[LAU] In search of a new laptop for audio - Firewire with Power-Out needed.

[Mark Knecht]

On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 1:50 PM, Justin Smith <noisesmith at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Justin Smith <noisesmith at gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 1:50 PM
> Subject: Re: [LAU] In search of a new laptop for audio - Firewire with
>  Power-Out needed.
> To: Nils Gey <list at nilsgey.de>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 9:40 AM, Nils Gey <list at nilsgey.de> wrote:
>> Hi list,
>>
>> I try not to start some flamewar. Normally I can look up my hardware alone, but all the hardware-websites can't help me in one point:
>>
>> I need a laptop which is able to power my Firewire-Interface (Terratec Phase X24) over Firewire. Do you know if something like this exists? All my laptops in the past (2) were not able to do that. Both had only a "small" firewire-interface.
>>
>> Nils
>> _______________________________________________
>> Linux-audio-user mailing list
>> Linux-audio-user at lists.linuxaudio.org
>> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
>>
>
> I have a mac g3 (white not clamshell picure here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ibook12.jpg ) that has a full power
> firewire port and runs a stripped down up to date debian system quite
> smoothly, with low latency on the builtin sound card. I could be
> wrong, but I always thought that the full size firewire plugs were
> powered and the smaller ones were not.

I think the best solution for this problem is to buy a powered hub.
I'm not recommending this one - it was just the first one that came up
in Google for me:

http://www.pccables.com/cgi-bin/orders6.cgi?action=Showitem&partno=70924&rsite=f.70924

(1394a powered hub)

Basically it doesn't mean that you need a second power plug - yoou do
not get power from the PC - but you also do not drain the PC's battery
powering your 1394 equipment.

I believe that there are a few sony laptop models that have a special
power out connector to do this sort of thing. The still use the
smaller 4-pin connector for the data but have some gizmo to combine
the signal port and the port together into a 6-pin cable. I've never
used one.

Hope this helps,
Mark