how to tell if my firewire out is ruined?

[J5 squared]

So i've been trying to capture from a dvx100a and i tried on 4 different computer and none of them would recognize it. I tried a sony handicam and a sony dsr40 deck and the computers wouldn't recognize those either. I figured it was a problem with the computers. But after lots of messing i couldn't get it to work right, and all my firewire drives still work. I eventually tried a jvc camera and it reconized it and captured fine. So now i'm wondering if all the firewire ports on my deck and cameras somehow got burnt up, is there any way to check them?

[novelt]

are you sure it's not the cable? any crimp or kink in the cable will render it useless.

[J5 squared]

went out and bought two brand new $35 firewire cables. No change. Have completely wiped the systems and started fresh with new os and new fcp and updated to the most current version of OS, FCP, and quicktime 7. No change. I have tried all the fixes i could find for not being able to connect, no change. Since my firewire drives work fine, and the jvc camera works fine, the only thing i can think of is that it is the firewire ports on the deck and cameras that are bad.

[Barry_Green]

So you know the JVC camera is working, and you know the cable is working, right? Those have been verified. So try plugging your camera into the JVC camera and playing some footage to it. If the footage shows up on the JVC then you know your port works; if it doesn't show up then that's starting to look like bad news.

[novelt]

that would mean the ports are bad on two cameras and your deck. that's a bit extreme to me that means a problem lies somewhere that is causing your ports to fail...like a device that you may be connecting to them or something.

case in point...i was assembling some computers. i was using one keyboard and one mouse just to run tests. on the first i received an error and it said something about the keyboard. switched it out and plugged in a different keyboard and got the same error. i plugged in that 2nd keyboard into the 2nd PC and everything was fine, powered down, connected the 1st keyboard, and on power up got the same error. so swithced out the keyboards and still had the same error. my presumption that 1st keyboard must've had a short or something that damaged the port.

in your case i hope that's not the problem. as for new cables i bought a brand new cable, but it was packaged so tightly in the box there was a kink in the cable, but i had chanced it and was right...no dice.

EDIT: i was hoping to find more info on the 'net. so i searched "firewire"+"port"+"fails" on yahoo! and honestly found a bunch of pages about sony. i found one forum where a person posted that a 4pin to 6pin cable is bad for your camera - don't know about that. that's been my only cable for 3 years now and i have yet to find a 4pin card. a lot of them said they had contacted sony and didn't receive any answer, but i started to think how many of them plug and unplug the device while both it and the computer are on. as you know you connect, turn on the camera, and then turn on the computer. too many people plug and unplug while the camera's on and end up shorting either the board or the camera port. now yes it doesn't happen all the time...it's like an audio system you don't turn off and on stuff connected to your amplifier that can damage your speakers.

[Barry_Green]

If you hot-swap your camera, you are sooner or later going to blow your firewire port. There are reports of this on FX1s, Z1s, HD100s, DVXs, all sorts of cameras and brands. You simply must not plug in or unplug a camera to a computer while the power is on to both devices.

Especially if you're plugging into (or unplugging from) a Macintosh, most of the reports are centered around Macs. Perhaps because the Macs always use 6-pin/powered firewire ports, whereas PC laptops are traditionally 4-pin? Don't know, and it really doesn't matter, because the evidence is there. Hot-swap the camera (unplug or plug in while it's on) and you run the risk of blowing up its firewire port.

[J5 squared]

If you hot-swap your camera, you are sooner or later going to blow your firewire port. There are reports of this on FX1s, Z1s, HD100s, DVXs, all sorts of cameras and brands. You simply must not plug in or unplug a camera to a computer while the power is on to both devices.

Especially if you're plugging into (or unplugging from) a Macintosh, most of the reports are centered around Macs. Perhaps because the Macs always use 6-pin/powered firewire ports, whereas PC laptops are traditionally 4-pin? Don't know, and it really doesn't matter, because the evidence is there. Hot-swap the camera (unplug or plug in while it's on) and you run the risk of blowing up its firewire port.

this is exactly why i don't want to use my dvx as a pass through or to capture from. The less times i have to plug it into my computer the better. So whats correct here then you must shut down your camera and computer plug in then start up? Is it ok to do as long as your camera is off when you plug it in? Is there any kind of warning about this in the manuals?

[dvxStephen]

So far, I've gotten away with a startup sequence where I have the camera firewire cable disconnected at the laptop until fairly late in the setup. With the Mac on, next I connect the firewire cable, power up camera, and then launch Final Cut.

If I need to quit final cut for any reason, afterwards I power down the camera, and then disconnect the FW cable.

Rinse and repeat as desired.

But like J5 squared, I'd be interested in a more expert view on this protocol, as I sure would hate to fry anything!

Stephen

[J5 squared]

So the same goes for a deck then huh? because we also have a deck that isn't working via firewire.

[novelt]

But like J5 squared, I'd be interested in a more expert view on this protocol, as I sure would hate to fry anything!

i may not be an expert, but i said it...barry green said it...where i come from that's called a second opinion and we're both in agreement. i made a perfect example of how you're not supposed to turn off and on equipment connected to amplifiers else you might fry your speakers...take that as an "electrical" example not just an "audio" one. for the record i've seen it mentioned more than once in different manuals about connecting devices to computers. you connect, power on the device and then power on the computer and then reverse when finished. power down the computer, power down the device and then disconnect.

[dvxStephen]

Novelt, When it comes to amps and speakers, that's something I have background in. If the amp or mixer has an output volume control that can go to zero, and it's turned off, your speakers aren't at risk no matter what you connect to the front end (input stage) -- unless you manage to blow up the amp.

Your description, "connect, power on the device and then power on the computer and then reverse when finished" sounds reasonable for some situations and not others. For example, it would be less than ideal for firewire hard drives on the Mac platform, where it's preferable to dismount drives and then disconnect them before powering down the computer.

There is a lot going on under the hood when it comes to connection of firewire cameras and computers for live capture. Anyone know enough to bring what's happening out into the daylight?

[J5 squared]

Well i tried to connect the dvx to our hvx and got nothing. So i'm thinkin the dvx firewire port is kaput. I'm assuming the same must be the case for our deck and sony cam then. This just seems like such a headache. Firewire is supposed to be a "hot swapable" connection. Meaning you don't have to power down everytime. We use tons of ext. drives here and are constantly taking them from computer to computer without any problems. I don't understand why the cameras and decks bring such problems with them.

[J5 squared]

Oh heres a little more info for you guys who are smarter than me to knaw on. If our firewire ports on the cameras and decks were blown i'd expect there to be no responce at all from the computer. I'd expect it to act as if you had plugged nothing in at all... this is what i'd expect but not what happens. If i open about this mac and look at my firewire tab i can see all of my firewire drives plugged in through fw 800. Now if i go ahead and plug a deck or camera in that i know is "screwed up" not only does it not register the camera, it also knocks everything else plugged in via firewire, drives included, offline. When I plug in a camera, i loose all other firewire connections, the firewire hub basically shuts down.

[novelt]

If the amp or mixer has an output volume control that can go to zero, and it's turned off, your speakers aren't at risk no matter what you connect to the front end (input stage)

having the volume at zero doesn't keep an electrical charge from being sent the only difference is you're not "hearing" it. :)