Sonnet Qio + Mobile REDRocket

[Jordan Livingston]

I just got my Sonnet Qio today -- finally!

How amazing would it be if the Mobile REDRocket could work while daisy-chained through the Qio?

Even if the RR speeds were reduced, this would still be the ultimate way to use the RR, CF readers, and eSATA all on a single laptop.

- Jordan

P.S. My birthday's coming up soon... (hint, hint: RED + Maxx Digital).

[Stephen Lovett]

Hi,

I've been on the fence on this one.

I have had mixed experiences with Sonnet gear, some good, some not so good.

I love the concept.

What I'm most interested in is does it stay cool?
Does it perform consistently throughout the day?

I end up swapping out Lexar readers because the act up after then are on and heavily utilized (and therefore get hot)

What kind of transfer speeds are you seeing from the CF cards?

Cheers,

Steve

[Jordan Livingston]

Hi,

I've been on the fence on this one.

I have had mixed experiences with Sonnet gear, some good, some not so good.

I love the concept.

What I'm most interested in is does it stay cool?
Does it perform consistently throughout the day?

I end up swapping out Lexar readers because the act up after then are on and heavily utilized (and therefore get hot)

What kind of transfer speeds are you seeing from the CF cards?

Cheers,

Steve

Hi Steve,

I completely understand where you're coming from. I too was on the fence, as the Qio is not cheap (about $800 after tax + shipping).

However, I must say, I have had nothing but great experiences with Sonnet products. I have used their original ExpressCard / 34 eSATA adaptor, their Professional ExpressCard / 34 eSATA adaptor, their Fusion eSATA drives, and their E4P PCIe card - all with no complaints whatsoever.

It's true that Sonnet tends to release products while their drivers are still works in progress, but they have been extremely good in general about updating drivers and addressing issues. I think they're very comparable to RED in this regard. They are very honest about the features and limitations of their products, and they work closely with their users to constantly improve them. RED and Sonnet make great bedfellows in this respect.

Personally, I've had much of my collection of Sonnet products transition from Tiger to Leopard to Snow Leopard and from 32bit to 64bit drivers. In every case, Sonnet eventually came through to extend the useful life of the products I have already purchased.

As for the Qio itself, we just received our first unit yesterday. They are still extremely hard to get (I ordered it more than six weeks ago!) and we have not had a chance to test it in the field yet. I was however running it through it's paces in my studio all day yesterday, and continue to test it in the studio today. Tomorrow it goes into the field for a real 2-day RED shoot - the perfect proving ground to make sure it can hold it's own.

I also use Lexar professional CF readers and I have experienced the same problems you describe when they are in use all day. I've often swapped between two and even three different units! I'm hoping that the Sonnet Qio will eliminate all of that nonsense. For it's price, the product should be a robust and professional workhorse tool. I have no reason to believe that it's not, but you can be sure I will return it it if craps out like the Lexar readers do - or worse - the dreaded Dual Adaptor (quite simply the worst piece of kit I have ever had the displeasure of owning).

My only "complaint" about the Qio (which is not really a complaint so much as it is a pipe dream) is that I wish the Mobile REDRocket and other third party devices were compatible with it. In a perfect world, the Qio could be a way to bridge a MacBook Pro, REDRocket, and RAID enclosure into a useful download / archival station on the cheap. It's definitely not there yet... but I can always dream.

Best,

- Jordan

[Stephen Lovett]

Thanks Jordan,

I'm super interested in hearing about your real world experience with the product. Thanks for the update and the info.

I too own most of gear you've listed, but I got orphaned a couple of times over the years and had a processor upgrade back a long time back that was crap. My Tempo Sata Pro card is the little girl with the curl. It's faster than my other e-sata express card adapters, but it is more prone to spontaneously unmounting a drive than the slower cards.

What's the issue with Mobile Rocket and other third party devices?

I don't do a lot of onset work on my MBP, I've usually got one or more MacPro's so it's probably not an issue for me, but as you say, it's kind of a lot of money given what it does, so I'd like to be sure I understand any gotcha's before purchase. If it works reliably and it's fast, it's likely worth the money.

