Thinkpads Forum

I need help on adding Firewire to my T60p 2623 DDU. I purchased a Sony DCR-HC96 Mini DV Camcorder, and would like to use Firewire to transfer video to the T60p. Would a Port Authority 2 Port Firewire PC Card and cable be the way to go?

Charles

I haven't tried a firewire adapter yet but if I did I'd look for and expresscard adapter rather then a pc card adapter.

Steveg47…Thanks for the “ExpressCard” pointer…I have found a Belkin FireWire 800 ExpressCard – F5U514 two port card takes six pin plugs and the Sony camcorder is “iLink” four pin plug..so I guess a IEEE 1394 6 Pin To 4 Pin Cable is needed to connect things…does this sound better?

Charles

Unless I am mistaken, this setup will leave you without power supplied through the firewire cable.

Bing0 wrote:Unless I am mistaken, this setup will leave you without power supplied through the firewire cable.

Unless I'm mistaken power shouldn't be a problem as the camcorder should have its own power supply.

I used an Adaptec DuoConnect AUA-1422 PCMCIA card on my T60p and it worked quite well in transferring video from a Sony camcorder via Firewire. If I'm not mistaken it was from a 4 pin cable on the camcorder to a 6 pin on the card.

The Adaptec card has 3 USB 2 connectors and one Firewire connector. You want to make sure you have a 7200 rpm drive for video transfer and editing. Also, if your drive is very full you would definitely want to empty some space and do a defrag. Video files need a lot of extra room (at least 20% free) for temporary files for the editing.
DenTP4rm

DenTP4rm wrote:

Bing0 wrote:Unless I am mistaken, this setup will leave you without power supplied through the firewire cable.

Unless I'm mistaken power shouldn't be a problem as the camcorder should have its own power supply.

I used an Adaptec DuoConnect AUA-1422 PCMCIA card on my T60p and it worked quite well in transferring video from a Sony camcorder via Firewire. If I'm not mistaken it was from a 4 pin cable on the camcorder to a 6 pin on the card.

The Adaptec card has 3 USB 2 connectors and one Firewire connector. You want to make sure you have a 7200 rpm drive for video transfer and editing. Also, if your drive is very full you would definitely want to empty some space and do a defrag. Video files need a lot of extra room (at least 20% free) for temporary files for the editing.
DenTP4rm

Yes a camcorder will have its own power source, but camcorders are not the only devices that use firewire and in many cases (especially in devices with displays or mechanical drives) power is a good idea.

Add on cards are out there that support both 6-pin 1394 and USB 2.0 with power. I have purchased one from newegg that had both on one card.


peace,

Bing0 wrote: Yes a camcorder will have its own power source, but camcorders are not the only devices that use firewire and in many cases (especially in devices with displays or mechanical drives) power is a good idea.

Add on cards are out there that support both 6-pin 1394 and USB 2.0 with power. I have purchased one from newegg that had both on one card.
peace,

Good point, Bing0
I was referring to the original question raised by the OP which just had to do with the camcorder. You are looking further down the road and that's always a good idea.

I couldn't tell for sure, but from what I saw on Belkin's site it looked like the Firewire 800 card has 6-pin connectors. If that is the case they should have power. The 4-pin connector Charles mentioned would be the one on the camcorder and it has its own power.

So, there shouldn't be a problem with the card. If in the doubt the Belkin F5U506 would work as it has a USB 2.0 and 2 6-pin original Firewire ports. It looks like the ExpressCard equivalent of the PC card I use.
DenTP4rm

Steve47, DenTP4rm, Bing0…many thanks for all of your input to upgrade my T60p with firewire for my camcorder. I have looked at both Belkin and SIIG, and neither ships with a power brick. The Belkin has what looks like a port on the side for a power plug. Any way the Sony camcorder does have it’s own power.

Charles

Same song – second verse. I ordered a Belkin FireWire 800 Express Card, and a 6pin to 4pin cable. Guess what the Belkin card takes a 9 PIN plug, OK, so now I have a 9pin to 4pin cable on order…While waiting for the new cable to arrive, I have tried to install the Belkin card. The Belkin Express Card has a CD with a FireWire 800 driver to install, installed the driver, rebooted the computer, plugged Express Card in and received the following BLUE SCREEN message.
“Hardware Malfunction
Call Your Hardware Vendor for Support
NMI: Parity Check / Memory Parity Error
*** The System has Halted ***”
Due to past USB2 problems from conflicting software, I made a total system backup, and reloaded the T60p Windows XP Pro from the hidden partition. Loaded the Belkin FireWire 800 driver, and received the same blue screen NMI: Parity Check error….I will contact Belkin in the morning…any thoughts on the problem with the Belkin card?

Charles

A second thought…somewhere I read about a problem with dual processors and express cards.

Charles

Charles,
If you figure this out, especially if there is something related to dual processors and express cards, please report back so we can all benefit from you experience. Sorry to hear about the installation problems. The install for my Firewire/USB card went without a hitch.
good luck
DenTP4rm

This sounds similar to the problems I had:

I had a extremely unstable system which would lock up very often when using an Exsys FW800-Card (TI-Chip) in the PCIe-slot of the Advanced Dock. I changed that to a cheap FW400-PCIe-Card (NEC-Chip) which runs rock stable…

Maybe there's a compatibility problem between the T60p and FW800-Cards.

I am running Linux btw.