PCMCIA Firewire cards

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi all.

Please tell me all I need to know about Firewire ports through a PCMCIA card.

My laptop doesn't have a native firewire port, so I need to get a PCMCIA card to plug in my (future) DMK firewire camera.

Anything I need to know?

The 6-pin ports power the device as well, whereas 4-pin ports need separate power for the camera.

Most of those listed on ebay are 6-pin, so power should be ok?

The ones listed on ebay are 400Mbps, I can't find any at the new 800Mbps?

Something like this should do the job?

ebay #1

ebay #2 (with USB2 as well)

Thanks for any help.

[iceman (Mike)]

Also, what is the difference between those cheap ebay ones and something more expensive AU$120 like this from LaCie:

LaCie one

Yeh it's 800 instead of 400, but I simply won't need 800 for my purpose.

[h0ughy (David)]

be careful Mike, they need to get extra power from the USb or the PS/2 port, too cheap can and will be too nasty.

[iceman (Mike)]

What extra power?

The PCMCIA card gets power from the mains, surely?

[h0ughy (David)]

if you look at the images of the cheaper ones you will see the cables there, usb and PS/2, the card probably cannot supply the full 5 volts from just the older PMCIA ports, there is a jack for the poer input into the card if you take a closer look. i bought a version a while back to get USB2 on a lappy, it had the same setup

[Wombat_In_Space (Darren)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

if you look at the images of the cheaper ones you will see the cables there, usb and PS/2, the card probably cannot supply the full 5 volts from just the older PMCIA ports, there is a jack for the poer input into the card if you take a closer look. i bought a version a while back to get USB2 on a lappy, it had the same setup

I agree with h0ughy be carefull of the cheapies and yes most of my cards have a PS2 power adaptor to supply the full 5V to the devices. If you do get one try to get one that has both USB2 and firewire as you can never have enough full powered USB2 ports

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

how can you tell if you got a firewire port on your lappy?

[h0ughy (David)]

there will be a port numbered i1394

[h0ughy (David)]

or you can go to the system hardware settings and look for the i1394 device

[davidpretorius]

i am sure rumples was talking about usb power to his camera even though it was firewire

[cjmarsh81]

Be careful with PCMCIA devices if you plug them in or out a lot. I have a 108mbps network card that I used to put in and out whenever I needed to use the network. After a short period of time the holes enlarged on the card and now the computer won't recognise it. Just something to remember if you intend to remove it a lot. I suppose if you don't have firewire internal on your lappy you haven't got much choice.

[iceman (Mike)]

Will the device come with a power cable, or does the PCMCIA card come with a power cable?

And what's all the talk of PS2? My laptop doesn't have a PS2 port either.

h0ughy, how much for a cheap lappie with firewire, paid off over 10 years?

[davidpretorius]

Originally Posted by iceman

h0ughy, how much for a cheap lappie with firewire, paid off over 10 years?

how many naglers do you have mike?????

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

I got an IEEE 1394 host Bus controller, is that the same?

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by Astroman

I got an IEEE 1394 host Bus controller, is that the same?

is that within the device manager section, look on the outside of the lappy you will see a small port in a rectangular shape, smaller than a USB! it will be labelled

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

yep got one, thanks davidH

[iceman (Mike)]

So, powering this firewire PCMCIA card.

Ones like this say that there's a cable to plug into PS2 so that it can power the devices.

But what if my laptop doesn't have a PS2 port (which it doesn't)?

[gbeal]

Difficult huh? The plug on the DMK is a single 6 pin plug, so I guess you need the 6 pin job. I bought a card that has both 6 and 4 pins, yet to receive it, so will let you know when it arrives.