(I do wish the REDSTATION would ship, even if it had just the current CF module that comes on the RED, I've been half tempted to order a REDFLASH and build my own "FrankenReader")

Cheers,

Steve

[Jordan Livingston]

So here is my review of the Sonnet Qio after two days of RED production. Short version: it's not so good.

Day 1 was a 12.5 hour day, and we shot x13 16GB CF cards. The reader worked EXTREMELY fast, but a few times, it would not mount cards, requiring a re-start. Still, this was within acceptable tolerances, in my opinions. The time lost in re-booting was more than made up for by the time savings in speed and convenience.

However, Day 2 (earlier today) was a pathetic disappointment. Inexplicably, my system began to freeze up completely every time a new card was inserted. I thought a re-boot might be in order, but the problem just got worse and worse. By the end of the day, the reader was crashing my system completely - even when just sitting idle. I had to scrap it and return to my old Lexar CF reader. MUCH slower, but at least it didn't hang my system.

I can't offer any suggestions as to why the unit suddenly got worse. My only theory is that the wear and tear of the first day brought out the inherently buggy nature. I am extremely disappointed to say the least.

I will contact Sonnet, as perhaps they are aware of these issues and will issue driver updates soon. However, if this is the level of performance I can expect, it is certainly not a device that's fit for production.

I sincerely hope the problem is addressed with drivers or firmware ASAP!

- Jordan

[Stephen Lovett]

Thanks Jordan,

And that really sucks.

I just picked up another Lexar as I'm having issues with one of my Lexar readers, and I almost bought a QIO yesterday.

I'm definitely going to wait now.

Thank you for taking one for the team on this one, and I hope Sonnet gets you a fix pronto.

Steve

[Jordan Livingston]

Thanks Jordan,

And that really sucks.

I just picked up another Lexar as I'm having issues with one of my Lexar readers, and I almost bought a QIO yesterday.

I'm definitely going to wait now.

Thank you for taking one for the team on this one, and I hope Sonnet gets you a fix pronto.

Steve

It was really surreal. The unit worked fantastically well in my studio for two days. Then, I brought it into the field, and worked well for most of the day, with some very minor / tolerable glitches (cards not mounting; requiring a re-start).

Then, on day four, it was as if the unit had become totally inoperable. Boot-ups hanged. And system crashes became ubiquitous. Nothing had changed about my system. Nothing had changed about our workflow. Same hardware, same drives, same CF cards, same cables.

I find it hard to believe that the unit was worn out by only three days of moderate use. That is EXTREMELY disheartening, and unacceptable for something that price. That said, I was warned that the drivers are still very buggy, and updates are as yet forthcoming, so hopefully the problem will indeed by solved by software.

Given my past (highly positive) experiences with Sonnet, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt... for a little while.

- Jordan

[Steve Sherrick]

Thanks for these reports Jordan. Keep us informed if the driver issues get worked out and your opinion of the unit changes.

[Alex Carr]

Too many drivers involved in the Qio for it to handle one type of media very well,

[Jordan Livingston]

Too many drivers involved in the Qio for it to handle one type of media very well,

I don't know if I can agree with that. Most "dumb" card readers have no drivers - the P2, SxS, and RED drivers (for example) are provided by the camera manufacturers, not the card reader manufactures. Those drivers have long since had to occupy the same computer, while we have previously had to swap out between numerous different card readers.

The Qio does have some complex drivers under the hood. It has to turn the ExpressCard / 34 slot into a PCIe bridge. Beyond that, however, the reader modules themselves don't each have separate drivers, nor do the eSATA ports - those simply rely on the existing drivers contained on your Mac.

I was actually very impressed to find that the installer for the Qio contained Sony, Panasonic, and other popular memory card drivers as optional installs. I had all of these installed already, and the installation routine offered to either "skip" or "upgrade" what was already found on my computer.

