Unreliable HDMI on Plugable DL-3900 with ClearTouch display

1

I purchaced one plugable HDMI/DVI dual outplut dock and it worked great. I purchaced 7 more for my school and they are not consistently detecting the HDMI ports (the ClearTouch displays they are plugged in to are not consistently detecting that they are plugged in to a video source.
Sometimes rebooting the computer works
Sometimes rebooting the display works
Sometimes re-seating the HDMI cable works
Sometimes replacing the hdmi cable works
Sometimes one of the above worked before and now nothing works.

any ideas?

2

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for contacting us!

While in many cases touchscreens can be made to work with our dock, we do not officially support using touchscreens with our UD-3900 docking station and we do our best to call this out in our FAQ -> http://plugable.com/products/ud-3900/…Just to set honest expectations up front we will do our best to help, but should there prove to be a display specific incompatibility we may not be able to offer a solution (other than returning the units for a full refund).

That said, our next step is to get some additional information. First, can you confirm which specific model ClearTouch display you are using? It appears they offer several different models -> http://www.getcleartouch.com/interact…

Second, does the behavior change if you a use a different display such as a standard HDMI computer monitor without touch capability?

Thank you,

Bob
Plugable Technologies
www.plugable.com/support

3

We have the CTI-5075+UH10 and the CTI 5084H+UH10 panels.
Our test panel was the CTI 5084 with a 6’ HDMI cable. It worked perfectly. No problems

The problems came up when I connected one of the docs to a 5075 with a 15’ HDMI cable.

  • No signal to screen when computer not connected
  • No signal to screen when computer connected and not powered on
  • No signal to screen when computer connected and powered on

I replaced the cable with a Monoprice brand Active cable

  • No signal to screen when computer not connected
  • No signal to screen when comptuer connected but not powered on
  • All works when computer connected and powered on.

Is the “Active Cable” reccomended for above a certain length?

4

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for getting back with the additional information, appreciate the great detail you provided.

We only recommend using a high quality HDMI cable between six and ten feet in length to connect a display to our dock, as longer cables can cause problems similar to what you encountered.

We don’t have any experience with the “Active” HDMI cables you mention so we can’t speak to their overall performance, but glad that they have helped get things working as expected.

Thank you!

Bob