Any Limit to Daisy Chaining FW800 devices

From a review of previous posts, it looks like daisy chaining FW800 devices work well. I have a 1TB OWC FW drive connected to the only FW800 port my iMac has, and I use it for Time Machine. I am planning to add a second 1TB OWC by connecting it to the first drive (which has two FW800 ports. I will then, on occasion, connect a video camera to the second drive, also via FW.
Anything wrong with that? Is there a limit to the number of devices I may daisy chain?
Thanks.

Hi Richard
+"Fire Wire can work with up to 63 devices on a bus."+ However, +"The number of bus-powered devices you can connect depends on the amount of power available from the computer, and the amount of power required by each device."+
see > http://support.apple.com/kb/TA26476
You should be fine!
Dennis

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Flickering video when daisy chaining firewire devices - HELP!

I have a 12" Powerbook with a single firewire 400 port, to which I have attached 2 daisy chained external hard drives. I have no problem capuring video off of my camcorder when I daisy chain it onto the end, but when the firewire is sending video the other way, as in the case of "printing" to tape, or using a television during editing, the audio clips and the video flickers substantially.
I've observed that connecting the camera directly to the computer eliminates this problem. Of course, it's a bit awkward, since I also eliminate my scratch disks (the external drives)! I've tried a firewire hub as well, and it seems that either the extra device or the doubled length of cable is interfering with the signal in such a way as to cause the flickering.
Has anyone else experienced this problem?
In any case, I'm thinking about buying a MacBook Pro. Assuming I run into the same problem, I was thinking about adding firewire buses with the Express Card slot. Has anyone done this, or have recommendations for firewire cards that reliably work with MBPs?

When you say 'flickering' what do you mean?
If the playback is stuttering, meaning the data rate is not being sustained, then it is a Firewire glitch. If the video is strobing or rolling then it a video issue with the timeline or the capture settings or something else.
We daisy chained Firewire back in the day on the first edition Powerbook (400Mhz with 10GB internal) and had no issues, that was 4-5 years ago, so your PB12 should be fine with this.

Daisy Chain FW800 & FW400 Mixed

My current setup is:
iMac FW400 port --> LaCie d2 DVD burner
iMac FW800 port -->LaCie 1Tb D2 Quadra --> LaCie 1Tb D2 Quadra
None of the drives are bus powered.
If I upgrade the iMac I will lose the FW400 port. If I keep the external drives my setup would be:
iMac FW800 port --> LaCie 1Tb D2 Quadra -- > LaCie 1Tb D2 Quadra --> LaCie D2 DVD burner
Is the following correct:
1. If the LaCie D2 DVD is connected but turned OFF the daisy chained hard drives will still achieve FW800 throughput.
2. If the LaCie D2 DVD is connected and turned ON the entire daisy cain through put will drop to FW400 speeds.
Thanks for your input.

It is my understanding that the speed of communication between two devices on the chain is dependent on the slowest link between the two devices. If all of your other devices are FW800 except for the one on the end, they will be at FW800 regardless of the on/off state of the FW400 device on the end.

Problems with establishing daisy chain, FW800

Hi there!
I am experiencing some weird problems when trying to daisy chain two or more drives with FW800.
It was working fine until yesterday, when suddenly the second drive in the chain wouldn't show up in finder. Also, connecting/disconnecting the cable from the second drive caused the first drive to be disconnected.
So using one drive works fine, but connecting another in a daisy chain does nothing except occasionally disconnect the first drive.
I was running a daisy chain with three drives yesterday with no problems.
I have tried swapping cables, rebooting the drives and the Macbook Pro, and using different combinations of the harddrives - no change.
Seems to me that the source of the trouble is the Macbook Pro. It could possibly be a hardware issue, but I find it weird that a single drive on FW800 works fine...
Anybody got any ideas?
- MacBook Pro (late 2008), Snow Leo (10.6.4), 2x Lacie d2 Quadra

The problem is that this could be tough to troubleshoot if it is a power supply, as the offending drive will attempt to pull the juice it needs to keep running from the FireWire bus.

Daisy-chaining firewire devices on iMac

I have an intel-based iMac which I have a Lacie HD connected to the 800 FW port (that's connected to Time Machine) and I have a Lacie HD, a Hitachi HD, an eyeTV 200 unit and Lacie d2 DVD-RW drive daisy-chained on the 400 FW port. When I attempt to copy a DVD (of my own making, not a commercial DVD) using the Lacie DVD burner and the internal DVD burner, I get a error message saying the connection was interrupted.
What I'm wondering is if I need to string these devices in a particular order or is there some sort of firewire hub I can buy to connect these devices to the iMac, since it only has one FW 400 port?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Mike

I bought a Belkin FW hub and haven't had a problem with it:
http://www.buy.com/prod/belkin-6-port-firewire-hub-6-x-6-pin-firewire-ieee-1394a -firewire-400/q/loc/101/201955859.html
My only complaint about it would be that it is extremely light - so light that it doesn't like to stay in one spot and the FW cable connecting it to the computer seems to drag it off the shelf, but maybe if all or most of the ports are being used at the same time (which I haven't tried), it'll stay in place.

