Anyone using a pcmcia firewire card?

R

Russtopher

New member
My iBook crapped out so I picked up a used Gateway laptop for a nice price. The issue is there's no FireWire port so I'd need a card to use my Firebox. I don't need the laptop for anything serious, at most 4 track remote recording with zero effects, I'd just dump the tracks to my desktop for the actual mixing.

Anyone have any recommendations on a card, or have any recommendations on a card to stay away from? :-)

Thanks!
 
brzilian said:
I purchased the Adaptec AFW-1430 PC-Card Firewire interface last December. Works like a charm since it has the TI chipset:

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/firewire/fw_adapt/AFW-1430/

Its nice to have 3 full size 6 pin Firewire ports over the one mini 4 pin port that comes standard on newer laptops.

I use it with my newer Gateway MX7515 laptop even though the laptop already has a Firewire port.
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The TI Chipset is recomended by many, so that is a good card.
 
Make sure your laptop actually uses pc-card. I bought the card mentioned above and then found out my new Dell notebook uses Express PC-Card which isn't compatible with the card I bought.
 
brzilian said:
I purchased the Adaptec AFW-1430 PC-Card Firewire interface last December. Works like a charm since it has the TI chipset:

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/firewire/fw_adapt/AFW-1430/

Its nice to have 3 full size 6 pin Firewire ports over the one mini 4 pin port that comes standard on newer laptops.

I use it with my newer Gateway MX7515 laptop even though the laptop already has a Firewire port.
Click to expand...


does this power firewire interfaces, so you want have to use a power adapter
 
They do not power the device. Hopefully whatever interface you bought came with one. I also recommend the card already mentioned in this topic. I've been a very happy boy ever since i got it :D
 
iwantmypie said:
They do not power the device. Hopefully whatever interface you bought came with one. I also recommend the card already mentioned in this topic. I've been a very happy boy ever since i got it :D
Click to expand...

If all else fails, you can get a powered FireWire hub for $30-40 that will provide power for you.
 
The AFW-1430 has a DC input for a wall wart. If you add that, the Firewire ports become powered.

This is of couse pointless if you are in a remote location using the laptop on battery power...
 
dgatwood said:
If all else fails, you can get a powered FireWire hub for $30-40 that will provide power for you.
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You may have just made my best friends list.
http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=212139&highlight=saffire
I still can not get this damn saffire to work with my laptop(toshiba satellite a105 s2061). So you are telling me i can get a usb 2.0 hub that has fire wire on it. Does this work and give a solid connection? I have tried everything i know. i have probably spent 20+ hours loading and reloading everything and 4 different cards. I hope you did not get my hopes up for nothing. I need this thing running asap.
 
undergroundtoon said:
You may have just made my best friends list.
http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=212139&highlight=saffire
I still can not get this damn saffire to work with my laptop(toshiba satellite a105 s2061). So you are telling me i can get a usb 2.0 hub that has fire wire on it. Does this work and give a solid connection? I have tried everything i know. i have probably spent 20+ hours loading and reloading everything and 4 different cards. I hope you did not get my hopes up for nothing. I need this thing running asap.
Click to expand...

A FireWire hub, though I suppose there probably are some that also have a USB 2.0 port....
 
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