I also previously used the Sonnet Tempo Pro eSATA adaptor, and I noticed the Qio installer contained a newer version of that driver as well, which was mysteriously NOT separately available on the Sonnet support website (perhaps it's a beta version... perhaps that is the underlying problem here).

In any case, the unit is astounding when it actually works. Inexplicably, it all-of-a-sudden stopped working for me. I'm now in the process of borrowing some other laptops to test it with. I will report back if I find anything new, such as the problem potentially being unique to my laptop.

I've also been Googling and have yet to find any other reviews that complain about the system crashes and freezes. Maybe there's just a conflict on my machine that could somehow be resolved?

- Jordan

[Steve Sherrick]

I don't know if I can agree with that. Most "dumb" card readers have no drivers - the P2, SxS, and RED drivers (for example) are provided by the camera manufacturers, not the card reader manufactures. Those drivers have long since had to occupy the same computer, while we have previously had to swap out between numerous different card readers.

The Qio does have some complex drivers under the hood. It has to turn the ExpressCard / 34 slot into a PCIe bridge. Beyond that, however, the reader modules themselves don't each have separate drivers, nor do the eSATA ports - those simply rely on the existing drivers contained on your Mac.

I was actually very impressed to find that the installer for the Qio contained Sony, Panasonic, and other popular memory card drivers as optional installs. I had all of these installed already, and the installation routine offered to either "skip" or "upgrade" what was already found on my computer.

I also previously used the Sonnet Tempo Pro eSATA adaptor, and I noticed the Qio installer contained a newer version of that driver as well, which was mysteriously NOT separately available on the Sonnet support website (perhaps it's a beta version... perhaps that is the underlying problem here).

In any case, the unit is astounding when it actually works. Inexplicably, it all-of-a-sudden stopped working for me. I'm now in the process of borrowing some other laptops to test it with. I will report back if I find anything new, such as the problem potentially being unique to my laptop.

I've also been Googling and have yet to find any other reviews that complain about the system crashes and freezes. Maybe there's just a conflict on my machine that could somehow be resolved?

- Jordan
If you are able to get a system with a fresh install and minimal software/files loaded onto it, that might provide a good baseline for figuring out what's going on with it. Supplying Sonnet with as much info as possible about system config, patterns of failure, etc. will hopefully lead to a more stable product.

[sebastian toro]

HI Jordan are you using r3ddatamanager?

thanks in advance

[Jordan Livingston]

HI Jordan are you using r3ddatamanager?

thanks in advance

Yes, I am. Version 5.4.

- Jordan

[Curtis Abbott]

I have been waiting for the Qio to be released, but with issues like this it sounds like a no go. Are you working on 10.5 or 10.6? I have had a lot of issues with 10.6 and stick with 10.5 for on set work.

-Curtis

[Jordan Livingston]

I have been waiting for the Qio to be released, but with issues like this it sounds like a no go. Are you working on 10.5 or 10.6? I have had a lot of issues with 10.6 and stick with 10.5 for on set work.

-Curtis

I'm using 10.6.2. It's been working with everything I need at this point (except the dreaded Duel Adaptor).

The oddest thing about the Qio fiasco is that worked PERFECTLY for nearly a full before it began to crap out.

- Jordan

[Wil Klassen]

Thats always such a bummer when it works exactly how you want it to for a day (or at least enough to confirm its amazing) and then inexplicably decides its done. By chance have you tested any of the other ports or just the CF? Just curious. Thank you for the updates and testing sofar!!

[Jordan Livingston]

Thats always such a bummer when it works exactly how you want it to for a day (or at least enough to confirm its amazing) and then inexplicably decides its done. By chance have you tested any of the other ports or just the CF? Just curious. Thank you for the updates and testing sofar!!

Yup - that's exactly how it went down!

I tested the P2 ports in my studio, and they seemed to work perfectly, as did all the ports. The CF ports were the only ones that were used on the actual job (it was a single camera shoot).

- Jordan

[Wolf]

BUMP.

