External Firewire HD?

[Anotherstate]

Hello, I recently did the "LE Hardware Exchange" from MBox (original) to 002R Factory & MPK. I picked up a Glyph GT050Q 250Gig w/(4 types of connection), (1) 400 (1396), (2)/800 Firewire / (1)) USB/ (and another faster port ?))
My proper connection as you know with using a 002R is to connect the 002R from the Glyph HD & HD to Powerbook. Well, this certain model has to be "daisy chained" from the (800 port) cause there is only ONE (400) Firewire. So, I'm connected (800) to the HD-to-Powerbook and from the HD's (400) -to-002R. I haven't had any speed issues, (dubbing speed wise - down), but when called Digi Support, one guy was kind of "concerned" about me NOT going 400-400! It seems to be working OK, even though I need to put it to the test more. Some medical issues... slowing me down. But, this configuration should be OK? Right? I would think it shouldn't matter, daisying from a faster main source down to 400 for the final connection to the 002R, yes? Just checking to if anyone else is doing that. I have to, cause there is only ONE (1396, or 400) port on this certain Glyph Firewire HD model. There's (2) 800, I had no other choice. Seems to works fine.. so far. Thanks for any thoughts... on this. Just checking. Anotherstate

[randyT]

Anotherstate,

You should be fine....the FW port will simply turn the speed down to match the lowest speed device that is connected to it. So everything is going to run at FW 400 speed all the time which is just fine.

randy

[Scott McLemore]

Anotherstate--

If you're daisy chaining, I bet it's because you are on a laptop and have only one FW port there, right? (If you have other ports-- or can get them via a card-- not daisy chaining would be preferred.)

On my Mac desktop I'm connecting FW800 to the hard drive and FW400 to the 002 (which forces the drive to run at 400 also). Pretty sure this is a supported config, and it does work, so yours is probably OK. HOWEVER I have read of user issues with 4-to-6-pin FW400 adapters, and seen Digi be officially skeptical of 400-to-800 adapters. Welcome to unsupported-land.

Scott

[randyT]

Scott,

If you connect a FW 800 drive to the FW 800 port on a G5 it will run at FW 800 speed even if the 002R is connected to the FW 400 port. I know everyone on the DUC states that it will run at FW 400 speed but I never bought that myth and I called Apple tech support to confirm the way it works. There is another problem though. Since the FW 400 and FW 800 share the same internal CPU bus, there will be speed switching occurring and that can cause problems with the digi hardware. Digi has a specific disclamer about this issue on their website in the Hard Drive compatability section. The best thing to do is install a seperate FW 800 PCI card for the FW 800 drive.

Links to Hard Drive Compatability and the M-Audio FW-800 issue...

http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?...4&itemid=23114
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=...89704091cab226

randy

[Anotherstate]

Randy... thanks... that's kind of what I thought. Whew! Anotherstate

[Anotherstate]

If all fails... or happens to be not compatible, I could use my Trans Authority Powered Hub! I just thought of that, it has 4 USB2 ports and (2)(400 or 1396) FW ports also. SO, I could use one of those firewire ports! We'll see... thought I'd throw this question out there (to see if there would be a problem) & cause I like the thought of using the speed of 800. Oh, if it slows downs to 400... no biggy, as long as it works. Thanks for you replies. Anotherstate

[Scott McLemore]

RandyT-- Wow, that's an eye opener! Puts that PCIe Firewire card a bit further up my wishlist. In the meantime I will read your links and perhaps try using a FW400 cable on the LaCie-- seems to me I'd rather have it stable at half the speed than trying to switch all the time.

Anotherstate, the hub seems worth a try. Has Digi ever listed it as supported?

We're learning all the time...

Scott

[Scott McLemore]

I read the links... FWIW the only times I've seen either symptom (dropouts or lost connection) were when I was really pushing in a Dverb test-- and the lost connection only came up in the most extreme scenarios (high sample rate, low buffer size, and lots of plugins). Will test the FW400 connection in a bit.

Scott

[randyT]

The only symptoms I had was that when I added a new Lacie FW 800 drive to my setup that already had the 002R and a WD FW 400 HD on the two FW 400 ports. As soon as I added the FW 800 drive the FW 400 drive started unmounting itself periodically. That's when I started investigating the issue and found the info on the digi site. After that i got a Lacie FW 800 PCI card (which was only $69) and that cleared up the problem. I never actually saw the 002R have a problem but I figured just having the FW 400 drive dropping out was enough for me to want to fix it.

randy

[Keniko]

I have two 80 gig Glyph Netdrives. Ben' using these for 3 years w/o a hiccup. No matter what drive you use. Always back up your sessions. DVD-RW is great for this. You never know ! ! ! !