How to daisy chain thunderbolt devices with only one port

I am using a macbook pro with one thunderbolt port. Quite a few thunderbolt devices have only a single thunderbolt port (don't support daisy chaining).
Does anyone know of a thuderbolt hub that adds additional thunderbolt ports?
If such a product does not yet exist, is it at least technically possible?
Thanks!

alexgrainger wrote:
Quite a few thunderbolt devices have only a single thunderbolt port (don't support daisy chaining).
Does anyone know of a thuderbolt hub that adds additional thunderbolt ports?
If such a product does not yet exist, is it at least technically possible?
(1) Thunderbolt does support daisy chaining up to 6 devices to the MBP's port (with some limitations). See
<http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/io/thunderbolt/thunderbolt-technology-dev eloper.html>
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.7/en/mh35952.html>
<http://www.macworld.com/article/158145/2011/02/thunderbolt_what_you_need_to_know .html>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)>
(2) Note that daisy chain and hub are not the same. However, my understanding is that, in principle, a Thunderbolt hub is feasible. I'm not aware if such a device is already on the market. I guess that whether or not Thunderbolt hubs will be eventually available depends on the demand.

Thunderbolt to firewire adaptor does not work when daisy chaining firewire devices

Hi,
I just purchased the Thunderbolt to firewire adaptor for my new late 2012 iMac.
It works when connecting a single firewire device, but when I daisy chain another drive, the first drive disconnects and nothing mounts.
I am trying a Hitachi G-Raid and a couple of WD My Studio II hard drives. They all work when connected directly to the adaptor, but not when more than one drive if daisy chained with firewire.
Has anyone got firewire daisy-chaining working with a thunderbolt adaptor? (just to clarify I am not refering to thunderbolt daisy chaining, as the adaptor is an end-of-chain thunderbolt device).
Thanks

Yikes, that's sad to hear.
I can't test it, no TB here, but are all these drives self AC powered, ie. no bus powered drives?

Daisy-chaining firewire devices

Now that I bought a firewire Audio interface (the Presonus Inspire), I am wondering how to plug in my external firewire HD. Both devices have two firewire sockets, I could daisy-chain them in two ways, right? (Couldn't get it to work today, but the cable that came with the interface seems to be faulty). Does the order in which I connect them matter?

Order shouldn't mater, I've run Computer->HD->FirePod as well as Computer->FirePod->HD

Daisy Chaining Wireless Devices

My kids have gaming counsels across the room from where my wireless router is located. I can't run wires across the room and do not want to use extra wireless devices for each game counsel.
Is it possible to have two wireless routers....one with DHCP turned on and hard wired to the internet and then use a 2nd wireless router with DHCP turned off a pseudo wireless hub..plug my games into the 2nd router (acting as a wireless hub).
Your sage advice is greatly appreciated.

Yes it can be done by using a DD-WRT firmware. As the DD-WRT firmware has feature to make your Router work with the other wirelessly. So in these you can to upgrade the firmware of the 2nd Router using a DD-WRT firmware. Make sure your Select the right version number of your router and download the DD-WRT firmware on your Router.
Once you upgrade using the DD-WRT . You need to reset your router and re-configure all the settings.
But if you upgrade the DD-WRT firmware on your Router, these will void the warranty on your Router.

Mac Mini 2009 - Can't daisy chain two FW800 drives

I have two FW800 enclosures with 3.5-inch drives and external power.
Each one mounts individually when connected to the Mini FW800 port but when I daisy-chain them the second one in the chain doesn't mount and is not seen by disk utility.
Those enclosures use an Oxford UF934DSB chipset.
What's ironic that I had a FW400 enclosure daisy chained to one FW800 enclosure until this afternoon and that daisy-chain worked fine.
Somewhere on the net there was an article that the daisy-chaining had to be done in a certain sequence, ie Mac FW to top FW port on first external, then from bottom of first FW enclosure to top of second and so forth.
I always though the FW ports were just wired in parallel.
Well, this is interesting - since these new FW800 enclosures also have one FW400 port as well, I just connected the second one using the FW400 ports and now they both mount.
But now the whole chain only runs at FW400 speeds.
Anyone else come across this problem or better yet, what is the solution to get both daisy-chained FW800 drives to mount.
The enclosures are Rosewell, the drive in each a 1.5 TB WD green.