Any improvements? New drivers seems to have been out for a week or so...

[Jordan Livingston]

BUMP.

Any improvements? New drivers seems to have been out for a week or so...

Funny you should ask... Sonnet replaced my hardware, claiming it was an early production run and they made some changes to the physical device. I JUST got my unit back about an hour ago...

I will be testing it on a two-camera RED shoot later this weekend with the new drivers and will report back.

- Jordan

[Jordan Livingston]

As promised, here is my update on the state of the Qio...

My first unit died after less than two days of use. Sonnet felt this was a hardware problem, and mentioned that some early batches of the Qui had been 'recalled' (no, they did not use those words, but they said they had made changes to the hardware itself since the time of my purchase).

In any case, they sent me a brand new unit. I noticed that the serial number begins with the letter "D" (my previous unit was a "B" model).

New hardware. New drivers. Worked like a charm!

I just finished a two day shoot where I downloaded an average of 30 16GB CF cards per day (for two cameras) and I did not have one single problem the entire time. I was using R3D data manager to make simultaneous, verified copies on to x4 eSATA drives.

At this point; my verdict on the Qio is that it's a must have! Be careful that you get a late model and install the latest drivers, but when it works, it works fantastically well.

- Jordan

P.S. My only complaint remains; I wish I could somehow use the Qui and the REDRocket on my MacBook Pro at the same time.

[Wolf]

Thanks for the update!

[Lonny Danler]

Thanks for all the good info and guinea pigging! I too have been on the fence on this one. I'm guessing you've tried putting the mobile rocket express 34 into the QIO SxS daisy chaining the QIO express 34 into the MBP? Did Sonnet happen to say why this didn't work if so?

Also, does anyone have eyes on the Mobile Raid out by Maxx Digital and iStorage Pro? I was looking at it at NAB. I also spoke with a P2 guy Helmut about the QIO and he said the P2 was way slow for PCI-e compared to say Panasonic's 5 card reader.

Here's a link to his blog and tests:
http://www.varicaminla.com/blog/

Great to hear the CF ports are working lighting! Looking for news on the SxS, P2 and SD speeds if anyone has done some benchmarks.

[Jordan Livingston]

Thanks for all the good info and guinea pigging! I too have been on the fence on this one. I'm guessing you've tried putting the mobile rocket express 34 into the QIO SxS daisy chaining the QIO express 34 into the MBP? Did Sonnet happen to say why this didn't work if so?

As I mentioned, this was one of the very first things that I tried, and it resulted in an immediate kernel panic, prior even to a complete startup.

Sonnet doesn't specifically say that this won't work; they just don't offer technical support for the Mobile Rocket. Maxx Digital has told me that the Mobile Rocket needs a direct connection to the computer and isn't compatible with third party HBA extension methods.

It might be possible to put the REDRocket itself into a competing third party HBA kit, which in turn might be compatible with the Qio, but with no manufacturer specifically supporting this workflow, it would ultimately be a matter of guess and check.


Also, does anyone have eyes on the Mobile Raid out by Maxx Digital and iStorage Pro? I was looking at it at NAB.

It looks totally awesome - I wish I had one - but it's very expensive, even more so with the recommended / preferred SSD media. It's ultimately not any "better" than my existing custom RAID-5 arrays; but it is self-contained in one box, which is very slick and very portable. I can't tell you how much time I spend getting to job sites way early to "build" up my cart. If you have the money, the Mobile Rocket RAID is certainly a time-saving, life-impriving solution.


I also spoke with a P2 guy Helmut about the QIO and he said the P2 was way slow for PCI-e compared to say Panasonic's 5 card reader.

I haven't had any hands on experience with the 5-card reader, but for starters, I think it's significantly more expensive than the Qio (about $800 on the street). In my informal tests, a single 16GB P2 card copies simultaneously onto two eSATA drives in under 8 minutes with the Qio.

- Jordan

[Lonny Danler]

Thanks for the add. info.

