Firewire to USB converter ?

L

lasagne

I fancy Fancy
Hi

I've got a Firebox which I've had for a few years and I'm just wanting to get back into recording. I've just bought a new laptop which of course has USB but no firewire port. Does anyone know if I can buy some sort of adapter to convert the firewire out of the Firebox into USB so I can use it with my laptop, or will I need to buy a new USB audio interface ?

Thanks
 
Nope. No adaptors that work that way. I've recently gone through the same problem looking for a modern laptop with Firewire.

The solution I finally came up with was to use the Expresscard slot on my computer--if you have one of those, there are quite a few Expresscard to Firewire adaptors. The only tricky thing is making sure you get one with the TI chipset every audio device seems to demand.

If you don't have the card slot, I fear you'll be buying a USB interface soon.
 
Correct.

It's like freeway toll booths where they squeeze 8 lanes of solid traffic down into 1 or 2 lanes.

....not the way to go for time-sensitive data.
 
The only things you can adapt to FireWire usefully are PCMCIA (the laptop version of PCI), ExpressCard (the laptop version of PCIe), and Thunderbolt (which is basically PCI Express tunneled over an external transport protocol). If your laptop has TB, you can buy an adapter for about $30.
 
FYI, I ended up going the ExpressCard route just recently--I already have an investment in Firewire and it was the only way I could find to keep using it.

However, if I didn't already own Firewire gear, I don't think I'd be investing in it. Essentially it's dead technology.
 
lasagne said:
Hi

I've got a Firebox which I've had for a few years and I'm just wanting to get back into recording. I've just bought a new laptop which of course has USB but no firewire port. Does anyone know if I can buy some sort of adapter to convert the firewire out of the Firebox into USB so I can use it with my laptop, or will I need to buy a new USB audio interface ?

Thanks
Click to expand...

There are devices that allow you to route a USB signal into a Firewire 800 port (Moshi iLynx 800 Advanced FireWire 800 / USB 2.0 Combo 99MO018202) but not vice-versa because prior to USB 3.0 the Firewire protocol was faster. Given that USB 3.0 is faster then Firewire 800...



...you may see hubs that will route Firewire 800 into USB 3.0 but personally I'd not hold my breath. I think Firewire is going the way of the Dodo bird.

1326996951-dodo-bird-plastic-f1353.jpg


If your laptop has a PCMCIA port there are Firewire PCMCIA adapter cards.
 
USB 3.0 finally got the ability to do DMA, so in theory, it might be possible do design such a beast. Not likely, though. It wouldn't work well enough for high-end purposes, and the low-end gear users mostly switched to USB years ago. Besides, newer high-end gear is moving from FireWire towards Thunderbolt these days anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top