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ryarber · Dec 21, 2005, 10:07 AM

Is there any way to put USB 2.0 on a sunflower iMac? I am getting my boys nanos for christmas and they can't transfer files via firewire. Anyone know of any solutions?

blindemboss · Dec 21, 2005, 10:48 AM

Alas, that was my problem too.
Apple kind of screwed over a bunch of us by ditching Firewire on iPods.
Without PCI slots, the only way to go is an external USB hub, but that won't do much for speed.
Unless anyone else can think of something, you may be SOL.

waxcrash · Dec 21, 2005, 11:13 AM

The CRT iMac, being a closed system, you can't add USB 2. You can connect an iPod Nano to your iMac, but you'll transfer your music at USB 1 speeds. You'll just need some patience when you transfer your music.

tooki · Dec 21, 2005, 08:39 PM

Well I assume they meant iMac G4 (it resembling a flower), not a Flower Power iMac G3.

Either way, you don't need to qualify what iMac version it is: iMacs don't have internal expansion, and there's no way to add USB 2.

tooki

mduell · Dec 22, 2005, 01:48 AM

Even with USB1, the first fill won't take too long: about 45 minutes for a 2GB nano and 90 minutes for a 4GB nano.

BrunoBruin · Dec 22, 2005, 01:50 PM

Didn't the very last G4 iMacs - the 1.25GHz 17 and the 1GHz 15 - have USB 2.0? I'm pretty sure that was added to the revised motherboard that also supported 333Mhz DDR RAM. If your iMac is one of the late models, you may be all set.

tooki · Dec 22, 2005, 01:51 PM

I think you are right.

tooki

macwayne · Jan 1, 2006, 07:39 PM

I have a 20 inch G4 imac (lovely computer) and it is USB.2
I update my 60G White Video ipod to it just about everyday.
I can tell practically no difference between transfer rates with firewire.

volcano · Jan 3, 2006, 04:51 AM

Tooki -

Actually, I believe the original poster is referring to the "Flower Power" iMac G3 that was released in early 2001 - which would have USB 1.1. I'm not positive though, so the original poster would have to clarify.

Here's the model I'm thinking he/she is referring to:
http://apple-history.com/body.php?pa...mily&order=ASC

bradoesch · Jan 6, 2006, 07:12 PM

Oh man, just when I start forgetting about those flower power iMacs....

slugslugslug · Jan 6, 2006, 08:07 PM

I also figured he meant the iMac G4, since Stevie said its design was inspired by a sunflower in his garden.. Somebody PM and aks him already!

volcano · Jan 6, 2006, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by bradoesch

Oh man, just when I start forgetting about those flower power iMacs....

They were hideous, indeed.

bradoesch · Jan 7, 2006, 08:30 AM

Might as well make everyone suffer with me.

FireWire · 03:23 AM

Back on topic, I notice that this question keeps popping back once in a while but we never get a definite answer. It looks like it could be theorically feasible but that nobody is doing it at the moment. I have a great interest in the matter because I am myself the owner of a "sunflower" iMac (flatscreen lampshade) and that's my main gripe about it for the moment, in a context of expandability. I can put more RAM, install Tiger, attach an external HD and even upgrade the CPU, but there's no way I can get past USB 1.1, which is too slow for devices like USB thumbdrives, USB audio card and iPod.

Has anyone asked the companies if they intended to market such products? It seems that there's a moderate demand for it. If not, maybe we could petition some of them (like Belkin) that would be likely to "invent" these gadgets.

Edit: To clarify my thought (I've just visited a bunch of threads), I'm talking about a FireWire<->USB 2 converter/breakout box. As both are serial protocols and are governed by OHCI, it should not be extremely difficult to implement. The device could register itself as a hub to both the host computer (FW) and the device(s) (USB). It would get full bandwitdh from the FW bus and could "fake" it has 480 mbps available on the USB side but could pretend there's a lot of traffic on the bus and slow things down (with the help of a buffer maybe?) and hope the transmissions would never saturate the full potential of the cable.

bradoesch · Jan 13, 2006, 02:56 PM

I'm sure it's possible, but how many people would buy such a device? Any PC user can simply pop in a USB 2 PCI card and be done with it.

I remember when the first iMac came out there were USB->(SCSI, Parallel, Serial). Just about everything. The problem was that these things were crazy expensive. It was cheaper to buy a new budget level printer than buy a Parallel adapter.

FireWire · Jan 14, 2006, 08:02 AM

Well I don't know the exact number, but I'm sure that the owners of many older iBook, eMac, iMac or Cube would be very pleased to be able to use modern peripherals with their still-good machines. Incidentally, the company GeeThree is still producing a PS/2->ADB adapter and a serial port add-on for iMac and PowerMac (latest G5 included).

