Firewire to small firewire port in my laptop??

  • Thread starter Thread starter TheComposer
  • Start date Start date
T

TheComposer

New member
Sup, I just bought a new mixer, Alesis Multimix 16 on Ebay, the guy sent me a firewire cable as well, the thing is, my laptop has a 1394 firewire port as well, but it's one of those small ones, I think they are called 4 pins?

And the standard cable is 6 pins it seems, so how do I connect the mixer to my laptop?

I was checking on Ebay, is this the thing I need?

Firewire IEEE 6 Pin Female to 4 Pin Male 1394 Adapter Converter Computer Mac | eBay

Just want to confirm, I'll look around electronics stores around the city. :thumbs up:
 
You could buy a converter, or you could just buy a 4-pin to 6-pin firewire cable.

I prefer that method because I don't like using converters, just because they're so easy to lose, especially with a laptop where you might be unplugging and plugging back in the cable often. But really, as long as you don't lose the converter, I'm pretty positive either way works fine.

---------- Update ----------

ecc83 said:
I would not trifle with adapter, extra source of trouble IMHO.
Click to expand...

Beat me by a couple minutes!
 
Agreed, get a $10 4-to-6 cable; used one for years.

That said, you may have problems with the laptop unless it has Texas Instruments firewire chips built in (most dont).
The crappy firewire chips on most motherboards are ok for drives and cameras, but not audio interfaces.
If it works, fine. If you have problems come back and tell us.
 
The only difference between the 4 and 6 pin firewire is that the 4 pin does not supply volts to the equipment, so anything plugged into a 4 pin firewire will need to have it's own power supply.

For example, if I use my Presonus Firebox plugged into my desktop with the 6 to 6 pin firewire cable I don't need to use the Presonus external power supply. If I have it plugged into my laptop with the 6 to 4 pin cable I then have to use the Presonus external power supply.

Hope that was clear.

Alan.
 
That is the adapter you need but, as said, you might be better off getting a cable so it's harder to lose something.
As also said, make sure your interface is powered independently.
Witzendoz is right about 4pin not supplying power, but the Alesis Multimix 16 appears to have a separate power supply, so you should be fine. :)
 
Hmm yeah, The cable will work better, since I always lose my own stuff, I'll get one of those.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top