. But doing so fixed my problems so far.

Jay,

You are too kind to ask me about that parameter.

Plus a screen shot !

I read about it, but forgot to check it.

Sure enough the parameter was enabled. (Battery and Power)

I disabled the parameter, shut down and restarted the MacBook several times from plain to with my display.

Nothing.  Flat-lined.

Nice blue lights and a quiet whir but nothing in Finder.

I'm contemplating a trip to the Apple Store to buy another TB cable.... If they'll let me return it.

Odd observations.

The orientation of Thunderbolt ports on the back of the R4 are inverted from my MacBook PRO.  The icon on the cable is flipped.

Last time I shut down, it took 4 different long button presses to turn it off.  It wasn't user error. I am a world renowned expert at how to power off a Promise Pegasus R4.

For those that care ... here is the information on file for Promise Technology, inc with the CA dept of corporations.

The agent listed is the guy you would serve papers to if you wanted to take them to small claims court.  It might be fun to have a "Flash Sue" of Promise.

I'm OK when equipment breaks.

It happens.

What I'm not OK with is a support center that ignores both the customer and the problem, puts the blame on the customer and their working equipment.  All after performing many tests over many days.  They take no accountability or initiative to fix the problem. The drive is broken. It doesn't connect at all.  Period.

That's wrong.

Then I find this thread that indicates Promise knows they have a problem product, but won't admit it or support it.

That's unconscionable.

Dear all...

The engineering team at Apple US have now completed their investigation and the culprit is the Promise Pegasus R4/R6 unit. Not the cables, nor the computers.

Promise EU have now confirmed this and they will RMA all units exhibiting the RF-interference issue.

However they will simply swap the chassis for a one "that works" - no hardware or software modifications are performed on the new ones, they are the same as the ones sold previously - the reasoning behind this is that "only less than 1% of the sold units have had user reporting this behavior" so a new chassis will most certainly fix this.

Unfortunately this is obviously not the case - we have had 3 Pegasus-units in our lab and they all failed the same way...

Until Promise EU/US officially states what is actually at fault within the units and how this is going to be fixed (that does not include swapping chassis for a one that might work), i would not recommend this product.

/U

Ulf,

Thanks the follow up.

I share your sentiment.

It's always "less than 1%".

Everytime.

Not "We apologize. We have a really frigging huge problem."

Now, what to do about it?

Should I eBay my custom Tim foil cable?

48 hours since last contact with Promise "support".

A standoff.

I think they're dropping it because I don't have another Mac with a Thunderbolt Port to test with.

The tech told me  "We can't ship out replacement hardware without knowing it's broken."

Since I think all my data is on the FW Lacie, I have time.  I'm going to sit and let this percolate and update the thread as time goes on.

I updated my online ticket with "waiting"

Finally got a ticket update from Promise "support".   At 12:30 in the morning. PST.

Note....  Ive done this stuff before except the Terminal Logs.

Here's the latest on my ticket:

Response By:- Dayalan Subramaniam 2nd February 2012 at 0:26

Hi Luke,

I am sorry for the delayed response, i am taking over the case from here. Could you please unplug the thunderbolt cable from both the ends of the unit then reconnect it again. After reconnecting the cable check whether you will be able to logon to the unit. Try extracting the logs thro terminal session as earlier technician specified. Also Make sure that there is no other electronic devices near by the unit other than Monitor/computer. If you have a spare thunderbolt cable to connect with try changing the cable then check how it goes. Please perform all this steps and let me know the status.

Thanks

Dayalan

Request:-  2nd February 2012 at 14:57

Dayalan,

Thanks for finally responding...... at 12:30 AM PST  I sleep at midnight.

Anyway,

I moved the laptop and R4 away from any electrical devices onto my dining room table.

I booted the MacBook Pro 4 times.  with the cable in port 1, with the cable in port 2 on the R4.  Then I flipped the cable and repeated the process. Both the MacBook and the R4 were completely powered off.

I first powered up the R4 and waited until all the lights were blue before powering up the MacBook.

Each time I shut down the MacBook before turning off the R4.

Each time the Promise utility was running.  (start on power up)  The drive power savings features of Apple OSX were turned off.

Thunderbolt cables cost $50.  Apple does not allow returns / refunds of open cables.

I will see what I can do at the Apple Store.  I don't like the idea of transporting the unit to another place because then physical damage can occur.

Terminal logs.  I must have missed that.

Go to Terminal on a Mac that you have.  Type in the syntax / commands.  Copy and past the commands to this ticket.  I will run them.

Luke

OK,

Went to the Apple Store genius bar.

Tried one of their TB cables.

drum roll...  It worked.

Bought a new TB cable, brought it home and it's working.   With the 27" Display.

This does not make sense to me.  How does a non-moving, static cable gradually degrade ?

There are probably sub minuature circuits in the cable connector...... Plus the 27" display worked with the "bad" cable when it was inline with the R4.

However, I have some sketchy things going on.  My Apple bluetooth Track Pad is totally uncontrollable now.

Apps will open.  I can't drag very far... or in a straight line.  It'll bounce down to the doc.

I performed the normal trouble shooting.  Turned off the R4.  Remove the device and re-added it in BT, and it would not work like it should.   When I have time I'll try a different one.   Strange coincidence

The R4 been running for a couple hours.  I want to see how long it lasts.

It's going to take some time for me to have confidence in the unit.

I'm a Pegasus R6 owner of about 30 days.  I awoke this AM to find that the drive icon was gone from my desktop, and invisible to finder.  I rebooted both my MacBook Pro and the device several times to no avail.

Worst case scenario for me is calling AmEx and doing a chargeback on this device and going through the return process - AmEx will support me well.  I can obviously call Pegasus and request a replacement.  My worry is that if I call Pegasus and they send me a replacement unit, I could be back in the same both days/weeks/months/? from now. 

I really like the speed Thunderbolt deliveres, but I'm strongly considering returning this device and going with a non-Thunderbolt NAS option that would be both cheaper and more reliable, if not nearly as fast.  Don't really know what to do at this point. 

OK - just spoke to Buy.com.  I can return mine anytime between now and the next two weeks (45 day guarantee).  So I've got some time to try and work with Pegasus.  I'd hate to walk away from this technology advance, but I'm very concerned with what I'm reading here.