Thunderbolt USBc to FireWire 800 adapter

I bought the Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter and the Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter from Apple to connect a new Drobo 5C (USB-C) to a Mac Mini (Mid-2010) via a Firewire 800 cable (MiniDisplay Port on back is not full Thunderbolt compatible)...

It did not work. 😟

Has anyone else successfully attached USB-C storage to FireWire 800? If not, I need to upgrade to a newer Mac Mini. :\

Kevin Patrick wrote:

I bought the Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter and the Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter from Apple to connect a new Drobo 5C (USB-C) to a Mac Mini (Mid-2010) via a Firewire 800 cable (MiniDisplay Port on back is not full Thunderbolt compatible)...

It did not work. 😟

Has anyone else successfully attached USB-C storage to FireWire 800? If not, I need to upgrade to a newer Mac Mini. :\

The Drobo 5C uses USB data protocols

1 x USB 3.0 port, Type-C

Most USB3 devices can be plugged into a USB2 port and work.

Why not plug the included

3.3 ft. (1 m) USB 3.0, Type-A to Type-C cable

cable into one of your Mac mini USB ports?

You CANNOT use Firewire, as the Drobo 5C does not talk Firewire data protocols.

mihi86 wrote:

I use Firewire to connect my mixer to record live performances. Would this work to without issues?

I assume you mean would a USB-C to Thunderbolt adapter work on the 2016 Macbook Pro w/Touch Bar, then yes it should.

The USB-C connector on the 2016 Macbook Pro w/Touch Bar supports ThunderBolt (up to 40 Gbps), USB3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10 Gbps), and DisplayPort.

You just need the correct adapter (or dock) for the devices you are currently using.

Yes, but I was hoping what you suggested was a workaround to get USB-C to connect to FireWire 800, like the original question asked. I know I could use the USB 2.0 ports, but data transfer via that method is eternally slow. It may be 480 Mbits, but from my experience USB 2.0 has always been slower than even FireWire 400. FireWire 800 is the fastest on this old Mac Mini, unless you count the Ethernet port at 1Gbit... By which I could have got the Drobo 5N and it would have worked via Ethernet, but the 5C was much cheaper than the 5N, and I was looking forward to future expandability with USB-C (Thunderbolt 3).

Oh well, time to look for a cheap used Mac Mini (Late-2012) or later with USB 3.0 ports.

Goodbye FireWire... 😢 You served us well for many years.

Kevin Patrick wrote:

Yes, but I was hoping what you suggested was a workaround to get USB-C to connect to FireWire 800, like the original question asked. I know I could use the USB 2.0 ports, but data transfer via that method is eternally slow. It may be 480 Mbits, but from my experience USB 2.0 has always been slower than even FireWire 400. FireWire 800 is the fastest on this old Mac Mini, unless you count the Ethernet port at 1Gbit... By which I could have got the Drobo 5N and it would have worked via Ethernet, but the 5C was much cheaper than the 5N, and I was looking forward to future expandability with USB-C (Thunderbolt 3).

Oh well, time to look for a cheap used Mac Mini (Late-2012) or later with USB 3.0 ports.

Goodbye FireWire... 😢 You served us well for many years.

The Drobo 5C does not speak Thunderbolt either. It speaks USB3 data protocols, which are rather fast.

What can I say. Firewire speaks Mars Martian and USB3 speaks Venus Venusian, and there is no universal translator available

I need a Thunderbolt 3 to FW400 or 800 to use with a film scanner that is Firewire only, with FW800 and 1394 ports. If Apple have seen fit to foist portless MBPs on us, the least they could do is to provide a proper range of dongles. Stacked dongles are always a bad idea. At the moment I have a whole raft of dongles hanging off my Touchbar 15.4" MBP - yerchhhhh! It is like being back in the 1990's.

WilsonLaidlaw wrote:

I need a Thunderbolt 3 to FW400 or 800 to use with a film scanner that is Firewire only, with FW800 and 1394 ports. If Apple have seen fit to foist portless MBPs on us, the least they could do is to provide a proper range of dongles. Stacked dongles are always a bad idea.

You could try USB-C to Thunderbolt, then Thunderbolt to Firewire.

Yes it is stacked, but only in theory.

The Macbook Pro USB-C ports directly support Thunderbolt, so the only thing the USB-C to Thunderbolt adapter is providing is the Thunderbolt plug. The Thunderbolt to Firewire dongle is the only device doing electrical/signal conversions.

At the moment I have a whole raft of dongles hanging off my Touchbar 15.4" MBP - yerchhhhh! It is like being back in the 1990's.

Eventually, more devices will just be USB-C devices, and most of the dongle need will go away. This tends to happen everytime there is a major shift in the connector world.

I tested this configuration this afternoon. My audio mixer has only a Firewire 800 output for 24 channel recording. The daisy chain of USBc --> Thunderbolt --> Firewire800 did not receive any signal from the mixer to the laptop. When purchasing the adapters, I was warned by the guy in the Apple Store that it was quite likely not to work, and I also saw things online about it being unlikely to work (although no one says why). But my test supports the consensus that it doesn't work.

Which is a bummer as I am supposed to record a Bach cantata live performance on Sunday and my earlier MacBook with a perfectly good FW800 port has just died.

I do not know, but I suspect you may need to get a USC-C to Thunderbolt adapter (so you have the old Thunderbolt/miniDisplayPort shaped connector socket), and then a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter, and then chain them together.

Or if the Firewire 800 is for storage, and that storage has USB, use that until you retire the drives.

Or, again if for storage, remove the internal disks and put them into a USB3 enclosure. It will give you lots of speed (faster than Firewire), and enclosures are not that expensive.

Of course if this is specialized hardware for some other purpose, or the Firewire is part of a RAID that would not be inexpensive to replace, then you should continue with your search.

I use Firewire to connect my mixer to record live performances. Would this work to without issues?