Check out istoragepro.com as well. Looks like you can get housing only. I'm always for improving quality of life ;-)

5 card reader def. more expensive and not as flexible. Does 16GBs of CF material download at the same speed of 8 minutes or is it faster? A couple variables at play there, but curious?

[Jordan Livingston]

Thanks for the add. info.

Check out istoragepro.com as well. Looks like you can get housing only. I'm always for improving quality of life ;-)

I could be wrong - maybe somebody can answer definitively - but my understanding is that the Maxx Digital Mobile Rocket branded enclosures have more underneath the hood than the mere iStoragePro housing. I do think there is special hardware co-engineered with RED to work with the Rocket, but again, I don't know for certain...


5 card reader def. more expensive and not as flexible. Does 16GBs of CF material download at the same speed of 8 minutes or is it faster? A couple variables at play there, but curious?

It looks like the Panasonic x5 P2 reader varies dramatically in price depending on where you find it online. The best price I've seen is more than 2x the price of the Qio, and everything you say above is still true. The MSRP appears to be more than 3x the street price of the Qio...

Again, I haven't performed any critical / scientific time trials, but the CF downloads appear to be even faster than P2 (in fact, P2 appears to be the slowest). In my experience in the field, a nearly-full (~5% remaining on card) 16GB CF card transfers to dual eSATA drives in about 4-5 minutes (this is without checksums, of course).

- Jordan

[Jordan Livingston]

Thanks for the add. info.

Check out istoragepro.com as well. Looks like you can get housing only. I'm always for improving quality of life ;-)

Looking into this further... it looks like the iStoragePro enclosure DOES natively support the REDRocket. So I'm really not sure what Maxx Digital's added value is?

That being said, it looks like you can't buy directly from iStoragePro, and no prices are listed on their site. Perhaps Maxx Digital is simply the authorized reseller?

For what it's worth, Maxx Digital have always provided me with excellent customer service, and seem to have a direct line to the folks at RED when support issues come up.

I definitely would like to trade my Mobile Rocket for a Mobile Rocket RAID, but as I mentioned in a previous post, I just can't afford it right now, and I already have a 10TB RAID-5 array that works just fine... for now.

- Jordan

[Paul Nordin]

Again, I haven't performed any critical / scientific time trials, but the CF downloads appear to be even faster than P2 (in fact, P2 appears to be the slowest). In my experience in the field, a nearly-full (~5% remaining on card) 16GB CF card transfers to dual eSATA drives in about 4-5 minutes (this is without checksums, of course).

- Jordan

I DPed on many event shoots with a DIT who used the Panasonic 5-card reader. It was reasonably fast, but was also unstable. At least once per shoot (sometimes 3-4times) the reader would freeze-up while downloading a 32GB P2 card. Resulting in a frenzied DIT trying to keep empty P2s flowing to the 5 cameras. FWIW

[Jordan Livingston]

I DPed on many event shoots with a DIT who used the Panasonic 5-card reader. It was reasonably fast, but was also unstable. At least once per shoot (sometimes 3-4times) the reader would freeze-up while downloading a 32GB P2 card. Resulting in a frenzied DIT trying to keep empty P2s flowing to the 5 cameras. FWIW

Hiya Paul,

I really don't know what it is about card readers - they seem to be universally unstable and unreliable! I've owned two Lexar "Pro" FW800 readers, two SanDisk USB2 readers, the [dreaded] Duel Adaptor, the single-P2 USB2 reader, and of course, now the Sonnet Qio - and ALL of them have caused major problems in the field.

The Qio is currently working very well as the best of the bunch; my new favorite piece of kit to be sure, but I never go to any job without at least two other (different) readers as backups.

Some best practices I have learned that seem to apply to all card readers:


- NEVER share busses. One reader per bus. No daisy-chaining.

- Put the reader(s) on a different bus than the hard drives (using eSATA drives helps A LOT and frees up the FW800 bus).

- If there's external power available for drives and/or readers - use it. Bus-power is totally unreliable throughout a 12, 14, 16 hour day...

