Fire Wire 1394

[wd5jko]

In the Flex radio Yahoo group (long gone I think), I copied a post that might be useful. Here is what I copied:

"I have a Dell XPS15. It has USB-C (AKA (Thunderbolt 3).
I have a USB-C to Thunderbolt adapter from Startech (around £110
direct or £76 from Amazon.co.uk)
Then I have an apple Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter (Apple branded,
£25 on Amazon).
then I have a Firewire 400 to 800 adapter (branded Neet, around £5).

Ridiculously expensive in total (£105, or $132), but cheaper than a new PC.

It was a gamble, but I tried it and it worked perfectly to run my Flex3000"

I don't recall who did this conversion. Just wondering if anyone here has gone down this road?

Regards,
Jim
Wd5JKO

[ke9ns]

I heard that you could do it with adapters, but until you actually do it or see it in action, its all a gamble.
I am assuming he stated the FireWire 400 to 800 adapter backwards, since the the Apple adapter looks like it provides an 800mbit type connector.

So: USB-C port -> Startech Thunderbolt adapter -> Apple FireWire adapter -> 800 to 400 adapter -> 400mbit cable -> Flex-3000/5000

But since USB-C is slower than Thunderbolt, I am confused how it works.
Apple provides USB-C, but its also Thunderbolt3

I would like to know the Startech Part# and what type of USB-C port the Dell XPS15 has?

Darrin ke9ns

[wd5jko]

Laptop:
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp ... 570-laptop
"7. Thunderbolt™ 3 (4 lanes of PCI Express Gen 3) supporting: Power Delivery, Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps bi-directional), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps)"

Then I find this:
https://www.startech.com/media/products ... asheet.pdf
"The Thunderbolt 3 to 1394 FireWire adapter connects your FireWire peripherals to your Thunderbolt 3
computer".

[ke9ns]

Nice. That explains why that adapter works!

My motherboard has a USB-C port but its only USB 3.1 Gen1 (5 Gbps)

Darrin ke9ns

[VK6JJJ]

If your motherboard has a PCI Express 1 x slot, this is the best bus type for a Firewire host controller since it does not share interrupts with other motherboard peripherals.

[ke9ns]

Correct, All Desktops will have 1 or more PCI Express slots, and any unused PCIe slot will work (from the small x1 to the large x16 slot).

The Thunderbolt Firewire solution is really only needed for modern laptops that dont have a 1394, DV port or express card slot.

All the new laptops have the USB-C port, but you want one where the USB-C port also supports Thunderbolt 3, so then its possible to get FireWire using a "Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 USB-C" adapter, AND a "Thunderbolt 2 to FireWire" adapter from Apple.

Darrin
ke9ns

[k7nhb]

Why does ThunderBolt have to enter the picture - Isn't USB-C is already faster than FireWire 400?

Are there successful solutions that involve taking the PCIe card out of the old PC and putting it an external enclosure with the FireWire 400 back to the Flex 3K and the enclosure's USB-C (not ThunderBolt) back to the newer PC?

This ThunderBolt/USB-C thing seems messy. Is there USB-C 3.1, and USB-C 3.2 with USB-C 3.2 just another name for ThunderBolt 3?

If it works, it seems the external enclosure solution would be much less expensive than the chain of adapters.

[ke9ns]

There are no USB to FireWire adapters manufactured that run at the full 400mbps, so your left with either PCIe FireWire or a Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter.

I have videos on YouTube where I connect a modern mini-PC and modern laptop, internal M.2 slots, to a PCIe adapter cable, and just use either a mini-PCIe or standard PCIe FireWire card. Yes you could run the m.2 to PCIe adapter cable to an enclosure. If you search long enough you will probably find someone who makes a M.2 to PCIe slot box?

The Thunderbolt to FireWire is a more difficult solution because Apple no longer makes the adapter, so you would need to find one for sale.
And very few PCs have a Thunderbolt2 or Thunderbolt3 port. Supposedly Intel has made Thunderbolt3 free to license, so in the future more PCs might end up with USB-C Thunderbolt3 ports, since Thunderbolt can run 4k displays.

Thunderbolt 3 rides over a USB-C connector (USB-C just refers to the connector itself not what protocol is running through it), but inside the PC it has its own hardware/software, in addition to the USB hardware/software
Even if your USB-C connection supports USB 3.2 gen 2x2, very few PCs add Thunderbolt3/4 capability (like Apple does, for example).