WTB: Thunderbolt 3 Workstation Dock Split Cable - 1.5M (4X90U90621)

[MattJH]

The Thunderbolt 3 workstation dock came with a .7m split cable (4X90U90616), but if you needed more room to work with, Lenovo also offered one that was twice as long at 1.5m (4X90U90621). I have a Thunderbolt 4 workstation dock which also came with a .7m split cable (5C11B64632). I need more room to work with. Unfortunately, there's no 1.5m option yet. The version for the Thunderbolt 3 workstation dock would work just as well for me right now, but I can't find it in stock anywhere and it was just removed from Lenovo's website this past week. If anyone here has one laying around, I'd love to buy it. Doesn't matter if it's used.

[H-Atkinson]

I've not seen these longer cables before, and have been running a TB3 WS dock for my P53 for the last 3 years. I've just put in an order for a P1 Gen 5, and will be ordering a TB4 WS dock soon. I had a great sales rep, so I'll see if they can look into this cable.

[MattJH]

I appreciate that, thank you. I did have someone reach out to me on Reddit who claims that they work for Lenovo. Here's what they said on July 8th: "So I went over the options and accessories area and we couldn't find any. I don't think we have had those for a while. We have a box full of TBT3 and stuff but not that one that you want. I might ask the manager in charge of that product if there is anything out there and why it's so hard to get. Yeah, I'll ask the dock person next week cause he was out this one." I just messaged them asking if they've had a chance to speak with the Overlord of Docks. Fingers crossed. Let me know if your sales rep has any luck!

[H-Atkinson]

Any updates on these? My sales rep had no idea.

[MattJH]

I wish, but I have no new info. The cable remains elusive and my desktop remains comically cluttered.

[H-Atkinson]

Unfortunate. For the few days that I had my P1G5 I realized I'm going to have to shuffle stuff if I want my cable to reach. P5x has the plug on the back, which is just long enough. Not so on the P1.

[MattJH]

I have my dock mounted on the back of my monitor to conserve space, but the split cable is so short that the whole laptop has to sit on my desktop right next to the monitor base. And it’s a P73. I can’t even space it far enough to use it as a second monitor. It’s just getting strangled and taking up like 25% of my free surface area. The length of the cable is inexplicable.

[RealBlackStuff]

Bold option: cut the cable in half, get your required length of matching cable and properly solder/shrinktube it between them.

[MattJH]

I'm not sure if it's the same as your idea, but I considered splicing two of the .7m cables together when someone suggested the same to me in the ThinkPad subreddit. The replies indicated it isn't possible and I don't know enough to know if that's true --

• "Given the throughput of TB3 I would seriously recommend against this if you want it to be remotely reliable"
• "It’s not a vga cable you can cut and splice"
• "At 1.5m it's 100% an active cable, won't work no matter how well he splices it."

Thoughts?

[RealBlackStuff]

Looks to me like a combi of 2 cables:
- a Thunderbolt3 cable and
- a power-cable slim-tip to round-tip
I think you can make your own, longer cable-set by getting e.g.
this Thunderbolt cable: https://www.belkin.com/us/cables/data/t ... p-f2cd085/
And concoct your own power cable by e.g. modding a Lenovo charger-cable with slim-tip and finding the round tip somewhere.
That power cable has either 3 or 5 wires: 1/2 plus, 1/2 minus, 1 pin.
If all else fails, cut the powerpart of the 75cm cable plugs, to use its power tips.

[MattJH]

I'm not skilled enough to attempt those modifications, but I've saved your post just in case I meet someone who is!

Last night I noticed that Lenovo recently listed the .7m Thunderbolt 4 Workstation Dock Split Cable as a standalone purchase (4X91K16970), so I submitted a question in its Questions & Answers section: "The Thunderbolt 3 Workstation Dock Split Cable came in an extra long 1.5m version (4X90U90621) which is what I need, but they're all gone. Will Lenovo be making an extra long version of this Thunderbolt 4 split cable? If so, when will it be available?" Less than two hours later Lenovo rejected it. I wish I could ask them why.

[H-Atkinson]

Lenovo's Q&A mods are useless, dont even bother. They took down a question about dock compatibility years ago, when I asked if a mechanical dock was compatible with a T480. They had listed the T480 on the compatibility page for the dock despite the T480 not having the correct docking port (it uses the slide dock). They rejected the question.