USB-C SDXC UHS ii card reader for latest MBP?

[wlaidlaw]

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I have sadly had replace my excellent 2012 rMBP, as its graphics card/GPU is dying, just one month after the extended GPU repair program from Apple, ended at 31st December 2016. I will try and swing the 6 year implied warranty from the EU, given that the machine had an RRP of close to £3000 originally. The first signs of problems (screen flickering and GPU Kernel panic) first appeared just before Christmas, so within the extended GPU warranty period. I failed to find an unsold new 15" MBP of the last but one model with at least 512GB SSD, 2.7 or 2.8 gHz, 2GB graphics and 16GB RAM and Apple is no longer accepting orders for that spec but only for lower end models of the previous version. 

 

I have therefore bought from my usual source, Jit at the London Mac Store, a 2.7gHz/16GB/512GB SSD/2GB Radeon Pro 455 graphics, Touchbar 15.4" MBP at his usual very competitive price. The problem with this machine is the lack of variety of ports, just having 4 x USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports. I bought keenly a priced Benfei multi port dongle (2 x USB3-A, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, SD, Micro SD and a charge through USB-C) from Amazon for £56. Luckily I also bought from Jit at the London Mac Store, an Apple USB-C to USB3-A adapter, as I wanted to be able to clone from an external drive and was not sure if the new MBP would boot through the Benfei dock. In fact I could not clone, as I discovered that you can't clone from an older machine to a newer, which means using Migration Assistant. I have therefore had to re-enter all the user names, passwords and serial numbers for pretty much every app - yawn!

 

Having done all that via the Apple adapter, I wanted to read an SD card this morning, so plugged in the Benfei dock. It is totally dead, with none of the ports working other than power, i.e. no data transfer. I was suspicious when it arrived from Amazon in a plastic bag with no box, instructions nor warranty nor the usual "elf 'n safety garbage. 

 

I now need a USB-C SDXC UHS ii reader. Given my experience this week I don't want a reader made by the Hu Dat company of Guangzhou. The only one by a known maker I can find, is the one below from Sandisk. It is a horrible thing, with an unnecessarily long stem and will stick way out of the side of my MBP. Does anyone know of another neater reader from a known maker?

 

I will buy the 13 way Thunderbolt 3 dock from OWC when it comes out in March, albeit it is far from cheap at close to £300. For the moment I can plug an old Sandisk USB2 card reader into the Apple Adapter but it is bad enough having to use dongles at all, let along stacked dongles. Bad decision by Apple to omit at least an SD card reader from their new machines. I personally would have been happy to live with a marginally thicker machine to have more variety of ports, with SD and HDMI being the obvious ones. 

 

Wilson

 

 

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[ramarren]

I've never bought one of the multiple interface, third party docks; too many bits that can go wrong. The only multiple interface dock I've used is the one built into the Apple 27" Thunderbolt Display. But it only supports USB 2.0. That said ... 

 

My external card reader is the Lexar Professional USB 3.0 Dual-Slot Reader - LRW400CRBNA, bought from Amazon.com for $32:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WBK03OU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I don't have a system with USB-C ports as yet, but I've used this reader with a friend's new MBP. I connected it using the Apple USB-C to USB Adapter, which is currently on sale for $9: 

http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJ1M2AM/A/usb-c-to-usb-adapter?fnode=8b

Perfect operation. 

 

Personally, I have no problem using the adapters with USB-C (and other) ports. But that's neither here nor there. I have to use TB -> FW800 -> FW400 to connect up my Nikon Super Coolscan 9000  to my MacBook Air 13"... It just works, I never think about it. 

Edited February 7, 2017 by ramarren

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[wlaidlaw]

This morning I needed to import some photos to my new MBP. Plugged an old Sandisk SD USB card reader into the Apple USB-C to USB3-A adapter from Apple as recommended above - nothing found on Finder. The card reader lights up green, showing it is reading the card but no data is being transferred. I suspect the old card reader is USB1 and is not talking to the USB3 socket on the Apple dongle. Apple really have not thought this through for photographers. I suppose they think that nobody nowadays take photos on anything other than a phone and an SD card reader is yesterday's technology. I had to plug yet another dongle into my iPad, load the photos into that, transfer the photos to Dropbox, then import back into my new MBP to manipulate. What a pain. I should have used my SL to take the photos and imported them via wifi but the photos were on another camera and wifi import is quite slow. 

