Hvx 1394 problem!!!

[ajs473]

For over a year, I've been doing the same thing with my HVX--shooting, connecting to my laptop via 6-pin to 4-pin firewire, and dumping footage onto external hard drives. Suddenly yesterday (having not changed any settings on my HVX), my camera starts blinking "1394 Initial Error" shortly after I plug it into my laptop and will not stop. I've read all of the posts I can find on this, but they all see to be pertaining to dumping directly onto hard drive, whereas I just want to mount it on my computer.

My PC MODE setting is set to 1394DEVICE, which I'm fairly sure hasn't ever been changed. The 1394 CONTROL setting is locked into OFF and the CMD SEL is in locked in REC_P. Can anyone help me out here?

[wgzn]

do you ever connect/disconnect the firewire cable to your camera while its powered on? you may have zapped your firewire port...

[indybones]

do you ever connect/disconnect the firewire cable to your camera while its powered on? you may have zapped your firewire port...


mmmm this is interesting I had heard something about this....

I definitely connect the fire wire to the camera while the camera is switched off to dump footage, but then when you go to eject the camera from your desktop it says "1394 disconnect", I've always assumed that was the point at which you disconnect the 1394 lead, then turn it off.
However are you saying that after dumping your footage you should turn the power off first, then pull out the 1394 lead, wouldn't that come up with a 'device not disconnected properly you may have lost footage'?

Cheers

[indybones]

arrr manual time....

Your right it does say "before proceeding to connect or disconnect 1394 cable be absolutely sure to turn off the power of the units"

So I guess when you have ejected the device (HVX) from the desktop and the screen says 1394 disconnect its at that time that one turns the unit off then pulls the 1394 cable out..jeez..I never had to do this with other cams... god I hope I haven't screwed it?????

[grimrebes]

The firewire bus is pretty sensitive on all of Panasonic's professional cameras. I'd been working with th HPX900 for a while and the owner had no idea to be careful with that. It happens.
if you purchased a normal HPX, then you have a warranty, and I highly doubt itll be an issue for the folks at Panasonic Service to check it out.

[Spec-Comm]

Another thing to keep in mind is that the firewire pins break after time. You may have a pin in the firewire connector that has a hairline crack in it or is completely missing all together.

You can look into the connector to see if you have all the pins there. If they are all there it still doesn't rule out a break or as mentioned above, a fried 1394 PHY chip.

If your tests don't work out we can take a look at it for you and let you know what it's going to take to fix it. Email me at the address below if you need direction in this case.

Sincerely,

Andrew Hoffman
Vice President
Specialized Communications Corp.
20940 Twin Springs Dr.
Smithsburg, MD 21783-1510 USA
800-359-1858 (US)
301-790-0103
Fax: 301-790-0173
andrewh@spec-comm.com
www.spec-comm.com
www.twitter.com/speccomm

[David Saraceno]

Both the host device and the cam must be shut off before the FW cable is disconnected.

Cam is attach while powered off.

Many don't like this procedure, but it's the safest way to go.

[indybones]

Both the host device and the cam must be shut off before the FW cable is disconnected.

Cam is attach while powered off.

Many don't like this procedure, but it's the safest way to go.

So your saying the camera has to be turned off then FCP has to be shut down, external hard drive (where the footage has been captured to) and the mac have to be shut down, then the firewire cable can be taken out of HVX???? Blimy...

[Barry_Green]

Look, here's the procedure that will solve probably 98% of all firewire-related problems:

Plug the cable into the computer FIRST.

There. Done.

As near as I can tell, the problems arise when people plug the cable into the camera, and then they try to plug the 6-pin side into the computer, and they initially get it backwards. Apparently that can cause the power pin of the computer connector to briefly connect with one of the pins in the cable, which travels down the wire and shorts out the camera's firewire connector.

This has NOTHING to do with the HVX, or Panasonic. It has to do with the stupid nearly-symmetrical firewire connector, and with the invention of the 4-pin connector, and the way the cables line up.

So if you want 100% safety, you'd turn the computer off before connecting the units. That way there's no possible way to errantly short out the firewire port. But if you want 98% safety, just disconnect the camera before trying to connect the cable to the computer. If the 4-pin end of the cable is floating free, then it won't matter if you temporarily misalign the 6-pin connector. Once the 6-pin is inserted properly, then you can freely plug-in or un-plug the 4-pin side to the camera, whether power is applied to either of the units.

[indybones]

Look, here's the procedure that will solve probably 98% of all firewire-related problems:

Plug the cable into the computer FIRST.

There. Done.

As near as I can tell, the problems arise when people plug the cable into the camera, and then they try to plug the 6-pin side into the computer, and they initially get it backwards. Apparently that can cause the power pin of the computer connector to briefly connect with one of the pins in the cable, which travels down the wire and shorts out the camera's firewire connector.

This has NOTHING to do with the HVX, or Panasonic. It has to do with the stupid nearly-symmetrical firewire connector, and with the invention of the 4-pin connector, and the way the cables line up.

So if you want 100% safety, you'd turn the computer off before connecting the units. That way there's no possible way to errantly short out the firewire port. But if you want 98% safety, just disconnect the camera before trying to connect the cable to the computer. If the 4-pin end of the cable is floating free, then it won't matter if you temporarily misalign the 6-pin connector. Once the 6-pin is inserted properly, then you can freely plug-in or un-plug the 4-pin side to the camera, whether power is applied to either of the units.

Nice one cheers Barry :thumbsup::thumbsup:
I tend to be capturing a lot of the time and have the firewire cable plugged into the back of the computer all the time, then just plug the cable into the camera as and when I capture, I don't think I have unplugged it in the last 2-3 years from the back of the computer.

But all these things are really good to know....

Cheers