[LAU] EQ plug and 4-pin 1394

[Ken Restivo]

On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 09:38:09AM -0800, Kim Cascone wrote:
> Mark Knecht wrote:
>> On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 8:20 AM, Kim Cascone <kim at anechoicmedia.com> wrote:
>> <SNIP>
>>   
>>> 2- my Dell laptop has a 4-pin firewire output and was wondering if there are
>>> any issues with using a 4 pin cable for a 6 pin I/O other than not supplying
>>> power?
>>> I know I have to supply power to the box since a 4-pin 1394 connector
>>> doesn't carry DC power.
>>>     
>>
>> There should be no issues. The 6-pin connector is literally the 4-pin
>> connector signals (2 out, 2 in) with 2 power wires. There is no
>> difference in the IEEE-1394A specs for either connector and, in my
>> experience, the 4-pin has always worked for me.
>>   
> OK thanks for the info! :)
>> The biggest issue with 1394 on Linux is the 1394 controller in the PC.
>> You might look around for evidence that your specific hardware (the
>> chip inside - not the laptop) is well supported. (I.e - TI is, others
>> vary) Stefan Richter in the 1394 user list is a great resource. lspci
>> is your friend.
>>   
> yeah I did a lspci and found:
>
> 09:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller  
> (rev 05)
>
> -- also --
>
> sudo lshw | grep 1394
>                description: FireWire (IEEE 1394)
>                product: R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller
>                configuration: driver=ohci1394 latency=32 maxlatency=4  
> mingnt=2 module=ohci1394
>

Ricoh chipets are, IIRC, the ones with extreme nonworkingness. Though it may depend on which rev, I dunno.

I had one, and nothing worked. I had to get an ExpressCard with a TI chipset, and that one worked.

-ken