Okay - soooooo . . why do I have an external power supply to each of my external MAXTOR firewire drives? What's the power supply meant to supply? Do you have a weblink so I can go and read up on the technology?

Swarrine thanks for the swift reply

Grazie

Hey Grazie..

Yes, it's true. 6 pin cables carry power, 4 pin cables do not.

Your firewire drive has an external power supply because the power supplied by the 6 pin cable isn't enough to support the drive power requirements.

So why does the drive even have a 6 pin cable/connector? Who knows. Maybe the larger 6 pin cable is cheaper to manufacture. Maybe the 6 pin connector is stronger.

I do know that 6 pin to 6 pin cables are harder to find in retail stores. You can pick up a 6-to-4 pin cable anywhere...even Target.

Craig

Thnaks for that - So, there are some firewire devices - other than, say firewire drives - that can make use of the available voltage? Yes?

Yes, I can imagine the "drain" made on the pc, by supply votage to spin-up the 7200rpm discs would be quite something - yes? - So that's why the external supply - makes sense.

Grazie

I have a smardisk firewire drive that can use the power on the 1394 cable. It doesn't need external, but the power is not enough to support a full size IDE drive. Only laptap type drives.

Dave T2

Some 1394 PCI cards have a power connector on them, like ones from DTC. I was told by our vendor (I work for a PC manufacturer) that it supplies more wattage to the component you are trying to drive. Maybe it was intended to power full size ext IDE drives without an external power supply?

I asked Maxtor Tech Support about the 6-pin cable AND external power supply when I was considering their external firewire drive, I believe it was the 5000X, and they simply said that the 6-pin cable couldn't supply enough power on its own for that particular drive, that it was supposed to be used in situations where it would keep you from using up your battery, in camcorders, etc., over long periods.

If you connect external 2.5' drive (laptop drive) in enclosure then 6-Pin connector provides enough power to run it without and additional power source (assuming your computer supplies power to the cable).
When having power or not is not a concern the 6-pin connector wins over 4-pin for a simple reason of higher reliability. The 6-pin connector design came from Nintendo where it proven itself extremely robust.

Alexei

Maybe a few answers there...

http://www.firewirestuff.com/whatis.html#l

http://www.firewirestuff.com/index.html

Sony Broadcast DVCAM camcorders have 6 pin 1395 OUT->, heavier construction and easier to plug in when working in very low light. My theory. Hpowever, low end DVCAM units (those that we can offord for swpvideo.com) such as the DSR 20, DHR 1000 and whatever the model number of the portable player/recorder/monitor is have the four pin.

Peter