[LAU] Anyone used a Firewire-to-USB3 or ESATA adapter?

[david]

My church has a 16-channel Presonus Firewire device that we're not
currently using because (1) my laptop has no Firewire connector (the
dead old one did), and (2) our sound tech's laptop has Windows 7 on it
and apparently there's no Windows 7 device driver for his Firewire PC
Card adapter.

So I thought, maybe a Firewire<->USB adaptor would work. All we used the
Presonus for is recording individual channels. Now I just record 2
channels of essentially-mono output from our mixing board, but I very
much miss the ability to clean up and EQ individual instruments and mix
them better (the volunteer sound people who frequently run our mixing
board don't exactly have the greatest ears, plus the acoustics in our
rented location aren't the best).

My laptop has USB2 and USB3, plus an ESATA port.

I see Amazon has a selection:

Firewire to USB

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A172282%2Ck%3Afirewire%20to%20usb%20adapter

Amazon doesn't seem to show a Firewire-ESATA adaptor.

For desktop folk, they list this PCIe card (2 external ESATA, 2 external
Firewire800/1394B, 1 internal 1394B, runs TI XIO2213 chipset):

http://www.amazon.com/NitroAV-Fusion-FireWire800-Professional-Adapter/dp/B0055PG0KE/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1397633174&sr=1-6&keywords=firewire+to+esata+adapter

Unfair: There's an Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter! I guess that
will be enough to keep Firewire alive in the pro audio world.

[Clemens Ladisch]

there's no Windows 7 device driver for his Firewire PC Card adapter.

All FireWire controllers use the same driver interface (OHCI), and that
driver ships with Windows.

If there is a problem, it is with the PC Card controller driver.

So I thought, maybe a Firewire<->USB adaptor would work.

These are completely different protocols; they cannot be mapped to each
other.

Firewire to USB
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A172282%2Ck%3Afirewire%20to%20usb%20adapter

These do not work (see the reviews) unless your computer also has
a FireWire controller that is connected to the USB jack.

Unfair: There's an Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter!

Thunderbolt is just a PCIe bus.


Regards,
Clemens

[david]

Post by Clemens Ladisch

there's no Windows 7 device driver for his Firewire PC Card adapter.

All FireWire controllers use the same driver interface (OHCI), and that
driver ships with Windows.
If there is a problem, it is with the PC Card controller driver.

Hmm, no, that's not what Windows 7 said about his Firewire PC card
device. It said he needed to get and install a driver for it. And the
vendor of the card said they weren't going to produce a Windows 7 driver
for it.

Post by Clemens Ladisch

So I thought, maybe a Firewire<->USB adaptor would work.

These are completely different protocols; they cannot be mapped to each
other.

Yet there are a bunch of connectors that appear to do that, although
probably not reliable enough for serious use.

Post by Clemens Ladisch

Firewire to USB
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A172282%2Ck%3Afirewire%20to%20usb%20adapter

These do not work (see the reviews) unless your computer also has
a FireWire controller that is connected to the USB jack.

Unfair: There's an Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter!

Thunderbolt is just a PCIe bus.

Then why not a Firewire<>ESATA adaptor?

[Clemens Ladisch]

Post by david

Post by Clemens Ladisch

there's no Windows 7 device driver for his Firewire PC Card adapter.

All FireWire controllers use the same driver interface (OHCI), and that
driver ships with Windows.
If there is a problem, it is with the PC Card controller driver.

Hmm, no, that's not what Windows 7 said about his Firewire PC card
device. It said he needed to get and install a driver for it.

Internally, there's more than one device involved, and the actual
FireWire controller is only the last one. What particular device did
Windows complain about?

Post by david

Post by Clemens Ladisch

So I thought, maybe a Firewire<->USB adaptor would work.

These are completely different protocols; they cannot be mapped to each
other.

Yet there are a bunch of connectors that appear to do that, although
probably not reliable enough for serious use.

There is partial degree of reliability. Either the port has been
constructed to be a FireWire port with a USB jack (where the adapter
just maps the pins back), or it doesn't work at all.

Post by david

Post by Clemens Ladisch

Unfair: There's an Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter!

Thunderbolt is just a PCIe bus.

Then why not a Firewire<>ESATA adaptor?

Because SATA is a completely different protocol. This could work only
with FireWire hard disks.


