P65+ Firewire Silliness

[CBarrett]

I think I've mentioned here before that ever since I bought my current MBP, I've been plagued with "Firewire Errors"...  errors that always cause me to have to restart C1 Pro, errors that I'd never even heard of in the blissful days of my FW400 equipped MBP.  I assumed it might have something to do with the FW400 to FW800 adapter cables, something in the translation.  I've tried numerous cables and even a FW400 to FW800 adapter on a straight FW400 cable.  Nothing worked (I've even wiped and rebuilt my Hard Drive) and I was having this problem at least 4-5 times a day.

I've had an idea for a while and a couple days ago I ordered this ExpressCard FW400 adapter from Sonnet.  The card provides two FW400 ports and one USB port, requires no drivers and can provide Bus Power with an optional AC adapter.  I tried it at home and it seemed to work fine.

I used it on location today, shooting 10 hours and my Firewire Errors are GONE! Oh blissful error free shooting... rock solid shot after shot.  No restarts, no hiccups... this is how I felt when the P65+ came along with it's Zero Latency shutter banishing Time Out errors to the great black void.  At last....at last.... at last.   *sigh*

Next I'll test the ac adapter, being able to work indoors with no batteries would be lovely.

Cheers,

CB

[cunim]

I've had an idea for a while and a couple days ago I ordered this ExpressCard FW400 adapter from Sonnet.  The card provides two FW400 ports and one USB port, requires no drivers and can provide Bus Power with an optional AC adapter.  I tried it at home and it seemed to work fine.

I used it on location today, shooting 10 hours and my Firewire Errors are GONE! Oh blissful error free shooting... rock solid shot after shot.  No restarts, no hiccups... this is how I felt when the P65+ came along with it's Zero Latency shutter banishing Time Out errors to the great black void.  At last....at last.... at last.   *sigh*

Next I'll test the ac adapter, being able to work indoors with no batteries would be lovely.

Cheers,

CB
[/quote]

Chris, like you, I was having huge problems with firewire errors.   I am on PC and run Phocus, but the operating system issues seem similar.  You should be fine unless you want fw800.  The two protocols do not play nice together.

I have a built-in 400 port on my Dell laptop. I installed the Sonnet FW800 expresscard on a PC.  This would, theoretically, give me better performance than the native 400 port, and I could power the Hasselblad back through the DC input of the adapter using a regulated Tekkeon battery I can duct tape to the lid of the laptop.  This would require installing a driver for the FW800.  

The result was constant crashing.  Turns out that, on the PC, it is critical to have only one FW driver running at a time.  If I have both the native 400 port/driver, and the Sonnet 800 with Unibrain driver running, I am sure to have constant crashes.  If I uninstall the 400 port/driver so that only the Sonnet is active, things are much better.  I get to stop worrying about firewire and can focus on the (many) other problems.

Not sure about the Mac, but the PC insists on reinstalling its on-board FW port periodically.  If I start getting FW crashes I know now to get rid of it.  I asked the Dell tech about jumpers on the motherboard but he didn't seem to know what those are.  Guess I'm old.

By the way, just ordered a Monolith 6x9 for the 50 back.  Look forward to months of knob twiddling while I learn how to use it.  Will start with the 50 and 90 Rodenstock HRWs and want one longer lens.  What do you like?

[Doug Peterson]

I think I've mentioned here before that ever since I bought my current MBP, I've been plagued with "Firewire Errors"...  errors that always cause me to have to restart C1 Pro, errors that I'd never even heard of in the blissful days of my FW400 equipped MBP.  I assumed it might have something to do with the FW400 to FW800 adapter cables, something in the translation.  I've tried numerous cables and even a FW400 to FW800 adapter on a straight FW400 cable.  Nothing worked (I've even wiped and rebuilt my Hard Drive) and I was having this problem at least 4-5 times a day.

You should not have had to do this.

The FW400/FW800 has nothing to do with it (other than the fact FW800 cables are much easier to pull out of their ports than FW400 cables).

Sounds to me like the FW port in your macbookpro is wonky and should be replaced/repaired. Apple will be hesitant to admit this since it probably still connects to many FW devices just fine (a P65+ is such a high-end performer, demanding so much of the FW channel, it will show weakness in a FW port that lower-end devices do not). So if you were our customer I would be working the back channels to get you the warranty apple repair you (most likely) need (since we are apple dealers).

At Capture Integration we've used many P65+ units with many laptops here (mostly unibodies with FW800 only) and your troubles are not common to that setup. In fact it's been an absolutely rock solid performer (as long as you tape/affix the FW800 into the mac's port so it doesnt wiggle its way out).

Was your dealer not able to help you test your system on several other laptops to verify the problem is with your mac's firewire port?

The other thing that comes to mind is using older firmware with newer Capture One versions. You'd want to be running Capture One 5.1.1 with P65+ firmware 4.8.8 (the most recent of each). Older firmware with newer versions of C1 could cause such errors.

Doug

Doug Peterson
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