Suggestions for PC Card with FW 400 or 800???

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 8:22 pm

Well, I finally took the plunge and bought a Powerbook for an upcoming recording project. I will need to pick up a PC card to run a second FW bus.

I'm wondering if anyone has had success running an 828mkii off of the PC card slot in this manner and can recommend makes and models. I am planning on running a FW800 drive in the future, and since the PB has FW800 built in, I figure the 828mkii can take the card slot position.

Thanks!

Jeff

Steven Bell · Post by **Steven Bell** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 11:20 pm

These guys seem to be really good at firewire products.
I got a two port PCMIA card from them.

http://www.unibrain.com/

Steven

5inusoid · Post by **5inusoid** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 2:30 pm

Can't you just run the FW drive out of the 828mk2?

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 8:57 pm

Can't you just run the FW drive out of the 828mk2?

I know that folks have had better luck running both the drive and the 828mkii off of separate FW ports. This allows for quicker drive write times and better throughput, if I am correct. I believe that some folks have experienced artifacts in the audio etc when daisy-chaining, and that MOTU doesn't recommend chaining a drive that's running off of AC into the 828mkii. I know that I read that here on Unicornation at some point.

Since I'll be working remote with clients on two full length records and two EPs between Philly and NYC in the coming months, I want the best system that I can put together.

Jeff

kelldammit · Post by **kelldammit** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:28 am

can a cardbus firewire/usb card even supply power (without an external a/c adapter)? i thought that on my friend's pc, it would not. if it can though, that's the route i want to go as well...
in the meantime, i got a targus chillhub. so i have my traveler running on the firewire400 slot (bus powered), and my mouse, MIDI controller, and flashdrive on the chillhub (apparently bus power from the usb port is enough! i don't have to use the wallwart!), leaving my second usb2 port open for a bus-powered hd.

i'd really prefer to use a fw drive though...

kell

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:13 am

Well, I hit CompUSA for a laptop sleeve today and checked out some PCMIA FW cards. All of their stock is (surprise

) PC only. So I'm back to square one.

It is suggested that you run two separate FW busses, one for the 828, one for the drive. Each of them can run off of their own power supply this way.

My drive is also USB2.0, so I am going to experiment with that side of the fence this evening. I still want to run everything FW, so a card is in my future.

Any more suggestions will be appreciated.

Jeff

kelldammit · Post by **kelldammit** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:27 pm

do a google search for lacie firewire 800 pcmcia card. i think b&h has them for $80 or so. it's pc or mac. however, i think my suspicion is correct, as an a/c adapter is included with the card.
so pcmcia cards cannot bus-power without an a/c adapter of their own...i want to say it had something to do with the pcmcia bus itself not drawing enough power from the machine to do so.
this being the case (i want to minimize the wallwarts necessary for my mobile setup), i'll be going with a bus-powered usb2 drive...

if you plan on using the a/c adapters for the interface and drive, then you're all set anyway...you shouldn't have to use the adapter for the firewire card.

kell

rockitcity · Post by **rockitcity** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:23 am

I have a G4 Powerbook (see below) to which I have recently added an Adaptec firewire PCMCIA card ($.99 on e-bay!). It has 3 FW 400 ports and an external power input. I purchased a 12 volt power adapter to supply power to the firewire card for the drives (2 60 GByte Hitachi 7200 rpm Travelstar notebook drives in external cases). My Traveler interface runs from the Powerbook's built-in FW 400 port, but I use an external power supply with it as well.

I mainly purchased this card because I was getting drive-access noise from the Travelstar drives in my monitors from the Traveler. Splitting the drives to the firewire card completely solved the problem. I believe that PCMCIA cards are cross-platform compatible, so one for a PC will probably work in your Powerbook.

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:17 pm

I have recently added an Adaptec firewire PCMCIA card ($.99 on e-bay!).

Can you let me know which model you have? Does this have the Texas Instruments chip in it?

Also, I kind of figured that a PCMCIA would most likely work for Mac as well. I just want to do the research before jumping in, which is what this thread is all about.

Thanks for the information!

Jeff

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:30 pm

Rockitcity, is this the PCMCIA card that you have?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ADAPTEC-AFW-1430-Fi ... dZViewItem

$.99 is a steal. I'll see how I do.

Jeff

kelldammit · Post by **kelldammit** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:05 pm

rockitcity wrote: I believe that PCMCIA cards are cross-platform compatible, so one for a PC will probably work in your Powerbook.

a lot of wifi cards are not

so, be careful.
.99 is a sweeeet deal!!!

rockitcity · Post by **rockitcity** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:17 pm

Rockitcity, is this the PCMCIA card that you have?

That's the one. I purchased it from another seller who had plenty up for auction starting at $.99. Of course, shipping was $12, but it was still a deal. It came with a couple of cables, but did not include the external power supply, which I bought locally for about $18.

I called Adaptec about the chip, and they claimed it had a TI controller. However, I hooked it up to a PC, and it said it had an NEC chip. Doesn't seem to matter, as it is performing perfectly in my G4 Powerbook. I have not hooked up my Traveler interface to it, only the drives. There is a note on MOTU's tech support section warning about potential problems with NEC chips. Dunno. Works for me, but I am not recording a lot of tracks at a time (2 or 3 usually). Playback does not seem to be a problem with multiple tracks.

Here's Adaptec's info:http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/produc ... 4+Adaptors

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:23 pm

Hey rockitcity, I just bought the same Adaptec PCMCIA card that you use off of eBay for $10.50. With shipping it came to $21. Comp USA wanted $60 for it, so I'm happy, as long as it works.

Thanks again for the info!

Jeff