DJI 10GBPS LIGHTSPEED DATA CABLE

[Etdronehome]

All 4 ports on the MacBook Pro I have are USB-C 3.1 Ver2 10Gbs max, but supporting Displayport over thunderbolt 3, its pretty quick, one of the advantages I see is I can connect a SanDisk 1050mbs SSD to one port and the transfer from the M3 USB-C port through the Mac and then onto the SanDisk at the same speed as going onto the internal SSD on the Mac (I run my workflow using FinalCutPro directly on a SanDisk 2Tb SSD)

Data transfer using the Mac‘s USB-C has always been blisteringly quick!

I did test a Mac Mini with an M1 Processor which was incredibly fast when rendering, way faster than my i9 MacbookPro unfortunately the BlueTooth connectivity was terrible so it was returned.

I was curious as I thought you might have the two channel Gen 2 2x2 port capable of 20Gbps, couple that with the cable that matches that spec and it doesn’t go any faster than @Reid937 system would give a hint as to the type of port that DJI chose to put in the M3.

If this is the system you have

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support (CA)

support.apple.com

The USB ports description is:





So although blistering fast as you say (insert jealous emoji here ) it’s the same spec as @Reid937 has in his system so not really the hint I was hoping for

 

[JohnC]

I was curious as I thought you might have the two channel Gen 2 2x2 port capable of 20Gbps, couple that with the cable that matches that spec and it doesn’t go any faster than @Reid937 system would give a hint as to the type of port that DJI chose to put in the M3.

If this is the system you have

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support (CA)

support.apple.com

The USB ports description is:


View attachment 140926


So although blistering fast as you say (insert jealous emoji here ) it’s the same spec as @Reid937 has in his system so not really the hint I was hoping for

Yes that is the spec, although my Mac is a 15" 2019 version it has the same ports.

The M3 is quoted as having a 700Mb/s transfer speed which seems about correct based on my measurements.

It will be interesting when/if they enable Wi-Fi 6 in the update, which has a 'theoretical' speed of 9.6 Gb/s

 

[Etdronehome]

So I've done a little more on this and am now convinced that the reason I'm limited to ~40MB/s is the "speed" of my SD card. @Reid937 had one SD transfer that was faster using a fast USB port at ~60MB/s but was using a different manufactures SD card than I am.

To test I purchased a USB4 cable (up to 40Gbps - 5000 MB/s) from what I feel is a reliable company (no personal affiliation)

[USB-IF Certified] USB-C Cable with 4K Video and 100W Power Delivery

Cable Matters USB Type-C (10 Gbps) Gen 2 Cable delivers up to a 10 Gbps data transfer speed that is 2x the speed of a Gen 1 USB-C cable.

www.cablematters.com

I connected the M3 to a fast gaming system (I9, 32GB RAM, SSD) that has a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port so (10Gps - 1250MB/s).

So imho nothing to prevent a faster than 40MB/s transfer - I saw NO increase in transfer speeds.

Next step is to buy the fastest SD card I can find and see if I see any improvement.

Any suggestions from camera pros about what SD to get?

 

[curso88]

10 Gbps It is the maximum transfer capacity of the cable, but it is limited to the maximum read speed of the internal SSD of Mavic 3. Cine, approximately 700 MB / s. But you cannot write from the PC to the internal SSD because the internal bus of the USB-C port of the drone does not support the same speed of writing as reading from the PC to the drone

 

[Etdronehome]

10 Gbps It is the maximum transfer capacity of the cable, but it is limited to the maximum read speed of the internal SSD of Mavic 3. Cine, approximately 700 MB / s. But you cannot write from the PC to the internal SSD because the internal bus of the USB-C port of the drone does not support the same speed of writing as reading from the PC to the drone

Not trying to argue but I'm having a bit of trouble understanding your statements.

Yes DJI cable is a 10Gbps capable cable
No the "cable" isn't limited to the SSD, SD or M3 internal storage - the "transfer rate" is.
The max read of the SSD (700MB/s is the drive spec NOT what you can get through any cable to drone attachment.
I don't know about Cine as I don't have one but I can write from the PC to either the SD or internal storage of an M3 or to any combo of two as I just tested it.
Yes those write speeds would be affected by the hardware and firmware of the drone.
Why would you want to write to the SSD from a PC?

 

[Reid937]

Why would you want to write to the SSD from a PC?

I would have no need, but that made me curious about the transfer speed from a PC to the M3C's SSD, so I ran a test.

 

[bmcelya]

This is the cable that DJI includes with the Cine version.

I can’t find a source for the cable (not on DJI store that I can find) and DJI hasn‘t provided any further details on the USB port in the Mavic 3 and/or the cable so buying 3rd party is a bit of a guessing game.

