How can I power supply P65+ and P45+ with MBook air ?

[esox]

Is there a possibility to power supply a P65+ or a P45+ in tether mode with a MacBook air ? I'm using the thunderbolt / fw800 adapter but it doesn't supply a strong enough energy. I tried with a FW hub, but no success. Would any fw repeater do the job ? If I can deal with batteries in studio sessions in tether mode it is a real issue for P45+ very long exposure shots...

[Doug Peterson]

Is there a possibility to power supply a P65+ or a P45+ in tether mode with a MacBook air ? I'm using the thunderbolt / fw800 adapter but it doesn't supply a strong enough energy. I tried with a FW hub, but no success. Would any fw repeater do the job ? If I can deal with batteries in studio sessions in tether mode it is a real issue for P45+ very long exposure shots...

A good quality powered FireWire hub will work. A cheap or unpowered hub will not.

Your phase one dealer should have inventory or a recommendation on where to buy one. Here in the US I recommend leaf's solution, or NitroAV, or unibrain powered hubs.

[esox]

Thanks, do you know what voltage / ampere is needed to power supply those backs ? My Phase One dealer told me there was NO possibility to power supply a P65+ or P45+ possibility... And the leaf retailer was not sure the leaf repaeter could do it on a Phase One back because of voltage difference between P1 and Leaf...

[Joe Towner]

CI seems to love the UniBrain fireRepeater 3 port.  What does the wall adapter output on the firewire hub you currently have?

[Doug Peterson]

Thanks, do you know what voltage / ampere is needed to power supply those backs ? My Phase One dealer told me there was NO possibility to power supply a P65+ or P45+ possibility... And the leaf retailer was not sure the leaf repaeter could do it on a Phase One back because of voltage difference between P1 and Leaf...

There must have been a miscommunication with your dealer. Not only is it possible to power a P65+ via a powered hub, it is very common.

I would not use a repeater because it's voltage/amperage hit a certain level. I would use it because your dealer has broad/extended experience using many copies of it with a variety of Phase One backs. In lieu of your dealer having such experience to share I would suggest using one of my two recommendations above.

[Theodoros]

Is there a possibility to power supply a P65+ or a P45+ in tether mode with a MacBook air ? I'm using the thunderbolt / fw800 adapter but it doesn't supply a strong enough energy. I tried with a FW hub, but no success. Would any fw repeater do the job ? If I can deal with batteries in studio sessions in tether mode it is a real issue for P45+ very long exposure shots...

Just forget what your dealer (or other) tells you and buy Unibrain... http://www.unibrain.com ...this Greek company is in the TOP of the world when it comes to digital cables. 

[esox]

This one for instance ? or a firewire 400 is enough ? With this repeater I can use a 4.5m cable between the MB air and the repeater and then a 4.5m cable between the repeater and the back ?

And now another question : For outside shooting, to use my P45+ on long exposures is there a solution for power supply ? May be a way to connect this unibrain repeater on a 12v car battery or similar ?

[Theodoros]

This one for instance ? or a firewire 400 is enough ? With this repeater I can use a 4.5m cable between the MB air and the repeater and then a 4.5m cable between the repeater and the back ?

And now another question : For outside shooting, to use my P45+ on long exposures is there a solution for power supply ? May be a way to connect this unibrain repeater on a 12v car battery or similar ?

I use two FW400 to FW 800 Unibrain cables 5m long with no repeater on my Macbook pro (2009 unibody 17") to power my Imacon 528c for microstep 16x multishot work on a daily basis, the system works like a swiss clock for more than two years now. I also use two cables 5m long USB3 to FW Unibrain cables again to work teathered with my D800E on LR... never had any problem either other than the fact that I have to tape and wrap around the viewfinder frame the USB3 end of the cable to sequre it in position because the D800 doesn't have any female screws to secure the cable to stay in position... I suggest you try a cable without a repeater (I haven't used a macbook air) and see if you need a repeater... you may be surprised! 

PS: Note that I first tried common market but promising ONLY 2m FW cables before I ended up using 5m Unibrain and was unable to power my back from my macbook... I was also advised to contact Unibrain by another photographer and couldn't believe the results after I used their staff... I believe they supply cables and other staff to NASA...

[esox]

Thanks for this answer. The MB air has to firewire connexion, only thunderbolt. So I have first to use a thunderbolt to fw adapter, then if I plug my back to it with no power supply, it turns on but I can't shoot anything, if I shoot, the P65+ turns off and restart. I have a lindy firewire repeater/hub with a 2A/12v power adapter, it works fine but not on X and P mode of the 645DF+. It is fine with the Av mode and M mode. This in tethered mode.  If I only use the repeater with its 12v/2A adapter not connected to the macbook air, so olnly as a power supply for the back, it works fine, on compact flash image storage. If I connect the repeater to the mbook air via the thunderbolt adapter, it doesn't work in X or M mode (the back turns on but turns off and restart if I shoot in X or M mode). No matter C1 is launched or not. So, as I saw that the power adapter (wall adapter ?) provided by Unibrain is a 12V/3A adapter, I suppose my issue comes from the fact that my power adapter is too weak. I'll try with a 3A adapter. I bought this repeater 3 weeks ago, If I knew those issue I would have prefered to buy a Unibrain repeater... I confirm my Phase One dealer told me there was no possibility to power supply a P65+ with a MB air (except with batteries of course), and the Leaf dealer told me that the leaf repeater may not fit for P65+ backs as voltage is not the same... A bit of a confusion there !

[esox]

Ok, I found a good 12v/3A wall adapter and it works with my hub/repeater. Thanks for your informations, with them I found that ubrain provides 3A adapter (the one provided with the hub is a 12v/2A). Last question : can I add a 4.5m fw800 able between the mac and the hub to the 4.5 fw800/400 cable I have between the hub and the back ?

[jerome_m]

Is there a possibility to power supply a P65+ or a P45+ in tether mode with a MacBook air ? I'm using the thunderbolt / fw800 adapter but it doesn't supply a strong enough energy.

Look for a "firewire power injection cable" (or make one yourself by splicing open a cheap firewire cable, this is what I do).

[studio347]

I use recent macbook-pro + thunder-firewire adapter + a short firewire + NitroAV hub + 32 feet firewire(good one_ I use granite digital 32 feet_9 m firewire cable which is much cheaper than...) + P65 without any issue. I use the 16 feet(4.5m) firewire as a backup. Since I like to hang the firewire in the air with 2 c-stands(studios, of course..) to prevent for people to stepping on, I prefer longer firewire.
My old powered firewire hub, didn't work. So, good and recommended firewire hub is important. The one weakness of NitroAV is the size. It's quite big considering the size of macbook pro..
With this combination, a good 32 feet firewire cable works well between the hub and P65.
The case of 16 feet(3.5 m) firewire between mac and firewire hub, needs to be tested. It might work but not sure.

[esox]

What is the V and A power of the nitroAV power adapter ?

[studio347]

check out for yourself_
http://www.nitroav.com/store/nitroav-4-port-firewire-800-1394b-4-port-usb-3.0-superspeed-professional-hub-repeater.html

But
Power Supply_
input_AC 100-240V, 50/60Hz, 1.8A
output_12V, 5.2A

[esox]

I think the reason you can have a so long fw cable is because onf this 12v 5.2 A output of the wall adapter. I don't know if my hub wich is very light can support it.