Do all Firewire cards need external power?

[Relayer]

I'm new to the IEEE 1394 scene. The Actiontec card I just got needs power from the power supply. Are they all like that?

 

[rbV5]

The DV Wonder I'm looking to add to my sytem does not require an external power supply. Devices, such as cameras and hardrives require external power however.

 

[Relayer]

hmmmm, is that why it has external power? for devices that don't have a power supply?

 

[kgraeme]

Firewire is intended to be able to power the device plugged into it. This obviously means that the card needs to be able to provide the power. In your case, the card taps the PSU directly. I haven't seen this before, but I think it sounds like a good way to go. Less drain on the motherboard/PCI, and a better guarantee of available power.

Keep in mind that not all Firewire devices are capable of being powered by the Firewire bus. This is likely because the manufacturer of the device couldn't count on the bus providing sufficient power. It's a shame really, the idea of one little cable for connection and power was one of the great ideas that Apple came up with in Firewire.

I've never used the Actiontec card, but personally I'd be excited about the power connector on the card.

 

[rbV5]

<< Firewire is intended to be able to power the device plugged into it >>



Your right, I should have said &quot;may&quot; require external power, but with up to 63 devices(maybe more?) that can be attached on the same FireWire bus, I would hardly expect to power those from my comps psu, not to mention that virtualy every firewire device I've seen(hardrives, camcorders, cdrw's)do have external power.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Mine is simply PCI. It doesn't have any external power connectors.

 

[Mday]

obviously it does not power certain devices.

imagine powering a DVC or any prosumer hometheatre device via firewire. talk about melted fireqire cable ;-P