I know these proposals are never popular nor effective, but maybe we could conduct a quick poll or a "petition" to gauge the interest and then ask around if a company is willing to provide a solution, based on the demand.

dru · Jan 18, 2006, 06:55 PM

I found this... http://www.pixela-1.com/captycable/ Has anyone tried it? The software is PC-only but I don't know about the smart cable.

slugslugslug · Jan 19, 2006, 12:13 AM

I'm pretty sure that's for connecting FireWire peripherals to computers that already have USB2. And if it's what I think it is (discussed in another 'NN thread which I'm too lazy to look up), it's actually only for connecting DV peripherals such as camcorders.

Apparently translating between FW and USB is not trivial. If it were, I'm sure Mac accessory makers would have found a way to connect USB2 devices to FW ports long ago, since Apple was so late to adopt USB2..

FireWire · Jan 19, 2006, 03:01 AM

I remember reading this thread too. I didn't do a lot of research on it but I think the concensus was that it was only a DV transfer cable that would not work for all data type, but only video and stills.

However, that's what the cable I'm talking about would look like. For the feasability of such a product, I fiddled with many ideas and ways to do it, and I came down to this: you can easily put content on your computer via the FireWire connection, and then retrieve the same content via USB because the computer has both interfaces and the data transits on a "neutral" territory, the hard disk. Say you miniaturize the concept, and now have a PDA or a router, which can also do it (IR->Bluetooth or USB, Ethernet->USB in the case of a print server).

So what you need is only a device that can handle both protocol (easy) and a kind of buffer or a way to slow down traffic (not so hard). I think this could be done for the same price as a FW or USB hub. After all, why would a wireless router be able to go from Ethernet to USB 2 for less than 50$ ?

Eriamjh · Jan 19, 2006, 09:02 PM

This is a scary idea, but does anyone know which chip on the iMac motherboard is for USB? If so, is there a USB2 chip one can replace it with? If so, will that give one USB2?

Granted, the average user will not be able to do this, but those upgrade companies could (and anyone who works for an electronics company, like me).

Vidal · Apr 28, 2006, 05:03 PM

Did anybody take this any further? I recently bought an iMac G4 17" which has USB 1.1 not USB 2. I would definitely be willing to pay for a device that could adapt a firewire port to read USB2. I agree with you FireWire, there must surely be enough of us to lobby a supplier to build a suitable product??

ghporter · Apr 28, 2006, 05:22 PM

Originally Posted by FireWire

...but there's no way I can get past USB 1.1, which is too slow for devices like USB thumbdrives,...

What are you trying to do with a USB thumb drive? Save War and Peace? Really, I have a Dell laptop for toting back and forth to school, and it has (alas) only USB 1.1. And it saves documents just fine thanks. It's not instantaneous, but it doesn't take forever, either.

I can't argue about other USB devices; 1.1 is WAY too slow for audio cards and the like, but with USB drives even up to 4GB, a 1.1 interface is "acceptable" if not desirable.

As for the upgrade path, remember that Apple is a company (that wants to make a profit), NOT a religion that has to cater to its adherents. They probably do not want to make upgrading old machines particularly easy. Instead they certainly do want you to buy a new machine-and you'd probably be tickled pink with one too!

Vidal · Apr 28, 2006, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

Instead they certainly do want you to buy a new machine-and you'd probably be tickled pink with one too!

I'm sure you're right, I'd love to buy a G5 and might well be tempted to extend my mortgage when the Intel chips are moved in later this year and have settled down, but even so, for me the G4 iMac is still the most beautiful piece of electronic equipment ever made and I doubt that even Apple will ever make a better looking computer.

The problem is that of course technology moves on and looks will only get you so far, USB 1.1 just doesn't cut it any more. So you can call me an adherent to religion all you like

but I intend to update my iMac and keep using it for as long as I can.

Anyway I've had an idea that's so simple that somebody must have tried it already but here goes just in case. Could a combined firewire and USB hub such as this Lacie for the Mac mini be used to add USB 2 connectivity? I'm wondering if the hub could be connected to an iMac using the firewire connection and then USB 2 devices be plugged in to its USB 2 ports.

This will of course depend on whether the Lacie's USB hub and its Firewire hub are separate circuits or whether it only takes one connection to the Mac to share out the lot. Does anybody have a combined USB 2 and firewire hub that they could test this on?

Vidal · Apr 28, 2006, 07:49 PM

Originally Posted by Vidal

Does anybody have a combined USB 2 and firewire hub that they could test this on?

Scratch that. I found the manual on the Lacie website and it states that you need an uplink for USB AND an uplink for FireWire if you want them both to work. Of course they do, totally different buses, it was a daft idea based on wishful thinking. Does anybody have any other ideas?

icruise · Apr 28, 2006, 11:10 PM

Originally Posted by Vidal

Scratch that. I found the manual on the Lacie website and it states that you need an uplink for USB AND an uplink for FireWire if you want them both to work. Of course they do, totally different buses, it was a daft idea based on wishful thinking. Does anybody have any other ideas?

I'm afraid you're pretty much out of luck. It's too bad that A) Apple decided to delay the adoption of USB2 on Macs for so long and B) that it got rid of firewire so quickly on the iPods.