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Old 15-09-2007, 10:40 AM
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About to give up on DMK

I bought a DMK21 monochrome camera a couple of weeks ago.

My laptop does not have a Firewire port so I needed to find some way to connect it to the camera.

The device I was trying to use is a generic combination USB/Firewire Hub. It has a USB 2.00 connection from the laptop computer to the hub and then Firewire connection from the hub to the camera. The hub has its own 12V power source.
Connecting it up that way the laptop could not see the camera.

My next task was to try and find a powered Firewire Expresscard - not easy because Expresscards are pretty new.

Eventually I got this one from Scorptec:

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=278321

This card works in my laptop but again it does not recognise the camera even when the card is powered.

I then tested the camera by plugging it directly into a desktop that has a Firewire port, it works. So at least I know I don't have a dud camera. But I cannot get it to work with the laptop and I don't want to spend even more money on hubs and expresscards ($220 so far).

Can anyone recommend a configuration for a laptop with an Expresscard slot but no Firewire port that works with this camera?

Last edited by Stephen65; 15-09-2007 at 02:08 PM.
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Old 15-09-2007, 11:14 AM
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That is a shame Stephen, but I can sympathise with you. Initially I had dramas getting my camera to work with the chipset that is in some PCMCIA firewire card adapters. I downloaded a firewire manager supplied by The ImagingSouce, used a powered Firewire Hub and have had no problems since. The cameras do seem to be very particular about haveing enough power supplied. Have you tried the ImagingSource DMK forum? They were extremely helpful to me when I was having difficulties.
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Old 15-09-2007, 12:44 PM
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Stephen, when you used the USB powered hub I assume you connected it to a USB port and then tried to connect the camera to the firewire port on the hub. This will not work because the usb and firewire are separate buses. Even though the hub is combined, internaly i think they would be isolated. I have not heard of a USB to firewire bridge. And even you had such a bridge in your hub your driver would not look for your camera on a usb port on the laptop.

But there is a solution.
What you need to do is connect one of the firewire ports on the hub to your expresscard port and then connect another port on the hub to the camera. This should do the trick. As your camera will get the power from the hub and the computer will see it via the express card.

Regards
Fahim
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Old 15-09-2007, 01:44 PM
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Quote:
But there is a solution.
What you need to do is connect one of the firewire ports on the hub to your expresscard port and then connect another port on the hub to the camera. This should do the trick. As your camera will get the power from the hub and the computer will see it via the express card.
Fahim, you are a genius. That does indeed work.

I think I got misled by the labelling of the ports on the USB/Firewire hub - one of the USB ports is labelled in such a way as to make you think that it is the sole connector to be used in linking to the computer so I assumed the hub could bridge from the firewire inputs to that USB output, the idea of going firewire to the hub and then firewire to the expresscard (ie combining both devices) had not occurred to me.

Whats peculiar is that while this combination works, just using the Expresscard (with DC power into it) directly into the camera does not work. It only works if I route firewire from the Expresscard via the hub and power the hub instead. Perhaps there isn't sufficient current (though its listed at 700mA at 12V) in the Expresscard power supply?
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Old 15-09-2007, 01:54 PM
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You are correct. There will not be enought power to the camera via just the express card. I had the same problem with the PCMCIA Card. If you can power the express card directly that may work, it did with my card, but I found I had less drama if I powered the camera from a powered firewire hub that was connected to the PCMCIA card.
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Old 15-09-2007, 02:04 PM
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From what I had read I didn't expect it to work using an unpowered Firewire Expresscard in a laptop, and it didn't.

But the Expresscard has a 12V input jack and even when I connected it (and thus powered the Expresscard) using a 12V 700mA source it would still not work. But it does work when the power is sent to the hub instead. That power source is 12V 2A so maybe the extra power is necessary?
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Old 15-09-2007, 02:07 PM
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Definately necessary. I'm powering my PCMCIA with a 1.66A adapter (I think ) and that runs it ok, but I can still have connection problems at times. The hub works a treat everytime (now that I have sorted out the dodgy cables from the good ones. You would be surprised how many firewire cables just didn't want to do the job. )
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Old 15-09-2007, 02:09 PM
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Now all I need is for the clouds to clear and I'll be testing it on the young Moon tonight.
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Old 15-09-2007, 02:11 PM
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You are in for a treat then. It does a fantastic job, a right cracker of a camera. Have you had a chance to play around with the capture program and worked out where everything is? Or are you going to use K3CCDTools?
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Old 15-09-2007, 02:33 PM
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I'm going to test out the capture program now, but if I need to I will use K3CDtools instead.
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Old 15-09-2007, 02:40 PM
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Its a good program, but it does take some getting used to where some of the settings are hidden I didn't find it very intuitive at times.
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Old 16-09-2007, 01:20 AM
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Stephen I am glad it worked for you. Your amps need to be atleast 1A and above before you will have any chance of powering the Firewire camera. Secondly if you use a 4pin port on the Expresscard it will not supply power to the camera. Only the 6pin and 8pin firewire connectors carry power lines.

I wish i could afford IC Capture, Its to expensive but the trial looks good. It barely works with my Dragonfly express using the WDM drivers. I wish there was a capture program that worked using DCAM IIDC like ASTRO IIDC for the mac on windows platform. I think Streampix can do this but it to is quiet expensive. I wonder if these developers could be convinced to offer a discount to amateurs who are using for non-profit.
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Old 16-09-2007, 06:13 PM
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I eventually found everything (I think) in the capture program - its certainly less intuitive than K3CDTools but it gives you much more precise control over the various camera settings.
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