Firewire 6-pin connection to Firewire 4-pin port, is this OK to do?

[Music Calgary]

I got a VAIO laptop today. It has a 4 pin firewire port, can I connect a firewire interface, i.e. Mackie 400F to this using a cable which is 6 pin on one end (interface) and 4 pin on the other (laptop) or will that cause a problem. (because I have a cable like that here from my video camera)

 

Thanks.

[ggm1960]

The 2 missing pins are for powering external devices. If your interface has it's own power supply you're good to go.

[Music Calgary]

That's what I'd hoped. Thanks very much.

[MikeRivers]

 

I got a VAIO laptop today. It has a 4 pin firewire port, can I connect a firewire interface, i.e. Mackie 400F to this using a cable which is 6 pin on one end (interface) and 4 pin on the other (laptop) or will that cause a problem.

 

It depends on what you consider "cause a problem." It won't blow anything up, and in theory it will work. But it seems that this combination has a tendency to not work. The reason is that there seem to be some incompatible Firewire chips in PCs, and when you hook it up that way, you're using the PC's Firewire chip. Mackie is way behind the power curve on their drivers (hopefully your computer has XP on it and not Vista) so it doesn't support everything. And before you ask, there's no "list" of known working chips. Most people will tell you that TI or NEC is OK, but you never can tell, and you can't always tell what's in your computer.

 

Try it, but don't waste too much time on it. If the computer doesn't see the interface, pick up a PCMCIA Firewire adapter and try that. Those are easy to swap in case the first one you buy has an incompatible chip in it.

 

Since you said you had a cable with different connectors on each end, you're in good shape mechanically, but just in case, let me warn you against using an adapter (I think one may have come with the 400F). Hanging a big fat adapter with a 6-pin connector plugged into it on to a little bitty 4-pin socket will eventually damage the socket because of the mechanical strain. You can use an adapter to see if it will work, but if you don't have an actual cable with a 6-pin on one end and 4-pin on the other, get one.