Allegro USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A PCIe Card (USB3-4PM-E) Support Library

Description: This software installs a kernel extension for current Sonnet USB 3.2 PCIe cards that tells macOS that the Sonnet ports can charge iOS devices and have the power required to operate the Apple SuperDrive and bus-powered peripherals plugged into the Apple wired USB keyboard. This kext does not affect non-Apple devices.

Note: This driver does not support the 2019 Mac Pro. The cards will work fine in the 2019 Mac Pro, just not for connecting an Apple USB 2.0 SuperDrive or connecting a mouse (or thumb drive, etc.) to Apple USB wired keyboard.

Description: English quick start guide for the Sonnet Allegro USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A PCIe Card. This is revision E of this document.

Description: Japanese quick start guide for Sonnet's Allegro Type-A USB 3.0 4-Port PCIe adapter card.

None of Sonnet's Cards with USB 2.0 or USB 3 (either Type A or Type C) ports support the Apple SuperDrive. You must use a built-in USB 2.0 or 3.0 port on your Mac.

According to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5630, "The Apple USB SuperDrive is compatible with Mac models from 2008 and later that don't have a built-in optical drive."

High power bus-powered drives are supported by the current and recent line of Sonnet USB 3 cards, plus the Tango 3.0 PCIe (FW8USB3A-E) cards, but not the discontinued USB 3.0 PCIe cards (USB3-E or USB3M-E), the initial version of the Tango 3.0 PCIe card (FWUSB3-E), or any USB 2.0 cards.

If you are still having trouble, this may be a problem due to a voltage drop in the USB cable. Use the following guide to select the correct cable for your application.

In general, these cables should work with SSDs or optical drives drawing up to 2A of current:

Type........Power-Carrying Wires....Cable Outside Diameter....Maximum Cable Length

USB 2.0..........28 AWG...............................3.8mm...........................0.15m (0.5 ft)

USB 2.0..........24 AWG...............................4.7mm...........................0.3m ( 1 ft)

USB 2.0..........22 AWG...............................5.0mm..............................1m ( 3 ft)

USB 3.0..........20 AWG...............................6.0mm..............................1m ( 3 ft)

Generally, the gauge of the power-carrying wires can be inferred from the cable outside diameter.

To minimize power usage during sleep, power is removed from PCIe cards. Because of this power-saving specification, a USB 3 PCIe card is unable to maintain USB port power during sleep. In macOS, this result in a storage device disconnect upon wake from sleep. The storage device will automatically remount, but the system reports a disconnect message. Because macOS flushes all caches before sleeping, this disconnect should never result in any loss of data.

All current and recent Sonnet USB 3 cards have resettable fuses to protect the ports from an overcurrent condition. To reset the fuses, you must remove power to the card by shutting down your machine. (Restarting is not sufficient.) After turning the computer back on, the ports should start working again. If the fuses continue to trip, then you may have a device that draws too much USB Bus power (more than 2 Amps).

USB 3 is the specification revision published by the USB Implementers Forum. Dot 0, dot 1, or dot 2 is the revision level of the specification. USB 3.2 superseded USB 3.1, which superceded USB 3.0. Each version of the specification retained what was in the previous specification and added something new. USB 3.1 added 10Gbps. USB 3.2 adds 20Gbps.

Our cards have not changed. We have updated the naming on our web site to conform with the latest specification.

This chart may help...

USB 3.0____USB 3.1___________________USB 3.2________________

USB 3.0 -> USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gbps) --> USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps)

..................USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) -> USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps)

.............................................................USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20Gbps)

The uniqueness of Sonnet USB 3.2 products is each USB port has a USB power switch (MOSFET) that manages and monitors the current flow of the USB port. The USB switch limits the current draw when a new USB device is connected minimizing the voltage droop of the main USB 5V power rail, thereby protecting devices connected to other USB ports from going offline because of port power droop. The USB switch is also a very effective current limiter that does not degrade over trips the way a resettable poly-fuse would.

I am having power problems with my Allegro USB PCIe Card.

If you are experiencing issues with your Allegro USB PCIE card, try the following troubleshooting steps.

When you connect any USB peripheral to the device, is anything shown in About This Mac > System Report > Hardware > USB?

1) Regarding the issue: this may be that the USB devices are pulling more than 2A of power per device.
The Allegro cards include resettable fuses built into these cards’ ports that will trip when a connected device pulls more than 2A of power. Have you tried connecting one device to port 1, and another to port 4?
See our tech note here for more details, and how to reset these.

2) Also, we found that many hard drive and USB peripheral manufacturers will include a gen 1 low power USB 3 cable with their devices.
These cables do technically meet the requirements of a USB 3 cable, but, are often not super speed, not gen 2, and will not universally function at higher speeds.

Other customers have reported similar issues of non-connectivity, disconnections, or, being limited to slower speeds with our Allegro Pro card before as well.
These cases were resolved by the use of a higher quality and fully functional USB 3 cable.
We also note that some USB devices use a USB-C to USB-A port, but our cards only have USB-A or USB-C, necessitating the need for an adapter cable.
We do not know specifically which types of USB adapter cables you would need, but we can recommend a cable similar to these USB cables from Tripp-Lite, Cable Matters, Belkin, or Monster (if you can find the Monsters for cheap)
We would recommend only buying one of the cables, and testing it with one of the devices. Make sure that the cable is listed as ‘10Gbps compatible’ or ’super-speed, high-power, certified’ or similar.

If you are still having trouble, this may be a problem due to a voltage drop in the USB cable. Using a shorter or thicker cable can end up being the correct cable for your application, particularly for complex devices like the BMD.

In general, these cables should work with USB peripherals drawing up to 2A of current:
Type........Power-Carrying Wires....Cable Outside Diameter....Maximum Cable Length

USB 3..........20 AWG...............................6.0mm..............................1m ( 3 ft)

Generally, the gauge of the power-carrying wires can be inferred from the cable outside diameter.

3) Your Mac computer, or the USB/other peripherals, may require additional setup for best connection.
Make sure to disable FileVault, and similar encryption programs, and any anti-virus programs you may have.
You can try using the Apple Startup Security Utility to set External Boot to "Allow booting from external media” and “No Security." If this is already set, you must set it to "Disallow booting from external media”, “Full security” then restart, then set to "Allow booting from external media”, “No Security”, and restart again.
You can also try to disable SIP then test again, but we only recommend this if you feel comfortable with recovery console, Terminal commands, and modification to macOS.

Also, does the USB device or Hard Drive have (or require) a firmware/software update for optimized usage? Is there additional USB/HDD software required or recommended for use of these?
We have seen that some connected peripherals may need additional updates to function well, or, macOS security can prevent these from working (see above).

4) Regrettably, some peripherals or their software, may not be compatible with the chipset used on the card (ASMedia ASMx142)
Your USB peripheral OEM may also have other drivers, updates, or information available directly from their website.

USB 3 is known to cause radio frequency interference on 2.4 GHz wireless devices. See USB Frequency Interference. There are several possible solutions:

1) Purchase a USB bluetooth dongle to replace internal bluetooth, connect it via a USB extension cable, and locate it away from the USB 3 storage unit. Sonnet has successfully tested this solution with an IOGear Model GBU421WM USB to Bluetooth adapter. You should be able to use any Macintosh-compatible bluetooth adapter.

2) Select a different hard drive case with better shielding.

3) You may try different USB 3 cables. A better-shielded, or a shorter, or a longer USB 3 cable may solve the issue.

4) Relocate the hard drive to the opposite side of the computer.

5) For the technically inclined, the intel white paper has additional ideas. Have aluminum foil handy.