I don't think it has anything to do with the power supply.
The two enclosures are identical and react (work or not) exactly the same when I interchange them or the FW cable.
They also work flawlessly if I connect the second one using FW400 instead of FW800. Would just trying to get the enclosure to mount with FW800 draw more current than when mounting with FW400 to put the power brick over the edge? I doubt it.
A few other things I'm going to try - I do this when I have a few extra minutes since I can't afford to spend my time on this continuously.
1. See if there is a F'W update for the enclosure and/or the Oxford chip.
2. Talk to the Oxford and enclosure support people
3. Update to 10.6.4, I'm on 10.6.2 right now
4. Do a bit more digging on the net to see how others got the FW800 daisy-chaining working.
The two enclosures react the same when I try each one separately and also when I switch them around. Whatever the problem is, it affects both equally so it's not some defect on one of them.
With the rest of the testing I have done, I'm now pretty sure it's a Mac software problem.
Although I would have thought someone else would have this problem as well but I can't even find any discussion on daisy-chaining with this chipset when running OS 10.6.
There is a 15-digit number in disk utility called connection ID.
I assume that is the Firewire ID number that some threads I read refer to.
That ID is the same for the two FW800 ports and the FW400 port on each enclosure but it's different for the two enclosures, so some conflict there is definitely not the issue.
So far I couldn't find what the latest issue of firmware is for the Oxford chip set, but I copied all the information that comes up with the firewire hardware listing so when I find the information I can check it against the firmware issue on my two units.
Now, another interesting tidbit - some people say they had to power up the enclosure a few times occasionally to get a single drive to mount.
I never had that problem, a single FW800 drive always mounted right away, but I decided to try that with the daisy-chained drive.
So I turned the power switch on that second drive off and then on again...and lo and behold - doesn't it mount now........
But that is not the interesting tidbit........the tidbit is when I check back in the Mini Firewire hardware listing.
Whereas before it showed all the expected detail with either drive when connected individually via FW800, now with both FW800 drives connected I get this:
*FireWire Bus:*
*Warning: Unable to list FireWire devices.*
*Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec*
....and oooops - both FW800 drives just disconnected by themselves.
Sure seems to point to a Mac software issue.
And if you google for "Warning: Unable to list FireWire devices." you get pages of hits - many on Leopard but also a fair share on SL.
I updated the software to 10.6.4 - still the same problem.
Daisy-chain with FW400 is fine, with FW800 the second drive in the chain - doesn't matter which one it is, won't mount.

Trying to record multiple tracks (24) in Garageband with 3 presonus firestudio devices daisy-chained together.

Please help !! I can record multiple tracks (8) on a single presonus firestudio, but now I'm trying to expand the number of tracks to 24 by daisy-chaining three firestudio devices.
The three units will sync up properly, and Garageband detects all of the input channels, but the recording doesn't pick up the input signals for the 2nd or 3rd device. It only picks up the signals from the first device. I read the manual and daisy-chained the devices by serial number (lowest to highest).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

avotrans wrote:
I'm trying to expand the number of tracks to 24 by daisy-chaining three firestudio devices.
you'll need to create an aggregate device:
http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/GBFAQ.html#multipleaudiointerfaces
This FAQ entry offers a Minute GarageBand video tutorial
(Let the page FULLY load. The link to your answer is at the top of your screen)

Audio Distortion on FW400 Audio Interface Daisy Chained to FW800 Hard Drive

Hi everyone! I’m an experienced Mac user in need of help resolving FireWire device issues.
I received my 27” i7 iMac a couple of weeks ago running 10.6.2. After a long process of migrating over from my 9+ year old Dual 500 MHz G4 PowerMac tower, I was excited to set up two 1TB drives inside an OWC Mercury Elite Quad-Interface Dual HD enclosure via FW800. I then daisy chained my Focusrite Saffire 10 audio interface (FW400) to the HD enclosure via a FW800 to FW400 converter cable. To reiterate:
i7 iMac (FW800 port) --> OWC Mercury Pro Quad-Interface Dual HD Case with 2X 1TB drives (FW800) --> Focusrite Saffire 10 audio interface (FW400)
Although a lot of people may disagree, I wasn’t concerned about having my FW800 hard drives drop down to FW400 speeds because of the slower audio interface. I have read enough about the 1394 FW protocol and its ability to use something called beta clouds, allowing both FW400 and FW800 daisy chained devices to operate at their maximum speeds. So far, so good. The drives are reading/writing data fast.
As many studio audiophiles have said, you should separate your audio recordings and projects from your startup disk. I’ve done so. However, call me naïve, but I did not imagine that every time my external drives read or wrote data, my audio interface would go into a state of distortion (like raising the gain on a track as high as it can go). When the activity of the disk drops below a certain level, the audio interface usually switches back to clean pristine audio. I am experiencing this within a studio environment and with simple CoreAudio iTunes playback via my audio interface. How is this possible? Am I doing something wrong or is there a blatant limitation with the FW chipset Apple is using for their single bus in the new iMacs? If anyone can provide me with a solution or a convenient work around, I will be very grateful!

