Multiple powered docks on one computer?

[MrMitty]

I just bought my first dock, the CalDigit TS4, to go with my 2019 Intel MBP 16". I think I want a second one for additional drives and peripherals. Does anyone know if this can create any problems? For example, which dock would charge the computer and would the other one know not to send power? 

[MrSimplicity]

Simply put, you should not run into any issues. Your MBP will be in control of which one it draws power from for charging. more often than not charging is biased to the left side of the laptop so it will most likely favor the one side when both are connected. On top of which the MBP's internal BMS should be more than capable of limiting the power draw when the battery is full, so even if it pulls power from both it will only pull what it needs up to it's own limit.

 

My question though is why wouldn't you just get a different dock for your second one? I can't imagine that with as many peripherals you could think of including the laptop itself that you'd ever use the full 230w capacity of the CalDigit TS4 let alond enough to need so much power that you'd need a second one.

[MrMitty]

12 hours ago, MrSimplicity said:

Simply put, you should not run into any issues. Your MBP will be in control of which one it draws power from for charging. more often than not charging is biased to the left side of the laptop so it will most likely favor the one side when both are connected. On top of which the MBP's internal BMS should be more than capable of limiting the power draw when the battery is full, so even if it pulls power from both it will only pull what it needs up to it's own limit.

 

My question though is why wouldn't you just get a different dock for your second one? I can't imagine that with as many peripherals you could think of including the laptop itself that you'd ever use the full 230w capacity of the CalDigit TS4 let alond enough to need so much power that you'd need a second one.

The 2019 16" MBP had a weird bug when using external monitors and charging from the right seemed to have helped: 

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/363337/how-to-find-cause-of-high-kernel-task-cpu-usage?answertab=active#tab-top 

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2019-16-is-hot-noisy-with-an-external-monitor.2211747/ 

 

The reason I invested in a dock was that my a dongle from a well-known company was getting way too hot. I posted my concern here. I just tried the CalDigit TS4 over the weekend and it reduced the heat significantly. My guess is that the devices are getting power from the dock and not the BUS. 

 

The TS4 is connected to my MBP on the left side. I'd like to connect one more monitor and some drives but I think connecting them on the right side would be safer since it would be on the other Thunderbolt 3 controller. Also, I've almost maxed out the ports on the TS4 with only 1 USB-A and 1 USB-C remaining. 

 

 

[MrSimplicity]

5 minutes ago, MrMitty said:

I just tried the CalDigit TS4 over the weekend and it reduced the heat significantly

I guess that's fair, I personally think you'd be better off getting something with more I/O even if it's not powered or even just low power, say 20-40w. More often than not peripherals don't take that much power. but if you think getting a second of the same dock that's ~$300 is worth it then there's no reason not to. Again you won't see any disadvantages to having a second one, just might be a little bit overkill unless you're plugging in peripherals that draw a lot of power just over USB in which case majority of USB powered devices run on less than 15w (5v 2.5a). Personally I wouldn't see a benefit in spending that much on another one. Just buy one with the ports you think you may need and keeps low powered devices on that one.