You can never have too many USB-C ports, right? It's rubbish having a cheap laptop with only a single USB-C port. So, the good folks at Mokin have sent me a gadget which turns your single and lonely USB-C port into FIVE USB-C ports. Along the side you get 4 USB-C 3.1 port…
@Edent I can't find your earlier review of it on here, but I've just ordered the 14-port docking station that you reviewed last year, in advance of getting a new laptop-cum-desktop. Under $70 with your discount code.
@Edent My Framework still hasn't arrived (estimated some time at the end of the month), but I'm now using the 14-port Mokin on a daily basis with my Thinkpad X1 until then.
Seems to be eminently functional so far. I've had the same slightly funny behaviour about detecting HDMI (and audio) that you had, but a power cycle usually fixes it.
@Edent Sorry to disturb again, at least it's not an obvious visual question this time. Have you tried this unit with interuptions of power? If so, does it support what I've heard called "fast role swap" or "fast role switching"? Supposedly, everything USB 3.x does, but I've seen some that claim to be 3.x and obviously don't, file transfers fail, just for example, when power to the hub is lost. Thanks again for all the work.
@techsinger
The hub works without power.
If there's no power source plugged in, it draws power from the host machine.
So you can do file transfers even without power.
Is that what you meant?
@techsinger
Sadly, the answer to your question about the USB-C hub is "no".
Upon disconnecting the power, it interrupts all file transfers through the hub.
I'll update the review.
@Edent Sorry for not being clear. The file transfer thing was just an example. Let's say you have the hub, and therefore the computer attached to it, attached to power through the hub's power port. You also have, at the same time, a file transfer, or some other continuing process, going on with a peripheral through one of the hub's other USB C ports. 1/3
@Edent You then pick up the laptop and walk away, disconnecting the power from the hub, though obviously keeping everything else attached so as to keep the continuing process/file transfer running. With "fast role swap", the process just goes on, the hub switches from providing power through the power source to providing its own power to the peripheral devices. Without fast role swap, all the devices disconnect and then reconnect a few seconds later, stopping any continuing process. 2/3
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