A firewire question - The Unofficial Access Virus & Virus TI Forum

Onkel Dunkel · #1 19.05.2006, 12:55 PM

I?m considering buying an Asus A6Ja notebook that i?m gonna use for music (and other stuff) and i will therefore need a firewire audio interface. I want it to be 100% portable so the interface has to get it?s power from the laptop. Now the problem is that on almost all laptops the built in firewire ports are the type with 4 pins and as far as i know only firewire ports with 6 pins has power supply. This means that i can?t run firewire equipment that doesn?t have a powersupply of it?s own right? Now i?ve seen that you can buy a card bus adapter with 6-pin firewire (see picture below). Can i just buy one of these and all trouble solved? Will the audio interface eat the battery in no time? What do all you guys with laptops do?

Timo · #2 19.05.2006, 01:28 PM

Hi Onkel, also make sure which "cardbus" type you have. All the new laptops tend to use PCI "ExpressCard" slots instead of the older PCMCIA type-II Cardbus slots.

Both slots look identical from the outside, but inside the ExpressCard slot's length is much shorter (it's about half the length of PCMCIA type-II slots inside). Thus, you can't use PCMCIA type-II cards in PCI-ExpressCard slots, and vice versa.

Threlly · #3 19.05.2006, 02:07 PM

I've run the Apple Powerbook with a presonus Firebox, battery time is reduced by about 1/3.
Your mileage may vary.

Onkel Dunkel · #4 19.05.2006, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timo

Hi Onkel, also make sure which "cardbus" type you have. All the new laptops tend to use PCI "ExpressCard" slots instead of the older PCMCIA type-II Cardbus slots.

Both slots look identical from the outside, but inside the ExpressCard slot's length is much shorter (it's about half the length of PCMCIA type-II slots inside). Thus, you can't use PCMCIA type-II cards in PCI-ExpressCard slots, and vice versa.

I guess this means that i can use one of these cards right? The specs say "1 x Type II PCMCIA 2.1 compliant" so i guess they haven?t converted to PCI-ExpressCard yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Threlly

I've run the Apple Powerbook with a presonus Firebox, battery time is reduced by about 1/3.
Your mileage may vary.

Is this with an adapter or from an internal firewire port? Will it make any difference?

Concerning the Audio interface i was thinking of getting a MOTU Ultralite. Any thoughts?

Onkel Dunkel · #5 19.05.2006, 09:35 PM

By the way; what does "non-adapted 6-pin FireWire port " mean?

Threlly · #6 20.05.2006, 12:35 AM

Thats with the laptop powering the Firebox, phantom power will also drain more again.

The girl next door · #7 20.05.2006, 01:09 AM

and if i've said it a 1000 times i'll say it again,make sure it has Texas instrument chips on it.as these work with all audio devices .With other chip sets there is no guarantee.
I had a Firewire 410 from M-audio and it only ran stable with a Texas chip PCMCIA card...

AlexHall74 · #8 20.05.2006, 05:43 AM

Quote:

Onkel Dunkel wrote:
Concerning the Audio interface i was thinking of getting a MOTU Ultralite. Any thoughts?

I jsut setup a laptop based studi for a friend of mine:

Toshiba 2.8 GHz laptop w/ 1.5 GB RAM, Windows XP Home SP2, 4-pin firewire, KRK Rokit 8 speakers, Motif 8, MOTU Traveler as audio/MIDI interface, Tracktion 2 as sequencer.

It was a really nice little rig.

The Traveler is a GREAT piece of kit. It handled audio, MIDI, synth, guitar, and microphone inputs VERY well.

If the MOTU Ultralite is similar to the Traveler in any way it has to be a good piece of kit.

The use of the power supply wasn't a big deal.

We just rigged up an extension cord with a high-end power strip/surge protector and everything just plugged into that.

Piece of cake, and great sound!

Good luck Bro.

-Alex

The girl next door · #9 20.05.2006, 06:03 AM

My next bit of kit...
Video--> http://www.tcelectronic.com/Default.asp?Id=7620
........................................

Onkel Dunkel · #10 20.05.2006, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexHall74

If the MOTU Ultralite is similar to the Traveler in any way it has to be a good piece of kit.

As far as i can see the biggest diffenrence besides the number of I/O?s (and the price of course) is that the Traveler has 24-bit 192kHz converter and ADAT, the Ultralite has 24-bit 96kHz converters and no ADAT. I think i can live with that when you think about the price diffenrence

Quote:

The use of the power supply wasn't a big deal.

Well i was planing to be able to take it with me for some field recording so it has to be able to run "off the wall plug"...

The girl next door: I wouldn?t think twice if was a powercore compact and audiointerface in one. That would be cool