• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

IBM Firewire (1394) CardBus $25 + shipping

W

wjones

Platinum Member
I was looking for 1394 PCMCIA card and found that this IBM cardbus doesn't block both the laptop PCMCIA ports, which my compact flash PCMCIA adapter is in the other port all the time.

IBM IEEE 1394 CardBus Adapter $24.99 + $6 shipping to CA
 
Not bad. Compgeeks used to have them for $27. Keep in mind that these cards do not provide power to 6 wire devices. Also, you have to use the cables included since they have a dongle on one end and a regular firewire socket on the other. I think 1 is a 4wire and the other is a 6wire. I have seen cardbus cards with 3-4 firewire ports on the card itself that would not block the other slot if you used it in the top slot only.
 
I ordered an IBM firewire controller (PCMCIA, not cardbus. What's the difference?) from piranhatech.com. The price is $26, but there is no shipping charge. They are based in CA.
 
Originally posted by: hwz8b
I ordered an IBM firewire controller (PCMCIA, not cardbus. What's the difference?) from piranhatech.com. The price is $26, but there is no shipping charge. They are based in CA.
Click to expand...

PCMCIA uses 16 bit technology. Cardbus uses 32 bit. 99% of all the laptops on the market can take either or, but i think you cant do dual Cardbus.
 
OK, the parts no. piranhatech.com has on the IBM controller is 19K5686, which is a 32bit cardbus controller according to some other site. Not so sure though. As you can see, someone else might be more knowledgeable than I am on this. I am currently researching on the reliability of IBM firesire controllers. Will report back on my results.
 
Originally posted by: TheMuse
These IBM's are ancient. The wholesale channel has been dumping them for months now. Must be a reason why. I can probably get this for about $15.

Also, these IBM's use the annoying dongle and doesn't provide any external power, not to mention I heard there are major compatibility issues due to the older chipset and/or 16 bit addressing instead of the 32 bit newer cards, for example:

http://www.memoryonly.com/products-detail-4USBnHD2.asp?ID=9047

3 Port Firewire cardbus / Pcmcia adapter
Click to expand...


Hmmm sounds like someone has a grudge against IBM rather than stating facts about his card. We have these cards installed in all our Thinkpads and have never experienced any OS or hardware compatiability issues with the IBM 1394 card. In addition, the card is not obsolete. It was only introduced in Feb of 2001, but was withdrawn by IBM in December of 2001 because they decided to iintegrate 1394 as a minicard option as opposed to a PCMCIA option in their ThinkPad products. This is typical of IBM and is no indiciation of a faulty or inferior product. In fact, this card is based on the industry standard Texas Instruments OHCI chipset and that is also how it is recognized in Windows OS products including XP.

Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller

Also, this card does not use a dongle as you stated. It does use the low profile 1394 connector that is now showing up in other devices, but it is not specific to this card. Additional cables can be found for less than $6.00 on eBay and other companies inculding Sony are using this conneector in their new laptops. Up to two 1394 cables plug directly into the card as per the design to allow you to use another PCMCIA card in your laptop as opposed to the poor design of the card you have linked above that must be removed before another PCMCIA card can be used. For $25 this is an excellent buy an it includes two 1394 cables that will connect to any compilant 1394 device available today.
 
Hmm... Didn't turn up any newsgroup messages about incompatibility issues with the IBM firewire card. Could somebody shed more light on this issue? I don't want to end up with a lemon. Thanx.
 
Thanx for the clarification. I grimaced at the IBM image of the card, and the connector doesn't seem to require any dongles. I assume I am good to go then? I will be waiting for this card and the external enclosure from piranhatech so I could house my new kickass Lite-On 32x12x40x cdrw muwahahaha 🙂
 
Originally posted by: hwz8b
OK, the parts no. piranhatech.com has on the IBM controller is 19K5686, which is a 32bit cardbus controller according to some other site. Not so sure though. As you can see, someone else might be more knowledgeable than I am on this. I am currently researching on the reliability of IBM firesire controllers. Will report back on my results.
Click to expand...

I don't think the one prianhatech.com is selling comes with any cables. Might not be worth it. Did you get one with cables?
 
I got one of these a few months ago and it works perfect in my Toshiba notebook. I can hook up my DV camcorder and an external Firewire drive and copy between the two and edit videos perfectly. This is an excellent deal for anyone with a DV camcorder and a notebook computer.
 
BTW, this will fit in your notebook slot and not interfere with another card. But it does have two dongles/cables for the connection. One of these cables is the standard DV camcorder type and the other is the standard Firewire connection.
 
I haven't received mine yet. 🙁 Mike, did you order the card from Piranhatech? How long did it take them to ship it to you? I ordered on the 4th, but still no tracking number. 🙁 Oh well, at least the shipping was free.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top