Steam Deck (unofficial) dock limitations (both on JSAUX & another brand)

[Majestic 12]

A few months ago I bought a dock for my Steam Deck: three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI out and a USB C port to pass power through.

The problem however, was that I couldn't just hook up three USB devices. I attached 2 USB dongles for micro SD cards and a dongle for my wireless keyboard and it refused to detect my keyboard. I had to remove the USB dongles for the micro sd cards before it would detect it. I also had similar issues where it sometimes wouldn't recognise the micro SD cards. Rebooting sometimes fixed it. I wondered if it was a power delivery issue.

Then today I got the JSAUX dock which I actually thought would fix this issue. It does NOT. I have the EXACT same issue: Steam Deck (Steam OS) simply will not detect the keyboard dongle if all three devices are plugged in. It's not like a micro SD card uses a lot of power when idle so I don't get it. If I leave just one micro SD attached, the keyboard gets detected but I have to press a key a dozen times before Steam OS registers it.

I can understand one dock having this issue but TWO? Both very different ones? This seems more like a Steam Deck issue than a Dock issue. I also had this issue when connecting a 1TB SSD drive where it wouldn't recognise it unless it was the only device connected.

Are there limitations to USB C connections that I'm unaware of and that these dock manufacturers don't mention? Because this heavily limits what I intended to use the Steam Deck for and so far I've spent nearly €100 on two docks that don't work properly if several USB devices are attached ... Or is this an Arch / Steam OS issue?

[Murasakino Rin]

most likely all three ports are fighting over a limited power bus. certain devices will consume more of the bus leading to other devices not getting enough.

[Jâbbérwôkkï]

Or the OS doesn't see the wireless dongles? No linux drivers for them perhaps?

[Majestic 12]

Originally posted by Murasakino Rin:

most likely all three ports are fighting over a limited power bus. certain devices will consume more of the bus leading to other devices not getting enough.

SD card dongles use next to nothing in power - so this is very unlikely. It would be a different story if I had attached a mechanical external hard drive like the WD Elements but two tiny SD micro adapters and a keyboard dongle? Seriously? This sounds like a Steam Deck issue to me.

[ReBoot]

Are you powering the dock externally or from the Deck?

[Majestic 12]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Are you powering the dock externally or from the Deck?

Externally using the Steam Deck's power adapter.

Yesterday I tested this on the second Steam Deck that arrived:
- different keyboard & mouse dongle (Logitech)
- USB stick (used it to reinstall Steam OS)
- different screen (portable USB C screen that gets its power from a separate USB C connection)
= same problem -- the dongle stopped working the second I added storage devices.

Basically, problem remains regardless of Steam Deck used, for both docks from different brands, different keyboard dongles, different SD card adapters or USB sticks, etc.

[Piston Smashed™]

I have the Jsaux HB0603 Dock powered using the Steam Deck charger. Used HDMI cable to external monitor and without external monitor.

I have a K63 Wireless Keyboard and Corsair Harpoon Wireless Dongles plugged in and have tried two different M.2 External drives plugged in with no problems. All three are plugged in to the USB 3 slots, External drive is connected by a USB 3 to USB C cable. Using a USB thumb drive also works fine.

However, when I add my 860 Evo Sata 2.5 SSD External (USB 3 cable) then my mouse loses connection and stops working, unplugging the drive, my mouse immediately starts working again. So I'm not sure whats going off with 860 Evo drive making me losing mouse connection.

[AD]

Does it make a difference if you limit the TDP of the deck? Or change other settings to drag down power consumption?

[Majestic 12]

Originally posted by Piston Smashed™:

I have the Jsaux HB0603 Dock powered using the Steam Deck charger. Used HDMI cable to external monitor and without external monitor.

I have a K63 Wireless Keyboard and Corsair Harpoon Wireless Dongles plugged in and have tried two different M.2 External drives plugged in with no problems. All three are plugged in to the USB 3 slots, External drive is connected by a USB 3 to USB C cable. Using a USB thumb drive also works fine.

However, when I add my 860 Evo Sata 2.5 SSD External (USB 3 cable) then my mouse loses connection and stops working, unplugging the drive, my mouse immediately starts working again. So I'm not sure whats going off with 860 Evo drive making me losing mouse connection.

