Can anyone recommend a good firewire hub?

Question

Level 1

54 points

Can anyone recommend a good firewire hub?

We have a 2009 imac with one firewire 800 port, also I will soon be buying a new 15 or 17" Macbook Pro. I have run into problems trying to connect several firewire devices up at the same time due to there only being the one firewire 800 port. For instance, I might have a firewire audio interface, a DV camcorder, and a firewire hard drive that I use together when editing music and video.
I reliable powered firewire hub would make life a lot easier.
Can anyone give me some recommendations?
Thanks.

borrowed for now 20" 2.66 iMac., Mac OS X (10.5.7), 2 external drives, 80gig 5G iPod, 16G iPod Touch. Apple TV

Posted on Aug 25, 2009 11:09 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Kenichi Watanabe

Level 8

41,578 points

Aug 25, 2009 12:16 PM in response to 12frets56

The FireWire hard drive should have a daisy-chain port. If you connect the FireWire drive to the iMac's port, you can connect the audio interface to that extra port on the FireWire drive. If that audio interface also has a daisy-chain port, you can connect the camcorder to it.

FireWire 800 hubs seem scarce in terms of product availability. You can do search in Google, and a few come up, but they are expensive.

That audio interface and camcorder probably both use FireWire 400. So you might consider connecting your FireWire external drive to the iMac directly (especially if it's FireWire 800) and then connecting a more common (and less expense) FireWire 400 hub to its daisy-chain port, like this one

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-FireWire-6-Port-Hub-F5U526-APL/dp/B0006BHCEK

Then connect your remaining FireWire devices to the hub.

Reply

Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

144,814 points

Aug 25, 2009 1:17 PM in response to 12frets56

I have three Firewire Lacie Quadra D2's connected on a daisy chain to my one FW 800 port on my iMac. They have been running that way for about a year and perform flawlessly. I doubt a hub is really necessary.

Regards,

Roger

Reply

Answer 3

Aug 25, 2009 1:34 PM in response to rkaufmann87

A camcorder certainly does not have a daisy-chain port. The audio interface device may not have one either. So it may be necessary.

Reply

Answer 4

rkaufmann87

Level 10

144,814 points

Aug 25, 2009 2:01 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Good point....my mistake.

Roger

Reply

Answer 5

12frets56 Author

Level 1

54 points

Aug 28, 2009 1:56 AM in response to 12frets56

Thanks all. I think I can get away without having to have the camcorder and the audio interface connected at the same time as I don't actually need use that whilst the video is being imported, I can listen via the imac speakers. However I think I will buy the Belkin hub anyway as it is a bit of a pain to have to keep swapping the firewire connections and this may cause extra wear and tear on the port socket on the back of the imac.
Does using a hub degrade or slow down the data transfer performance at all, or overload the one firewire port on the imac?

Reply

Answer 6

Aug 28, 2009 2:48 AM in response to 12frets56

There may be some reduction in transfer speed if you are using more than one device at once. If only one device is active, there should not be any delay because other devices are connected. As long as the hub you get is self-powered, there is no increased load on the FireWire port. In fact, if the hub is connected directly to the iMac's port, it should reduce the load because the hub is supplying the power.

FireWire seems to be more sensitive to hot-plugging and unplugging, compared to USB. So using a hub to reduce wear on the iMac's direct port is a very good thing.

Reply

Answer 7

Sep 6, 2009 8:32 PM in response to 12frets56

something like this might work for you:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/431605-REG/KramerVS_81FW_VS_81FW_8_PortFireWire.html#features

+The VS-81FW 8 Port FireWire Switcher from Kramer is a simple yet versatile bi-directional switcher for 6-pin FireWire (IEEE 1394) data signals. This unit allows you to connect up to (8) devices and then enable a connection between any two ports as needed. Use this solution to save time, space, and money by connecting your varied devices under the management of a single switch. This switcher is ideal for small digital video editing systems and data switching systems.+

+It works with mechanical (passive) switching, so no power is required. Transfer rates will fall within the range of 100, 200, and 400Mbps. This unit's small footprint allows you to mount up to (2) units side by side in a 1U space in your rack with the optional RK-81 adapter.+

Reply