- Cooling is critical. Swap out readers periodically to keep them cool. They seem to all have problems with overheating (which leads to crashing).

Hope these tips are helpful!

- Jordan

[Lonny Danler]

I DPed on many event shoots with a DIT who used the Panasonic 5-card reader. It was reasonably fast, but was also unstable. At least once per shoot (sometimes 3-4times) the reader would freeze-up while downloading a 32GB P2 card. Resulting in a frenzied DIT trying to keep empty P2s flowing to the 5 cameras. FWIW

I DITed for a 5 camera P2 shoot as well and the PCD35 (PCIe) was blazing fast for one download and then I couldn't get it to work again. Tried express34 and HBA and a bunch of firmware installs, etc... I know others have had better luck. I ended up using two of the PCD20s--one firewire and one usb to maximize speeds on different buses.

Still looking for that perfect solution.

[Lonny Danler]

Hiya Paul,

I really don't know what it is about card readers - they seem to be universally unstable and unreliable! I've owned two Lexar "Pro" FW800 readers, two SanDisk USB2 readers, the [dreaded] Duel Adaptor, the single-P2 USB2 reader, and of course, now the Sonnet Qio - and ALL of them have caused major problems in the field.

The Qio is currently working very well as the best of the bunch; my new favorite piece of kit to be sure, but I never go to any job without at least two other (different) readers as backups.

Some best practices I have learned that seem to apply to all card readers:


- NEVER share busses. One reader per bus. No daisy-chaining.

- Put the reader(s) on a different bus than the hard drives (using eSATA drives helps A LOT and frees up the FW800 bus).

- If there's external power available for drives and/or readers - use it. Bus-power is totally unreliable throughout a 12, 14, 16 hour day...

- Cooling is critical. Swap out readers periodically to keep them cool. They seem to all have problems with overheating (which leads to crashing).

Hope these tips are helpful!

- Jordan

Completely agree with all this. He preacheth the truth.

[N_Villers]

I could be wrong - maybe somebody can answer definitively - but my understanding is that the Maxx Digital Mobile Rocket branded enclosures have more underneath the hood than the mere iStoragePro housing. I do think there is special hardware co-engineered with RED to work with the Rocket, but again, I don't know for certain...

I don't see how this could be possible as the whole idea of a PCIe expansion system is that it acts as a passive conduit and should not require drivers or act differently on separate systems. There are not that many manufacturers and I would bet both systems use the same source. Perhaps OneStopSystems? This would not be the only MaxxDigital product that was simply re-branded, ie. the Avastor HDD.

-noel

[Fredrik Callinggard]

I just got an iStorage Pro. I'd like to WARN everybody before they buy it. It works with RED Rocket and can take it, BUT the 8 bay raid tray enclosure inside is NOT connected to anything.

This makes it that to use the internal RAID in the enclosure you have to occupy one of the low profile slots with a RAID card specifically for this.

WHICH MEANS it only has 2 PCI e extension card slots.

This is important to know cause I got burnt on this for my configuration.

[Jordan Livingston]

I just wrote to Devon at Maxx Digital inquiring about wether or not their version of the 'Mobile Rocket RAID' will be the same, or wether they are including their own hardware RAID controller as part of the bundle.

In my ideal world, I would like to use this enclosure with my REDRocket, a Sonnet Tempo 4EP eSATA card, and an ATTO R380 SAS RAID controller... and still achieve 'realtime' REDRocket transcodes via the HBA expansion kit connected to my MacPro.

I don't yet know if this is even physically possible, but after doing lots and lots of research on PCIe host expansion products, simply adding a 2nd MacPro tower and networking them together is starting to look more and more attractive, and ironically more affordable, by comparison. :-/

I'll share the results of my ongoing research /inquiries as always...