 

Wilson

[wlaidlaw]

After a search through the cupboard up in the attic, where all old IT bits and cables get thrown (am I ever going to use any of the 10+ IDE ribbon cables in there, let alone huge memory cards for an IBM 36 mini computer), I found a slightly more modern Sandisk card reader, the high speed desk model. This one at least finds and reads the card via the USB-C to USB-A Apple dongle, so I have a temporary solution until I find a neat USB-C SD card reader. 

 

Wilson

[wlaidlaw]

I had left the same query on another forum and the recommendation was the one in the pic below made by Kiwibird. It was not for sale on Amazon (out of stock) but I found one on Fleabay for £8.99 including postage. The seller has sold quite a few without adverse feedback, so I assume they work. Compared with the Sandisk, it is quite a bit smaller and the card does not stick out the end but fits in the side and is therefore less vulnerable to grandchildren charging about. Very odd that Apple has not made one, even if it is the short cable type like their lightning SD card reader. 

 

Wilson

 

 

 

 

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[Exodies]

It's a real mystery why Apple of all user experience centred companies is so crap about connectors.

 

Doesn't the lightning card reader work on any Apple lap/desktops?

[wlaidlaw]

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It's a real mystery why Apple of all user experience centred companies is so crap about connectors.

 

Doesn't the lightning card reader work on any Apple lap/desktops?

 

Sadly not. 

[ramarren]

...I suspect the old card reader is USB1 and is not talking to the USB3 socket on the Apple dongle. ...

No, this has nothing to do with Apple's dongle. The problem with MANY older card readers is that they draw more current than the USB spec allows. Apple is quite specifically on spec for providing power through USB and don't allow drawing more power than the spec requires.

 

I've seen this kind of stuff over and over again since USB came out on the iMac in 1998. It has always come down to a problem with the peripheral hardware. Why do you always want to blame Apple for malfunctions?

 

The Lightning SD Card Adapter is specifically designed for mobile iDevices. Its compatibility listing is listed on the web page for it:

http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJYT2AM/A/lightning-to-sd-card-camera-reader?fnode=91

Edited February 8, 2017 by ramarren

[wlaidlaw]

Also the current limitations for USB-C are lower than USB3-A.

 

I suspect that for the Thunderbolt 3 OWC 13 port dock to work with more than one or two ports in use, you will have to use it as a charge through adapter. In other words, you connect the 87W power supply to the dock and then the USB-C cable to the MBP.

 

My old Sandisk SD card reader worked on a USB1 port years ago, which had a low 1.0 amp (5W) current limitation, so I don't think it was current that was the problem. I think it was a compatibility issue. USB-C limitations are low current: 1.5A (7.5W) and high current, as on the MBP:  2.0A (10W). 

 

Wilson

 

PS. I see on checking on OWC's website, that the Thunderbolt 3 dock will need an external wall wart power supply - yuck! Order cancelled. Once LG sort out the wifi interference problems with their 5K screen, I might get one of those. 

Edited February 8, 2017 by wlaidlaw

[wlaidlaw]

For anyone else who needs one, I can happily report that the Kiwibird USB-C SD card reader, pictured above, works perfectly. It even has a USB3-A socket in the end, which I did not realise, so that is an added bonus. For the low price of just £8-99, postage included, it seems well enough made. It is not too flimsy, with a tight fitting, slide-on USB-C connector cap. It transfers large SL images far quicker than my older USB2 Sandisk desk card reader. 

 

A product that sadly I cannot recommend, is the Griffin Magnetic Connector USB-C power cable. Given I have grandchildren running around, the absence of a Magsafe power connector on the new MBP worried me. On the face of it, the Griffin seems like an excellent idea, where a very small dongle with magnets, plugs into the MBP and the USB-C cable has a matching connector to latch onto the small dongle. The execution however, is very poor. In an effort, I assume, to make it seem like a quality product, they have fitted a thick and very stiff cable. In contrast, the magnets in the connectors are very weak. The end result is that only a very small movement of the MBP, makes the cable fall off/disconnect. It also only connects one way but I could live with that, if the other function worked properly. 

 

Wilson

[Chuck Albertson]

The SanDisk USB-C card reader works fine, and its unusual length works well when you have something plugged into an adjacent port.

[zeitz]

I use SD, CF and XQD cards.  I am extremely happy with the Lexar HR2 Thunderbolt 2 hub with modules for these three cards.  The HR2 is "only" Thunderbolt 2, but that is still substantially faster than the fastest of the flash cards that are available.   While Lexar is out of the flash card business, the HR2 still seems to be available.