A 860 Evo SSD uses very little power - 2-3W at most. It shouldn't make a difference just like having a micro SD card adapter attached shouldn't. While the Steam Deck CAN charge at 45W (basically maxing out the power adapter included), it draws far less in practice when nearly full and used in docked mode. I've had a meter to measure watt & amps drawn and at the moment my mouse & keyboard stop working, it drew a paltry 11W, less than a quarter of what the 45W the charger allows for.

Also, I've used a power bank that can output up to 100W and it made no difference.

To me it seems the Steam Deck is VERY picky and there's potentially some software conflict going on. It's a shame I can't easily test Windows to test it out to see if it happens there as well.

[Majestic 12]

Originally posted by AD:

Does it make a difference if you limit the TDP of the deck? Or change other settings to drag down power consumption?

I've already answered your question in my post above - it's not a power limitation.

[Somebody]

Whats your dmesg output in linux console? any errors or warnings?

[AD]

Originally posted by Majestic 12:

Originally posted by AD:

Does it make a difference if you limit the TDP of the deck? Or change other settings to drag down power consumption?

I've already answered your question in my post above - it's not a power limitation.

Ok, sorry, I'm really tired after a long day at work and didn't read correctly.

[RPG Gamer Man]

So the ports are not USB 3.1? I wonder why not..it would have data use much faster.

[Piston Smashed™]

Originally posted by Majestic 12:

Originally posted by Piston Smashed™:

I have the Jsaux HB0603 Dock powered using the Steam Deck charger. Used HDMI cable to external monitor and without external monitor.

I have a K63 Wireless Keyboard and Corsair Harpoon Wireless Dongles plugged in and have tried two different M.2 External drives plugged in with no problems. All three are plugged in to the USB 3 slots, External drive is connected by a USB 3 to USB C cable. Using a USB thumb drive also works fine.

However, when I add my 860 Evo Sata 2.5 SSD External (USB 3 cable) then my mouse loses connection and stops working, unplugging the drive, my mouse immediately starts working again. So I'm not sure whats going off with 860 Evo drive making me losing mouse connection.

A 860 Evo SSD uses very little power - 2-3W at most. It shouldn't make a difference just like having a micro SD card adapter attached shouldn't. While the Steam Deck CAN charge at 45W (basically maxing out the power adapter included), it draws far less in practice when nearly full and used in docked mode. I've had a meter to measure watt & amps drawn and at the moment my mouse & keyboard stop working, it drew a paltry 11W, less than a quarter of what the 45W the charger allows for.

Also, I've used a power bank that can output up to 100W and it made no difference.

To me it seems the Steam Deck is VERY picky and there's potentially some software conflict going on. It's a shame I can't easily test Windows to test it out to see if it happens there as well.

I know the 860 Evo should run fine as its in a external enclosure and has run from on USB power no problems on my PC. I thought I'd just try it after testing my M.2 drives because I was curious after seeing this thread.

The two other drives I tested were NVMe drives a 500GB 970 Evo Plus and a Corsair 960GB MP510 in external enclosures and they worked perfectly. So I was surprised when the 860 Evo worked but my mouse lost wireless connection. It's not a problem for me really as I was only testing, I will be using the Corsair MP510 as an external connected to my dock any way.

I have a Steam Dock on the way so I'll give that a bash see how it goes when it gets here.

[LaurelJimmy]

This article has a discussion on how many USB endpoints you can have and why...
https://acroname.com/blog/how-many-usb-devices-can-i-connect
Has anyone seen a schematic of the SteanDeck motherboard?

[LaurelJimmy]

https://www.club386.com/amd-provides-a-deep-dive-into-the-steam-decks-aerith-apu/
talks about the Steam Deck hardware. The general block diagram shows all the hardware like buttons, joysticks, etc have their own USB connection.

Their presentation is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsqvY0buseQ

The USB C port is by itself and is described as "sink 45 watts to charge the battery and run the system. It can also supply 7.5 watts of power. If you hook it to a dock it can supply video to two 4K@60Hz displays, if you only have one display, it becomes a USB3 Gen 2 port.

That part of the video shows the USB C as having "4 lanes DisplayPort 1.4 with DisplayStreamCompression." I found this discussion on Reddit talking about how if you use all four lanes for video, you only have enough pins for USB 2,0, so some docks use two lanes for video and two lanes for USB 3.0.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/s7v15z/usbc_hbr3_docks_with_dp_14dsc_still_no_2x4k60hz/

I wonder if a dock with no video would support more devices...