Best,

- Jordan

[Mike Connelly]

Just purchased a Sonnet Qio from B & H to transfer P2 rushes in the field. P2 is still in its infancy here in the UK and trying to find out about the Qio with a fault...well I might as well be on the moon.
The distributors/ forums over here haven’t got an ounce of info. And Sonnet USA are making excuses about the one and only engineer that can deal with my problem being used by their CEO on a special project.
So can anyone help.
Set up Qio as instructions and the usual long wait of 7 to 10 minutes before my MacBook Pro opens up. So all’s normal there.
I can get a Full P2 16Gb card to transfer to my G-Safe mirrored drive in approx 10 minutes with Firewire 800 from the Mac.
But when using the Qio eSATA port to the G-Safe eSATA port, the same P2 card takes 3 hours.
I’ve tried it with a single G-Drive and same results.
I’ve made sure my Mac has the latest eSATA drives installed.
My Mac has 10.6.4. latest Snow Leopard.
I also did a test with a loan from Panasonic UK of their USB single card reader which only took 7 ½ minutes to down load the same file.
At the moment I’m a very upset DOP/Lighting Cameraman who thinks he may have waisted $500 and should have just bought the $200 Panasonic card reader, but I did want the facility of being able to read S+S & CF cards.
Mike Connelly
Freelance Lighting Cameraman (DOP).

[CJ Roy]

A buddy's Qio just took a dive as he was about to work an Alexa shoot. So maybe they're a bit glitchy still.

[Dustin Cross]

That sucks. I am planning to use my Qio for an Alexa shoot I am about to start. What are the other options for downloading SxS cards? I need a back-up solution other than network my Macbook Pro to my tower to download SxS cards.

My Matrox MXO2 does not work through my Qio on my Laptop, so I am thinking the Mobile Rocket wouldn't either.

I haven't tried the MXO2 through the Qio on my Mac Pro, but I hear that works.

You do need to dedicate a RAID card to the eight drives in the iStorage and Maxx Digital Mobile Rocket Raid. The big problem is you can only use half height cards and they can't be too long either. There is only room for one full size card in both. It looks like it is possible to do a slight redesign (move one fan) and you could put full height cards in the two slots.


Dusty

[Jordan Livingston]

Mike,

You probably either have a driver conflict on your system or a defective unit. If you read some of my previous posts, I had a defective unit that would not behave until Sonnet replaced it with a brand new one, which then worked perfectly! I do not have 7-10 minute boot up times - my system boots up in normal speed! I've found that I can back up a full 32GB SxS card to two eSATA drives simultaneously in about 8 minutes.

I do still experience two bugs, which are both relatively minor. One is that if I'm using eSATA drives with the Qio, inserting any memory card during a drive-to-drive file transfer will cause the hard drives to abruptly dismount. This is issue is entirely avoidable. The other bug I experience is that I have to re-install the Qio drivers every time I start up the computer without the Qio. In other words, if I install the drivers and always boot up with Qio, no problem. But as soon as I boot up without the Qio, I have to re-install the drivers before the Qio will be recognized again.

As for the problems you are experiencing, I would think Sonnet should have to replace your unit. At least in my experience, the first iterations were not reliable, but my understanding is that the major bugs had been fixed by now.

- Jordan

[CJ Roy]

That sucks. I am planning to use my Qio for an Alexa shoot I am about to start. What are the other options for downloading SxS cards? I need a back-up solution other than network my Macbook Pro to my tower to download SxS cards.

Well, that's exactly what I recommended and that's what he did. Said it worked flawlessly. In a pinch, it's better than nothing. But it sounds like it was pretty fast.

Maybe he'll chime in here, about it.

