Echo Express SE I Support Library

Description: English user's guide for Sonnet's Echo Express SE I - Thunderbolt 3 Edition 1-Slot Thunderbolt 3 Expansion System for PCIe Cards. This is revision J of the user's guide.

Description: English user's guide for Sonnet's Echo Express III-D desktop Thunderbolt-to-PCIe card expansion chassis.

This is the Certificate of Conformacy for the 60W power supply provided with Sonnet's SF3 Series Card Readers, and the Thunderbolt 2 and 3 Editions of the Echo Express SEL, Echo Express SE-I, and Twin 10G.

The 12V tolerance is only +/-8%. Sonnet does not recommend attempting to power these units from an unregulated 12V source.

The Apogee Symphony 64 and Avid HD Native cards are not compatible with the Echo Express SE I because these manufacturers didn't closely follow the PCIe spec. Because each of these card draws more than 3A at 3.3V (the PCIe spec), the manufacturer should have put a 12V to 3.3V regulator on their cards, but did not. In a Mac Pro tower or PC desktop, it does not matter to borrow some 3.3V power capacity from an adjacent slot. However, the SEL or SE I do not have an adjacent slot from which to borrow. Sonnet multi-slot chassis have enough 3.3V power these cards.

The Apogee Symphony 64 card is supported in any Sonnet multi-slot chassis. We recommend the Echo Express SE IIIe.

The Avid HD Native card is supported only (for other reasons) in the Echo III-D/R, the HDX edition of Echo Express III-D, and the discontinued Echo Express SE II.

The problems can be very different (some ports fail, multiple cards in the same chassis have issue, video distortion, video/audio lag, etc.)

Update the firmware on the BMD card to the current version, and the issue in the Echo Express will be resolved on both Windows and macOS.

The Echo Express SEL and SE-I come with a 60W power supply that provides 12V at 5A. The SEL and SE-I can tolerate 12V +/-8%.

The power budget is:

15W for upstream power delivery to the computer (if your computer otherwise powered, you do not need)

15W for downstream bus power (if you have no downstream device or a wall-powered downstream device, you do not need)

25W for the PCIe card (you need to budget for your PCIe card; most cards do not take nearly this much)

5W for internal use (required)

The connector is 5.5mm/2.4mm. Two spring contacts on connector 2.4mm inner barrel required.

The problems can be very different (some ports fail, multiple cards in the same chassis have issue, video distortion, video/audio lag, etc.)

Update the firmware on the BMD card to the current version, and the issue in the Echo will be resolved on both Windows and macOS.

What is the BlackMagic Decklink 8K Pro capable of in Thunderbolt PCIe expansion chassis.

These cards are PCIe 3.0x8 cards and may not achieve maximum bandwidth or number of video channels over Thunderbolt 3, which provides PCIe 3.0x4. Thunderbolt 4 does not help with this since it has PCIE 3.0x1. Thunderbolt 5 is PCIE 4.0x4, and because there is more bandwidth available back to the computer, it does improve the performance. There is not a Thunderbolt chassis available that can give you a PCIe 3.0x8 connection. Here is some independent real world testing data.

Thunderbolt 3

4K60-Up to 2 Streams

4K50-Up to 3 Streams

1080p60-Up to 6 Streams

Thunderbolt 5

4K60-Up to 3 Streams

4K50-Up to 4 Streams

1080p60-Up to 6 Streams

My Black Magic Card is not working.

Can you confirm that only your BlackMagic card is not working? Are other cards working without issue?

If so, make sure that the power cable is connected to the 8K Pro card, and the firmware of the card is updated.
See our tech notes here for more information.

Other customers have claimed that BlackMagic cards may require a firmware update to function well in newer operating systems and with newer computers like M-series Mac computers in Thunderbolt chassis.

These firmware updates may need to be installed sequentially:
Uninstall current desktop video software... Install version 10.10, install driver/firmware, then uninstall.
Install version 11.7, install driver/firmware, then uninstall.
Then install version 12.x, install driver/firmware…
We have seen that this may help with unusual issues like this.

See our tech notes above for more information.

BlackMagic may have more details regarding this than we are aware of.

A customer of ours reported the following:
"Sure enough the fix required plugging in the mini USB port on the side of the decklink card into my computer with the pci card removed from the Sonnet frame. BMD Desktop Video immediately recognized the device as needing a firmware update. Update was completed after a minute and the card functioned properly and was recognized by the software after plugging into the Sonnet enclosure again."