I’m interested in finding out if it can be used to transfer data from the SD card and/or internal storage of a ”standard” Mavic 3.

What is the minimum USB port spec on the Windows based computer for this cable to work at its max data rate?

Here’s an interesting site on usb data cable protocols
Data
here’s the link: Understanding USB Type C: Cable Types, Pitfalls and More.

I got a usb3 gen.2 cable that seems to transfer video data without buffering, though I haven’t tried it on 4K yet. 2.4k is smooth.

 

[Etdronehome]

I would have no need, but that made me curious about the transfer speed from a PC to the M3C's SSD, so I ran a test.

So was that using the same cable and port that let you read at 600MB/s that you wrote at 35MB/s?

I didn’t look at what the transfer rates were during the write tests that I did

 

[Etdronehome]

Here’s an interesting site on usb data cable protocols
Data
here’s the link: Understanding USB Type C: Cable Types, Pitfalls and More.

I got a usb3 gen.2 cable that seems to transfer video data without buffering, though I haven’t tried it on 4K yet. 2.4k is smooth.

The chart has an interesting format with the cable running through it.

If you want to dig into this your headache starts here

Front Page | USB-IF

usb.org

 

[Reid937]

So was that using the same cable and port that let you read at 600MB/s that you wrote at 35MB/s?

Yes

 

[Etdronehome]

Hmmm that’s puzzling ???

Anyone have any theories on why the write would be that much slower as all the hardware is the same?

 

[bmcelya]

Hmmm that’s puzzling ???

Anyone have any theories on why the write would be that much slower as all the hardware is the same?

Write is always slower than read, right? Has been on all my stuff over the years anyway. Obviously I’m not too technically inclined, so I try and buy the highest rated cords and cards I can get, and probably spending more than I need to…….

 

[Etdronehome]

Write is always slower than read, right? Has been on all my stuff over the years anyway. Obviously I’m not too technically inclined, so I try and buy the highest rated cords and cards I can get, and probably spending more than I need to…….

I would agree that write is generally slower than read but a lot of stuff comes into play like drive controllers, sequential vs random, file sizes on and on.

However in @Reid937 setup he is reading from and writing to a SDD in both directions. The delta in the read from and write to of the Cine ssd seems pretty big.

DJI would have to ensure that the max data rate from the camera could be written without dropping any frames.

@Reid937 also mentioned that the read speed from the Cine was slow until the Dec update so DJI did something with the firmware to fix that. They might not have bothered with write direction through the USB C port as there really isn’t a reason anyone other than us would do that

 

[Etdronehome]

I have found a better solution for me instead of buying new PC!

I purchased via Amazon.ca:

1) Kingston Canvas React Plus micro/SD Kit (128GB)
2) Satechi Type C UHS-II "dongle"
3) USB C (male) to USB C (female) USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) extension cable

With this gear ($212 cdn) - a lot less expensive than a new PC! I can transfer data to my PC a LOT faster than I could before. During my preliminary testing I encountered a few quirks but I transferred a mix of M3 files (14 files totaling 6.6GB) in 30 seconds that my Sandisk Extreme 128GB card would take 180 seconds to finish. I'm not positive if that ratio transfers to a much larger data set but it's looking good so far.

The transfer rate I have when I remove my Sandisk Extreme 128 GB micro SD card from the drone was ~ 40MB/s.

The rate when I use the Satechi dongle peaks around 250MB/s. I also don't have to crawl under my desk to insert the SD card in the PC because with the extension cable I can have the "dongle" on top of my desk. A BIG plus for me.

The Kingston card seems to work fine in the M3 as I was able to record at what I would think is the max demand of 5.1K 50fps. I also took Jpegs etc. Not on DJI's supported SD list but I'm not so sure that's very current anyway.

I think I will start a new thread about the new SD card testing and quirks as this is starting to drift from my original post.

Links below for further reading:

Canvas React Plus Class 10 microSD Cards – UHS-II, U3, V90, A1 - 64GB-256GB - Kingston Technology

Type-C UHS-II Micro SD Card Reader - Satechi

satechi.net

UGREEN USB C Extension Cable USB 3.1 Gen 2 10Gbps Type C Male to Female Extender Cord Thunderbolt 3.0 Compatible 4K Video 100W Fast Charge Data Cable for MacBook Pro Air, Nintendo Switch, PS5, 3ft : Amazon.ca: Electronics

UGREEN USB C Extension Cable USB 3.1 Gen 2 10Gbps Type C Male to Female Extender Cord Thunderbolt 3.0 Compatible 4K Video 100W Fast Charge Data Cable for MacBook Pro Air, Nintendo Switch, PS5, 3ft : Amazon.ca: Electronics

www.amazon.ca