Regards,
Clemens

[david]

Post by Clemens Ladisch

Post by david

Post by Clemens Ladisch

there's no Windows 7 device driver for his Firewire PC Card adapter.

All FireWire controllers use the same driver interface (OHCI), and that
driver ships with Windows.
If there is a problem, it is with the PC Card controller driver.

Hmm, no, that's not what Windows 7 said about his Firewire PC card
device. It said he needed to get and install a driver for it.

Internally, there's more than one device involved, and the actual
FireWire controller is only the last one. What particular device did
Windows complain about?

I don't remember specifically now. That was well over a year ago.

Post by Clemens Ladisch

Post by david

Post by Clemens Ladisch

So I thought, maybe a Firewire<->USB adaptor would work.

These are completely different protocols; they cannot be mapped to each
other.

Yet there are a bunch of connectors that appear to do that, although
probably not reliable enough for serious use.

There is partial degree of reliability. Either the port has been
constructed to be a FireWire port with a USB jack (where the adapter
just maps the pins back), or it doesn't work at all.

I noticed that most of the comments where they worked involved video
cameras or storage devices, not audio devices.

Post by Clemens Ladisch

Post by david

Post by Clemens Ladisch

Unfair: There's an Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter!

Thunderbolt is just a PCIe bus.

Then why not a Firewire<>ESATA adaptor?

Because SATA is a completely different protocol. This could work only
with FireWire hard disks.

Thanks. Didn't know SATA/ESATA was limited to storage devices; thought
it was more flexible.

[Gene Heskett]

Post by david
My church has a 16-channel Presonus Firewire device that we're not
currently using because (1) my laptop has no Firewire connector (the
dead old one did), and (2) our sound tech's laptop has Windows 7 on it
and apparently there's no Windows 7 device driver for his Firewire PC
Card adapter.
So I thought, maybe a Firewire<->USB adaptor would work. All we used the
Presonus for is recording individual channels. Now I just record 2
channels of essentially-mono output from our mixing board, but I very
much miss the ability to clean up and EQ individual instruments and mix
them better (the volunteer sound people who frequently run our mixing
board don't exactly have the greatest ears, plus the acoustics in our
rented location aren't the best).
My laptop has USB2 and USB3, plus an ESATA port.
Firewire to USB
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A172282%2Ck%3Afirewire%20to
%20usb%20adapter
Amazon doesn't seem to show a Firewire-ESATA adaptor.
For desktop folk, they list this PCIe card (2 external ESATA, 2 external
http://www.amazon.com/NitroAV-Fusion-FireWire800-Professional-Adapter/dp
/B0055PG0KE/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1397633174&sr=1-6&keywo
rds=firewire+to+esata+adapter
Unfair: There's an Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter! I guess that
will be enough to keep Firewire alive in the pro audio world.

Apple owns the patent rights to firewire. Went thru all the motions of
publishing the specs, waited for it to take off, then decided they needed a
per port royalty fee that was more than the hardware cost. Firewire
disappeared almost overnight.

I have some firewire stuff, a Sony Digital Hi-8 Handy-Cam. But when I
built this machine back in 2008, a quad core phenom on an almost $300 ASUS
motherboard, I had to go find a firewire card to put in it before I could
use kino to take in the camera, edit out the worst of my shakes, and make
dvd's out of it for all the parties involved in that wedding (and a couple
more since). So that tells you that as far as the motherboard makers were
concerned, firewire had priced itself out of the market already 6 years
ago.

Cheers, Gene

[david]

Post by Gene Heskett

Post by david
Unfair: There's an Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter! I guess that
will be enough to keep Firewire alive in the pro audio world.

Apple owns the patent rights to firewire. Went thru all the motions of
publishing the specs, waited for it to take off, then decided they needed a
per port royalty fee that was more than the hardware cost. Firewire
disappeared almost overnight.
I have some firewire stuff, a Sony Digital Hi-8 Handy-Cam. But when I
built this machine back in 2008, a quad core phenom on an almost $300 ASUS
motherboard, I had to go find a firewire card to put in it before I could
use kino to take in the camera, edit out the worst of my shakes, and make
dvd's out of it for all the parties involved in that wedding (and a couple
more since). So that tells you that as far as the motherboard makers were
concerned, firewire had priced itself out of the market already 6 years
ago.

That they did.