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  • Easily answered firewire hub question

    From usatanker@usatanker@hotmail.com (Mark) to comp.sys.mac.system on Thursday, July 24, 2003 16:06:34
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

    No, my hardrive works fine.

    No, OS X didn't mysteriously crash.

    No, I don't need help with buggy software.

    I love my 15" Powerbook and it works just fine, thank you.

    So, beleagured, noble tech support folks here can rest easy.

    My problem is that now that I've accumulated a mass of firewire
    devices (digital camcorder, ipod, isight, external hard drive), I've
    found it necessary to purchase a firewire hub. So, I went down to
    Compusa and plunked down my $70 for a Belking 4 port hub.

    Well, despite my annoyance that it really isn't a 4 port hub since
    only three of the ports can actually have devices plugged into
    them(!), it is a great improvement over my former single firewire
    port. Which brings me to my question...

    Is it necessary to send power to the hub directly using the included
    adapter? I would have thought that the hub could get juice from my
    always plugged in powerbook. Space on my surge protector is at a
    premium, so I was wondering what the real story on firewire hub power
    is.

    Hopefully, that was an easy enough question.
    --- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113
  • From jimhill@jimhill@swcp.com (Jim Hill) to comp.sys.mac.system on Friday, July 25, 2003 01:04:35
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

    Mark wrote:

    I've
    found it necessary to purchase a firewire hub. So, I went down to
    Compusa and plunked down my $70 for a Belking 4 port hub.

    Damn, dude. I just got home from Santa Fe about 20 minutes ago with a
    6-port Belkin for $50 from Best Buy.

    Well, despite my annoyance that it really isn't a 4 port hub since
    only three of the ports can actually have devices plugged into
    them(!)

    Yeah, that occurred to me, too, modulo six/five.

    I can't answer your question, though.


    Jim
    --

    Longhaired freaky people need not apply.
    --- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113
  • From Andreas Rutishauser@andreas@macandreas.ch to comp.sys.mac.system on Friday, July 25, 2003 07:48:42
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

    Salut usatanker (funny names people seem to have nowadays)

    In article <b15c5b31.0307241506.44002838@posting.google.com>,
    usatanker@hotmail.com (Mark) wrote:

    I love my 15" Powerbook and it works just fine, thank you.

    Is it necessary to send power to the hub directly using the included
    adapter? I would have thought that the hub could get juice from my
    always plugged in powerbook. Space on my surge protector is at a
    premium, so I was wondering what the real story on firewire hub power
    is.

    I'd say if your PowerBook has 1 FireWire port it will provide enough
    juice to power 1 FireWire device. If you want to drive more than 1
    device, something that is not the PowerBook will have to provide the
    juice, i.e. the power adapter that came with the FireWire hub

    Cheers
    Andreas

    --
    MacAndreas Rutishauser, <http://www.MacAndreas.ch>
    EDV-Dienstleistungen, Hard- und Software, Internet und Netzwerk
    Beratung, Unterstuetzung und Schulung
    <mailto:andreas@MacAndreas.ch>, Fon: 01 / 721 36 47
    --- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113
  • From anno4000@anno4000@lublin.zrz.tu-berlin.de (Anno Siegel) to comp.sys.mac.system on Friday, July 25, 2003 10:32:48
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

    Andreas Rutishauser <andreas@macandreas.ch> wrote in comp.sys.mac.system:
    Salut usatanker (funny names people seem to have nowadays)

    In article <b15c5b31.0307241506.44002838@posting.google.com>,
    usatanker@hotmail.com (Mark) wrote:

    I love my 15" Powerbook and it works just fine, thank you.

    Is it necessary to send power to the hub directly using the included adapter? I would have thought that the hub could get juice from my
    always plugged in powerbook. Space on my surge protector is at a
    premium, so I was wondering what the real story on firewire hub power
    is.

    I'd say if your PowerBook has 1 FireWire port it will provide enough
    juice to power 1 FireWire device. If you want to drive more than 1
    device, something that is not the PowerBook will have to provide the
    juice, i.e. the power adapter that came with the FireWire hub

    Well, it would depend on the total power consumption of the connected
    devices (consumption from the FireWire port, that is -- the device may
    be self-powerd). The OP hasn't given that information. It may also
    depend on general principles of power management in FireWire hubs. I
    have no idea what the answer is, except that it seems unlikely that
    three devices (plus the hub itself) will be able to feed off a single
    supply.

    It is comforting that at least the OP knows it's an easy question.

    Anno
    --- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113