Firewire

[closetwam]

What is the chance that someone will come up with a FireWire mod for the Pandora? Do the solder pads on the PCB make this a real possibility i.e. do they interface with the appropriate bus, are there enough connections? Can it be done via SDHC reader instead? Don't call me white.. err, I mean, stupid.

 

[Vorporeal]

If you can get a Firewire->USB adapter, it should work.

EDIT: Did a quick check on Newegg - didn't find anything.

 

[giovanni]

For what I can say Firewire was "invented" as a faster way of connection and so it's impossible to adapt in a USB form.
I don't know if it is possible loosing speed....but in this case I don't see the point....

 

[peca]

I don't know if it is possible loosing speed....but in this case I don't see the point....

Maybe for connecting DV camera?

 

[giovanni]

Maybe for connecting DV camera?

Yes yes yes... I understood that this was the motivation for closetwam to ask for the possibility of the Firewire. The problem is that what the digital cameras (that use DV connection) need is a speed connector that can store many frames per second.
With an USB adapter I suppose that this speed cannot be "emulate".

 

[peca]

With an USB adapter I suppose that this speed cannot be "emulate".

IFAIK first FW be realized on 400 Mbps speed which HS USB overcome with 480 Mbps. I don't know if it is enough to emulate FW nor even if some solution exists.

May be connect camera to HDD with FW and USB and transfer data from camera to HDD and than again but through USB from disk to Padora. Wait! Pandora doesn't have internal store, so data on external drive maybe be enough.

closetwam: for what purpose you need this?

 

[RobFord]

Evening All

The main difference between FW and USB speeds is the fact that the 400 Mbps of FW is a constant transfer rate, but the 480 Mbps of USB is a maximum transfer rate. This is why FW 400 can still work faster than USB 2.0.

This is why I don't think a FW to USB adaptor would work, the device would be expecting to send the data at a certain rate, and the bus would be expecting to received it at a certain rate, whether this would translate over the adaptor, I don't know.

Just my thoughts of course.

Cheers

 

[sindbad]

I remember seeing a usb-to-firewire adapter somewhere, but it was bloody expensive and not just a cable.

 

[cbox]

The only one I could find is Windows only and hella expensive (120 bucks)

http://www.pixela-1.com/captycable/

 

[j6cubic]

Such adapters exist but they kind of defeat the purpose of FireWire. You don't get the no-CPU-stress goodness of FW and might also miss out on some of the other features. OTOH, in order to get those you'd need to somehow fit a FW chipset into the Pandora and hook it up with the rest of the system. Good luck with that.

FW would be a nice thing to have (for example because it would give the Pandora an Ethernet-capable industry standard network port) but getting it into the box would be a major hardware change.

 

[Squidge]

http://www.usbfirewire.com/Parts/rr-527950.html

"This kit connects your DV camcorder to the USB port on your Laptop or Desktop PC.

Do I need a FireWire port in my computer?
No, you don't. All you need is a USB port (standard on all new computers). So, there's no need to add a card or open your computer to install anything. It's all easy and plug and play"

But yes, typically firewire devices are on firewire and not usb for a reason.

Now, if there was a firewire to the new 4.8Gbps USB standard that would be something else (No, not because no PC currently has such a connector )

(BTW, the cable above is Windows only, and not compatible with Windows Vista. Good luck getting it running on the Pandora. Or any linux box for that matter)

 

[closetwam]

closetwam: for what purpose you need this?

I purchased aPresonus Inspire 4 i/o recording interface, and a Belkin FireWire 800 ExpressCard. for use with my Dell Vostro 1000 laptop. Apparently the Dell can't use the ExpressCard. I think because the Vostro 1000 ExpressCard slot only interfaces with the USB bus and not the PCI bus. What a worthless piece of equipment! It already has several USB ports, why do I need an ExpressCard slot that ONLY interfaces with USB? It's sorta ticking me off just thinking about it.

Anyways, I'd still like to use the Presonus. All the best high band-width devices use FireWire. If you wanna have a big/fast HD for your Pandora, you might want to use FireWire. It's a shame that USB became so proliferate. It's cheaper to implement, so cheaper for cheap companies to make cheap crap. And more expensive for your CPU and personal time.

 

[benjiro]

The main difference between FW and USB speeds is the fact that the 400 Mbps of FW is a constant transfer rate, but the 480 Mbps of USB is a maximum transfer rate. This is why FW 400 can still work faster than USB 2.0.

The reason why FW 400 Mbps is faster then USB ( @ 480 Mbps ) is because USB has a massive overhead. I have yet to see USB going faster then 35MB/s ( 280 Mbps ) in any real world experience.

 

[hedwards]

The main difference between FW and USB speeds is the fact that the 400 Mbps of FW is a constant transfer rate, but the 480 Mbps of USB is a maximum transfer rate. This is why FW 400 can still work faster than USB 2.0.

The reason why FW 400 Mbps is faster then USB ( @ 480 Mbps ) is because USB has a massive overhead. I have yet to see USB going faster then 35MB/s ( 280 Mbps ) in any real world experience.

FW is a much different architecture than USB2.0 is, the biggest difference is that it's straight to ram, a firewire device has the ability to directly access the computer's ram, which means that you have to be mindful about what you're willing to plug into that port. It also means that you can do things like kernel debugging whether or not the target computer is hard locked.

And you're not going to find anything which is able to match the architecture there, you might get lucky and find something that essentially emulates the FW, but in all likelihood such a device would be obscenely slow.