Max length of Firewire cables.

  • Thread starter Thread starter rockinrocker
  • Start date Start date
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rockinrocker

Freedom Hater
I'm thinking about moving my CPU into the other room....
how long can a firewire cable be with out causing problems?

Thanks.
 
5 meters... so depending on if you round up or down 15-18'...
 
I have a 80 ft firewire cable that I used for video. The 5 meter restriction is only if you need the full bandwidth which would not be the case for audio recording.

However, I tried the 80 ft cable with my m-Audio 410 and it did not work.
 
I believe you can buy repeaters to extend the usable length significantly.
 
thanks for the input, but now i don't know what to think.

i found a "firewire repeater" on the gefen site, http://www.gefen.com/kvm/product.jsp?prod_id=1329
and it seems to imply that a 33 foot cable is fine on it's own, and that using the repeater allows you to connect more than one.....

1 33 footer would be plenty for my needs, so if i can avoid spending $80 bucks on a repeater and just get a longer cable....
 
strike that. i think i've got it figured out....

"Firewire can be extended beyond the 15 feet specification by using Firewire repeaters. One repeater is required every 33 feet while extending."
 
cool, thanks a lot for that.


see, this is why i ask stuff like this on message boards rather than just randomly googling. seems like someone always has better answers than i'd come up with on my own....
:)
 
About 15 feet is the maximum distance for a single hop without a specially designed repeater on both ends of the cable. Most FireWire hardware is not electrically capable of signaling over 15 feet (4.5 meters). I've tried with 30 foot cables and devices just plain aren't detected. It's not just a bandwidth issue, though there is that, too.

If you need to go more than 15 feet, the cheapest alternative is either an active FireWire extension cable or a cheap FireWire hub running off bus power at 15 feet. Either should work fine as long as you are not using an M-Audio interface. I haven't had any luck running those on a hub, and an active cable is basically a single-device hub, so I wouldn't have a lot of faith in that, either.

If you need an extreme distance, there are repeaters for a few hundred bucks that will repeat over twisted pair ethernet or fiber. The fiber version can run full bandwidth at about a kilometer before the latency becomes so high that devices on one end start losing track of device on the other end, IIRC. :D
 
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