[mikejaz2]

PowerMac G5/dual2gig/4 gig ram/OS 10.4.11...

In addition to the onboard FW bus, with its front and back connections, I have some sort of aftermarket FW card - a Belkin, I think- for more ports.

I use this machine primarily for video editing. Thus, I have many firewire connections:
- for media drives (I hook them to the aftermarket card to keep the i/o off the motherboard)
- for my professional DV deck (used for capturing and recording; that is, in and out)
- for my A to D DV converter (input to computer only)
- for my DVD/SVHS recorder (output from computer only)

My issue is mostly with the last three; the drives seem happy on the aftermarket card, and perform well no matter what else is connected where. The problem lies with the the tape-deck-like devices. I can only have one connected at a time, or the FW bus (or something) gets confused. Thus, if I'm capturing from the pro deck, I have to disconnect the connection to the DVD recorder. I'm sure that, when I get the A/D converter hooked into the system, I'll have to patch and unpatch it as well.

What would be ideal would be some sort of software solution that would let me switch the active Firewire port, and turn off the others I don't want the computer to see. Sure, I could do the same thing by plugging and unplugging cables, but that's so low-tech...not to mention that the flimsy FW connections on the computer won't stand for that for long.

Anybody have a similar situation? Anyone have a solution or suggestion?

[OreoCookie]

Usually daisy-chaining devices on FireWire is not a problem at all, so you should be able to plug in all devices at the same time (so far, I've tried four devices tops, though).

So can you tell us exactly how you connect all the different devices and whether you connect them to different ports or simply in a row?

[ttreen]

Belkin (amongst others) offer a 6-port firewire hub. There may be ones out there with even greater connectivity.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

Usually daisy-chaining devices on FireWire is not a problem at all, so you should be able to plug in all devices at the same time (so far, I've tried four devices tops, though).

So can you tell us exactly how you connect all the different devices and whether you connect them to different ports or simply in a row?

I have no good solution, but I do know that certain Firewire hardware devices aren't always compatible with each other.

For example, I had two drives at one point which wouldn't work together. Both worked independently. Also, I had some hardware that wouldn't work through a specific hub, which is a shame, because this is the hub:



Note that some certain hardware shuts off the ports if you shut off the unit. Perhaps there is a device you can put between the computer and the tape drive. Shut off the device, and that shuts off the tape drive. (The only device I have that does that is a DVD enclosure. If you shut off the DVD enclosure, all hardware daisychained after it is deactivated. However, I sure you don't want to buy a DVD enclosure just to make your tape drive work. )

If you find no other solutions, I suppose you could just stick an extra hub in between. That won't solve your problem, but at least plugging and unplugging will only (potentially) damage the hub ports, and not the ports on the computer or the device.

[OreoCookie]

I'm glad I've been problem free up until now. Although I haven't used any of the more exotic devices (I've only used external harddrives, DV cams, FireWire web cams, etc.).

[Eug]

I've only used DV cams, optical drives, and hard drives (and hubs). However, some of the drives were in off-brand enclosures.