[Valentyn Gryb]

Just purchased a Sonnet Qio from B & H to transfer P2 rushes in the field. P2 is still in its infancy here in the UK and trying to find out about the Qio with a fault...well I might as well be on the moon.
The distributors/ forums over here haven’t got an ounce of info. And Sonnet USA are making excuses about the one and only engineer that can deal with my problem being used by their CEO on a special project.
So can anyone help.
Set up Qio as instructions and the usual long wait of 7 to 10 minutes before my MacBook Pro opens up. So all’s normal there.
I can get a Full P2 16Gb card to transfer to my G-Safe mirrored drive in approx 10 minutes with Firewire 800 from the Mac.
But when using the Qio eSATA port to the G-Safe eSATA port, the same P2 card takes 3 hours.
I’ve tried it with a single G-Drive and same results.
I’ve made sure my Mac has the latest eSATA drives installed.
My Mac has 10.6.4. latest Snow Leopard.
I also did a test with a loan from Panasonic UK of their USB single card reader which only took 7 ½ minutes to down load the same file.
At the moment I’m a very upset DOP/Lighting Cameraman who thinks he may have waisted $500 and should have just bought the $200 Panasonic card reader, but I did want the facility of being able to read S+S & CF cards.
Mike Connelly
Freelance Lighting Cameraman (DOP).

Try to localize defect part. Use another esata cables, another esata xpress card , an finally another mbp. Try every combination you can make. For me it seems Qio/express card uncompatibility, or bad cable/cables/connectors. Try to reinstall software. Also, i agree that 7-10 minutes to boot - is a looooooong time. It means, that your system not healthy. A have a lot software in my system, also mbp, a lot drivers for motu, matrox, aja io modules - but my system takes 1-2 minutes to full loaded Fcp from restart. 7-10 minutes - is the first sogn that you have some problem in mac os.

[Dustin Cross]

Mike,

My Qio was working perfectly, then I installed my Matrox MXO2 and my system started taking forever to boot. Uninstalled the MXO2 software and the system boots fast again and the Qio seems to be working perfectly. I noticed the MXO2 and Qio use the exact same PCIe cards and so I am guessing there is a conflict between the drivers they use or something. Are you using an MXO2?


Dusty

[Lonny Danler]

I'm the guy with the bad Qio right before the Alexa gig and had to network MBP and MP with cat 5 (cat 6 probably better but didn't have that cable on me). I was getting 70-90Mbps transfers to 3 RAID destinations with Shotput Pro. Not bad. Not Qio but not bad. One thing I found was it's better to eject SxS from my MBP first and let MP prompt that it's no longer available. If I ejected the SxS from my MP system got a little buggy and had to restart.

Good news was that Sonnet replaced my Qio on the spot no questions asked when I drove down to Irvine to also work on my iStoragePro mobile Raid cause it's been having problems and causing kernel panics. Guy at Sonnet said that beginning Qios had problems but they rarely hear anything now. Hoping mine was just a bad apple out of the bunch and reliable from here on out. I also can't daisy with Qio and mobile rocket raid.

As for the MobileRaid, I had to leave that at iStoragePro to continue to test. Dinh has been very helpful but I can't say I feel like the system is ready for prime time even though he said multiple others are using it on features, etc...

MBP 4,1 15"
MP quad 2008
OS 10.6 on both

[Lonny Danler]

I also had the Sony USB SxS from rental house just as a back up for the Alexa gig, btw.

[Benjamin Hopkins]

I consulted this thread back in July in preparation for an intense shoot. I went ahead and purchased two Sonnet Qio units along with the connection cards for MacPros and Express34. I ran them on an intense 6-camera shoot with Sony EX3s and EX1s and GoProHD cams and Zoom audio recorders. So the SxS cards and SD cards were flyin' up to the Data Wrangling stations constantly for 7 days straight.

I had the Qios hooked up to a 17" MBP, an 8-core MP tower and a 15" older first generation Intel MBP. The older 15" was the only one that was finiky. It took 5 minutes to start up each time after installing the drivers. But it did work fine after that until the 5th day. That's when I put the Qio on the tower instead and all was fine.

Ingest was through ShotPut Pro to 2 attached eSata drives (attached to the Qios) and a third destination on an internal drive on the MP (through a local ethernet hub).

I will say that one of the express34 adapters was DOA, and I had to drive down to Irvine the day before the shoot to get it replaced. They were quick and helpful.

[Quentin Brown]

Thanks for sharing your experiences guys.

It would be great if you can keep us updated if the issues with the Red Station or MXO2 get fixed. Thanks.