Can I Use My NI PXIe Thunderbolt™ Remote Controller With A USB-C Interface?

Issue Details

• I have a PXIe-1090 Chassis with Integrated Thunderbolt, and I want to control it using the Thunderbolt port on my laptop, but I don't have a Thunderbolt-compliant cable. All I have is a regular USB-C cable – Will it work?
• I can see my PXIe-8301 Thunderbolt Interface in NI-MAX, but I don't see the PXIe Chassis or the PXI(e) Peripheral Modules associated with this system. The Link LED on the PXIe-8301 is Solid Amber. I'm using a USB-C cable and port – Why can't I interact with my PXIe System?

Solution

Our Thunderbolt™ Remote Controllers are incompatible with regular USB-C ports and cables. You must connect your Thunderbolt Remote Controller to a native Thunderbolt port using a Thunderbolt-compliant cable.

Most Thunderbolt ports are identified by a thunder glyph next to the port, as shown in the image below:

Note – The most accurate way to tell if a port is Thunderbolt-compliant is by checking the PC's user manual.

If you are using a USB-C port or cable, NI-MAX may identify your PXIe hardware as USB, as shown in the picture below:

Additional Information

• USB-C is a connector type, not a data bus. Both the USB 3.x Specification and Thunderbolt Specification leverage USB Type-C as the connector form factor; however, the Thunderbolt Specification has other capabilities built on top of the USB 3.x Specification, such as higher throughput, bidirectional PCIe, and DisplayPort lines. Because of this, while you can see your Thunderbolt Remote Controller, it is unable to connect since it does not have the proper data transfer mechanisms.
• NI does not sell or recommend any PCIe-to-Thunderbolt Interface adapter cards, as we have not tested them with our MXIe Thunderbolt hardware and cannot guarantee compatibility.
• In some cases, when you connect the remote controller to your computer, Windows may disable Thunderbolt functionality by default. If you see an amber Link LED despite connecting the device to a native Thunderbolt port with a Thunderbolt-compliant cable, make sure you enable the communication both in the BIOS and in Windows.