Possible solution for firewire on new computers

[W0BLA]

Hello all,
I've battled the legacy issues with Firewire, and I came across a video that seems to offer a solution for newer PC's and/or a laptop with a USB 4 connection to communicate with Firewire. I have a new PC and I've added an expansion board that provides (2) "Thunderbolt 4" connections. I figured putting this in a small enclosure would be the least of my concerns. I ordered the parts, and I will update when I find out more results. This mat be old news but here it is just in case.

Video with details:


As always, thanks to Darrin for his support and efforts

[ke9ns]

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This is using a BOSGAME M4 Ryzen mini-pc running Windows 11 Pro
This mini-pc has a USB4 port (which is a Thunderbolt 3 port but it cannot handle Thunderbolt 2 devices)

I attached a Wavelink WL-ST401C, and the M.2 to PCIe adapter board combo and plugged it into the USB4 port (shown in the photo)
Orange tape helps to secure the PCIe adapter board, since this Wavelink device was not designed for this application.

At first I tried a few different older FireWire cards, but they were unstable.
I swapped the Hard drive for Windows 10, and those old FireWire cards became stable.

I went back to running the original Window 11 Pro hard drive
I purchased a new FireWire card with the TI XIO2213B chip
That worked perfectly and did not require the Legacy driver

So you now have 2 ways to get FireWire on a laptop or mini-PC, using a standard PCIe card
1) Internal M.2 adapter cable to external PCIe slot
2) USB4 port to M.2 adapter and a M.2 to PCIe adapter board (probably the better solution)


Darrin