Is there a Thunderbolt to IEEE 1394 Adapter?

Hi


Is there a Thunderbolt to IEEE 1394 adapter?


I would like to connect my soundcard (which uses IEEE 1394) to my mac (which has thunderbolt)


When I google Thunderbolt to 1394 adapter I see images of them, but at the store it tries to give me other thunderbolt to firewire adapters which have a different shaped plug.


Thanks


Matt

MacBook Pro, Thunderbolt to 1394

Posted on Jun 6, 2015 11:12 PM

Reply
8 replies

Jun 7, 2015 7:27 AM in response to starboynz

At a guess, if you're talking about Firewire then yes there is one. Apple makes one. Don't know if it works. $64. yes-you are indeed right. there are different kinds of Firewire plugs-standard one (sideways U shaped), Firewire 400 (4 pin) and Firewilre 800 (dunno) . My suggestion to you would be to take a picture of the soundcard's plug, take it with you to the store, and ask the person there :" I want an adapter that will do Thunderbolt to this" and then show him/her the picture. If he/she is smart and experienced enough (and they probably are) they can recognize what kind of firewire socket you have and if there's a thunderbolt adapter for it, or if you can make it work somehow. There's also the option of a Thunderbolt dock which has Firewire ports built into it (among other ones)


John B

Jun 7, 2015 8:29 AM in response to starboynz

Faster versions of FireWire/IEEE 1394 (such as FireWire 800) are all designed to be widely backward-compatible. They readily fall back to slower speeds when cross connected to older, slower versions.


Once you adapt the shape and number of pins in the connectors, it will plug in and work. Available "adapters" are all passive, and simply add or drop wires to accommodate the older, slower versions or lack of provided Bus Power. 4-pin [no power] 6-pin [400 Mbits/sec] and 9 pin [800 Mbits/sec] all cross connect and work fine.

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Is there a Thunderbolt to IEEE 1394 Adapter?

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