MOTUnation.com

Prime Mover wrote:Bizarre, I read recently that TB includes the FW800 protocol natively (just as it does display port and a few other protocols), so why would it act any differently?

NFI unfortunately…  Just wish it WOULD

Prime Mover wrote:Bizarre, I read recently that TB includes the FW800 protocol natively (just as it does display port and a few other protocols), so why would it act any differently?

That is not correct. Some MOTU interfaces will not work with the TB-FW adapter but the 828mkII does. Intel has never supported FW. Thunderbolt passes only a portion of the FW spec. Native, it ain't.

My last setup was a 21 inch iMac and my connection was as follows:
MOTU FW800 out --> HD FW800 --> HD FW800 Loop out --> iMac FW800 In

My newest setup is a 27 inch iMac and I had to use a FW400 to FW800 cable. The setup is as follows:
MOTU FW800 out --> FW400 Adapter to FW800 cable --> FW800 to TB Adapter --> iMac TB In

I had to use this FW400/FW800 cable due to needing a longer cable and it being the only thing I had available.
I plan to buy a different cable soon but for the time being the adapters work!

The adapters are supposed to work. The problem is that very few are tight and secure - if any - and this is what causes problems. Good, proper cables are more reliable. As has been reported, not all cables are equal and some are not well made, causing more troubleshooting headaches.

There is hope!

Hi, I just got a new iMac with Thunderbolt, and I wanted to report that I did finally get the TB to Firewire adapter to work with my 1st Gen MOTU Traveler. At first it didn't work though. It did not work with bus power, though the unit came on. Then I switched to wall power, and it still didn't work. I tried restarting the iMac and it did not work still. I was really hoping I didn't have to buy some USB interface! So today I tried again by powering everything off, not just restarting. I turned on the Traveler first using wall power, then the iMac, and finally it came up in the audio preferences.

So I think if you just connect with power off of both devices and run on wall power you should be fine. I had to share this to hopefully give someone else who was in my boat hope. I had just dropped a hefty chunk of change, and was installing new software all day, and just when I thought I'd be hearing beautiful sounds coming out of my monitors, it turned into worry that I'd have to drop even more money into another audio interface. Luckily that didn't have to happen!

EDIT: For the record, I used the TB to FW800 adapter, then connected a cable that was FW800 to FW400. The less adapters you use the better probably.

Good to read how it worked for you. That will help others.

FW supports up to 22W buss power (or is it 24W? I forget). TB specs only 7W buss power - who knows how much is still available after it passes through an adapter.

DC here!

I have rather the opposite wish - lols.

Since I dont plan on bying a newer Mac soon with thunderbolt connectores.
But would rather have a need for an external TB drive.

So does there exist a FW-800 9pin adapter --> TB
NOT the apple TB to FW adapter
but FW to TB adapter???

Does such a creature exist?

Cheers: Dixiechicken!

dixiechicken wrote:Since I dont plan on bying a newer Mac soon with thunderbolt connectores.
But would rather have a need for an external TB drive.

What would the point of that be?

So does there exist a FW-800 9pin adapter --> TB

No.

TB may pass some of the FW spec but FW does not pass any of the TB spec.

DC here!

As I suspected then Mike. Thanks for the info.

Cheers: Dixiechicken!

OK.

So I've been running an old iMac through my studio and running 2 x 828Mk2s (lots of analogue inputs through it) other than managing to blow both boxes by hot swapping earlier in year (idiot) it's been pretty stable.

Problem is my partners now taken the iMac with firewire to Berlin and seems stupid buying a second hand 2010/2011 iMac which will all be starting to break by now (if my Apple life curve stays average!) when I've a perfectly good macbook air to run it from.

Gonna get a TB to FW apple adaptor, then an 800/400 adaptor and either a longer 800 or 400 lead to run between the two / 828mk2.

Summarising the thread, it seems the potential problem is that the bus power from the direct firewire cable would have been 22-24 but all that's going to come through the TB-FW is 7, and that will get further lessened by the 800/400 adaptor which could be where problems lie??

Will report back, but someone earlier in the post referred to running it through the Lacie Rugged 400/800 hard drive which seems a pretty decent way of getting some added power half way along that wiring process

I think I read a FAQ on Motu.com that suggested using a powered device with the Apple firewire/ thunderbolt adapter and not using bus power.

I've bought one of the Lacie Rugged 400/800 hard drive things and various different adapters so gimme a week and will be able to report back as to whether the 828mk2 works with either just the wires, or needs the power of that hub to work. Or works for neither!

I have a rugged drive I used for Time Machine with my 2013 MacBook Pro via the TB>FW adapter. Since it's bus powered, I found that if I closed the cover of the Mac, no backup would occur until I reopened it and entered my password to access the Mac. This is with the Power Nap feature in Energy Saver Preferences ON. I switched to an OWC enclosed also bus powered but on the USB3 bus and the TM backup works fine with the lid shut. Maybe someone here can shed light on why this happens. I've always thought that the problem was that I have "require password to wake from sleep checked.


Frank Ferrucci

frankf wrote:I think I read a FAQ on Motu.com that suggested using a powered device with the Apple firewire/ thunderbolt adapter and not using bus power.

Correct

seems stupid buying a second hand 2010/2011 iMac which will all be starting to break by now

I have one of each and both are working great.

Only the 2011 has Thunderbolt and like other TB Macs and the Thunderbolt Cinema Display monitor, the FW port has 7W bus power only.

The 2009 and 2010 27" iMacs, OTOH, support the full FW spec - as much as any Intel Mac can.

I have had no success using my 828mkII through a powered or unpowered FW hub with my iMacs - it crashes the bus forcing me to reset the NV RAM (PRAM) -- it could be the brands that I have tried but I am not doing it anymore. You can daisy-chain them through FW–hard drive first since it is capable of FW800 and the MOTU FW interfaces are all FW400 - even those with the 9 pin connector.