TROUBLESHOOTING: M|Family device not seen

How to open "System Profiler"?

Below, we may ask you to open "System Profiler" to check a few things. Here is how to do that. To open system profiler, go to the Apple menu on the top left of your screen, and hold the "option" (or "alt") key down. You should see the following menu:

Select "System Information", and it should open the System Profiler application, which lists all sorts of information about your computer. That's it, then follow the instructions below.

Check that the box is functioning properly

Physically

To check that the Sonnet box is working properly, you can first physically check it:

• Does the blue light in front of the Sonnet chassis turn blue?
• Are there green lights inside the Sonnet chassis (you can see that from the back of the box)?

Note that the box will be powered only if both the power cable AND Thunderbolt cables are properly connected to a computer that is powered on. 

In "System Profiler"

Another way to verify it is working is to open "System Profiler" (as explained above) and click on the "Thunderbolt" section on the left:

You should then see the list of Thunderbolt BUS available on your Mac, and what devices are connected to those Bus. In the screenshot above, you can see that there is the Echo Express SEL connected, this is a good sign, it means at least that the Mac sees it. If it is not present there, then troubleshoot below.

If there are no lights and/or you can't see the expansion chassis in System Profiler

First check that it is properly powered:

• Are you sure the power and Thunderbolt 3 cables are properly connected? 
• Did you connect the appropriate power adapter? These can look alike with other models and if you use the wrong one, it won't work.
• Did you use a certified Thunderbolt cable? Note that Thunderbolt 3 cables can look like USB-C cables, and USB-C cables won't work. The connectors must have the Thunderbolt icon on it:

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If you are positive with all the above:

• Do you have either a replacement power and/or Thunderbolt cable that you could use?
• Do you have another Sonnet expansion chassis that you could use?

Check that the card is functioning properly

Check the "kext not loading issue"

First, if you are using macOS High Sierra or later, you need to make sure that you have allowed the kext of the Deltacast drivers to load. You can read more about this issue here.

Check the issue at startup / wakeup with macOS Sonoma or later

First, if you are using macOS Sonoma or later, you need to make sure that you have installed drivers 6.25.2 or later to fix an intermittent issue at loading the card at startup. You can read more about this issue here.

Drivers 6.12 are not supported on macOS 10.14.5

As you can read in the macOS 10.14.5 release notes, "Kernel extensions signed after April 7, 2019 must be notarized in order to load on macOS 10.14.5." Deltacast drivers 6.12 were signed after April 7, 2019, but not notarized and thus will not load on macOS 10.14.15. This warning will show up:

In general we recommend to use only drivers that can be downloaded from our website.

Are the drivers supported by your Softron application?

Sometimes cards manufacturers create SDK versions that require specific versions of drivers because they implement new versions. So if in the "Activity and Logs" window you see a log saying that "The drivers are too old (or too new) for your application), go to the "System Requirement" section of the product page on our website to see which drivers are required for your application.

Are there drivers/firmware mismatch?

Sometimes, when you install drivers, a firmware upgrade might be needed. This notification may only be shown when the computer starts. When you start your Softron application, make sure that you don't see the following kind of log in the Activity and Logs window:

If this kind of log shows up, restart your computer, and install the new firmware on the card when asked.

Can the card be seen in "System Profiler"

To check that the Sonnet box is working properly, you can first check in System Profiler (see above for instructions on how to open System Profiler). In System Profiler, select "PCI":

You should see all PCI cards connected to the Mac. In the screenshot above, there was only one Deltacast card connected. Verify also that it says "Driver Installed: Yes".

Note that if your M|Family uses another brand of card, it may look different.

What if the card can not be seen in System Profiler?

If you have confirmed that the Sonnet box is working properly and it is none of the above issue but still the card can not be seen, maybe you have interrupted a firmware upgrade in the middle? In that case there is a procedure to force the reflash of the firmware. Create a ticket on our support desk to ask for that procedure and make sure to explain your issue and confirm the tests that you have done to identify the possible cause of the issue.