FireWire via M.2 slot
Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2024 8:31 pm
Modern laptops, and mini PCs will all come with 1 or more M.2 slots. The Slot is either configured for high speed Sata SSD (usually the slot that stands proud of the PCB) OR is the (lower to the PCB) PCIe slot. You will sometimes find a WiFi and/or BlueTooth card in this slot.
I dont know of any M.2 FireWire cards available, BUT... You can purchase a M.2 slot to mini-PCIe slot adapter cable.
Then you purchase a starTech.com 1394 FireWire mini-PCIe card. See my webpage for details.
It uses an LSI FireWire chip, and I have never had troubles with it.
I have actually done this with my Aerofara Tank56 Mini PC (with a Ryzen CPU and Radeon Video) attached to my Flex-5000 running at 192khz
This is YouTube video I just made showing the installation of FireWire into a Win11 Laptop:
This is YouTube video I just made showing the installation of FireWire into a Win11 mini-PC:
M.2 to Mini-PCIe adapter card:
OR
M.2 to Mini-PCIe adapter cable and card (if you dont have room next to the M.2 slot itself):
Using the above adapter cable (using the shortest ribbon cable) I attached this to my Flex-5000 and it worked great.
the M.2 Sata solid-state hard drive is on top in this photo so you cannot see the M.2 card under it, but you can see the ribbon cable flying out to the Mini-PCIe card slot and my LSI 1394 FireWire card plugged into it. this in turn is attached to my Flex-5000
OR
M.2 to standard PCIe 1x slot and use a standard PCIe FireWire card:
Note: You may run into the same issue where some cards run just fine and other cards do not.
If you find a card that is not functioning correctly (Blue Screen crashes), then go to my website and download, install the Legacy FireWire driver
This may fix the crash issue.
I dont know of any M.2 FireWire cards available, BUT... You can purchase a M.2 slot to mini-PCIe slot adapter cable.
Then you purchase a starTech.com 1394 FireWire mini-PCIe card. See my webpage for details.
It uses an LSI FireWire chip, and I have never had troubles with it.
I have actually done this with my Aerofara Tank56 Mini PC (with a Ryzen CPU and Radeon Video) attached to my Flex-5000 running at 192khz
This is YouTube video I just made showing the installation of FireWire into a Win11 Laptop:
This is YouTube video I just made showing the installation of FireWire into a Win11 mini-PC:
M.2 to Mini-PCIe adapter card:
- s-l1600.jpg (154.94 KiB) Viewed 4832 times
M.2 to Mini-PCIe adapter cable and card (if you dont have room next to the M.2 slot itself):
- SP32-20240710-145922.png (250.33 KiB) Viewed 4836 times
the M.2 Sata solid-state hard drive is on top in this photo so you cannot see the M.2 card under it, but you can see the ribbon cable flying out to the Mini-PCIe card slot and my LSI 1394 FireWire card plugged into it. this in turn is attached to my Flex-5000
- IMG_9056.JPG (3.71 MiB) Viewed 4567 times
M.2 to standard PCIe 1x slot and use a standard PCIe FireWire card:
Note: You may run into the same issue where some cards run just fine and other cards do not.
If you find a card that is not functioning correctly (Blue Screen crashes), then go to my website and download, install the Legacy FireWire driver
This may fix the crash issue.
- IMG_9127.JPG (2.44 MiB) Viewed 3923 times