Show Cue System

First time attempting to connect SCS to a Cognito 2 lighting console.

I bought a couple of USB to MIDI adapters. Even though I figured I only needed one. Each adapter has a usb connector on one end and a pair of MIDI connectors on the other, with a little dongle with LEDs on it in the middle.

I spent many fun hours trying to get this to work. The first adapter I tried would receive message in SCS in the test box, in the device setup page. But when I attempted to send GO commands to the Cognito console leds would flicker but nothing happened.

I then tried the second adapter, and I could send the GO commands but could not receive anything, the OUT LED on the cognito flickered, but not the one on the MIDI dongle.

Finally I connected both adapters and voila, I could both receive the MIDI packets right into the MIDI command setup box, and send the packet back out to the cognito (one has to add the playlist number to actually get it to work). But I had to identify which USB to use for each direction

Finally, my question in...is this the way it is supposed to work with each of these MIDI adapters working in a single direction only, or did I happen to buy two broken adapters from different companies, that luckily are broken in a complementary fashion, or is this an SCS feature that each USB MIDI interface is only half duplex?

I have used a single external MIDI adapters ( Roland UM-One for example) as MIDI "IN" and "OUT" , at the same time with SCS.
Check the usual- current drivers etc.
Also SCS isn't happy when you make changes to devices while it is running- i.e. don't swap in or out MIDI adapters while SCS is running.

Thanks for the reply.
Once all the cues were programmed I only needed MIDI out. Never did get a MIDI adapter to run full duplex. But the show ran fine, and only one tech was needed for both sound and light cues.