Thank you for the feedback, Rick. To shed some light on daisy chaining FW800 with FW400 devices, I provide the following quote from one FireWire technical article I came across on the web:
+"The concept of beta clouds allows FireWire to keep all devices on the bus to operating at their maximum speeds. Devices are cluster together on a logical level in a cloud. The cloud operates as a single block at 800 Mb/sec. The borders of these clouds are where legacy devices are connected, operating normally. Each device operates at its highest speed."+
In short, beta clouds allow both devices to operate at their highest speeds.
Both the audio interface and the external hard drive enclosure has its own, connected power source.
I wish I had the option to use USB2 with my audio interface, but it only has a FW400 connection.

Does daisy chaining Firewire 800 drives reduce performance?

Hello,
Based on the recommendation of a very knowledgable Apple Cert. Instructor, I learnt that a very good drive configuration for editing in FCPX is to have 3 separate drives: Boot disk, Events, and Projects. The reason, I suppose, for having the Events and Projects folders on separate drives is because FCPX is constanty reading and writing data into those 2 databases, which would mean that having both databases on one drive strains performance since the drive would have to write all edit changes constantly in the projects folder while reading video footage constantly from the events folder.
That sounds logical so I'll accept it as being true, but here's the intro to my question: I have an iMac (see the specs below) with 1 firewire 800 port, and my extra 2 drives would need to be daisy chained (FW800) to share the 1 port.
1. Does the communication to the two drives suffer for being daisy chained into 1 port, i.e. is the 800Mb/s transfer rate halved between the 2 drives or is full 800 to both at the same time?
2. Does the computer handle the communication with the 2 FW drives via that 1 port evenly so that I takes full advantage of having separate physical disks dedicated to just reading and writing Media and Project data?
It might seem riduculous to go to such Media Management extremes, but FCPX seems to struggle when I get deep into a project and the performance gets sluggish. that's why I'm trying to optimize the workflow.
Thank you,
Reynaldo
System specs: 27" iMac (mid 2010) 2.8Ghz quad-core i5, 8GB RAM, ATI Radeon 5750 with 1GB GDDR5 Memory
External Drives: LaCie D2 Quadra 2TB 7200RPM and Lacie D2 Quadra 3TB 7200RPM

If all the devices in the chain are FW800 then there will be no degradation.
If any of the devices in the chain are FW400 then complete chain drops to FW400 performance.
Allan

Can I daisy chain a DisplayPort-only monitor through the 2nd TB connector on a WD 8TB My Book Thunderbolt Duo to a mid-2011 Mac Mini?

I'm very tempted by a refurb HP Smartbuy ZR2740w 27" WQHD display, but it doesn't have a HDMI port. It does have DisplayPort.
Since the mid-2011 Mac Mini I have has either HDMI or Thunderbolt to choose from, plus I've just bought an external TB storage system, I think I'd need to connect the monitor to the second TB port on the external TB storage and hope that the external storage would pass the DisplayPort signals along.
I've read that DisplayPort connections are compatible with TB ports on Macs, and that you can daisy chain TB devices.
I don't want to assume those statements hold when I'd need to connect the DisplayPort cable to the 2nd TB port on the external storage.
Anyone know if this will work?
Is it "supported"?
Thanks!
Andrew

23. How do I connect my Mini DisplayPort monitor or monitor using a Mini DisplayPort adapter to my Thunderbolt-equipped Mac when I have other Thunderbolt devices connected?
When connecting a Mini DisplayPort display or a display using a Mini DisplayPort adapter to a Thunderbolt peripheral (except as described in question 24), make sure the display is connected at the end of the Thunderbolt chain. You can use only one Mini DisplayPort device in the Thunderbolt chain.
Note: Systems with more than one Thunderbolt port, like an iMac, can have more than one Mini DisplayPort monitor or monitor connected with a Mini DisplayPort adapter connected as each Thunderbolt port can support one Mini DisplayPort display.
24. Can I connect my Mini DisplayPort monitor or monitor using a Mini DisplayPort adapter to my Apple Thunderbolt Display?
Mini DisplayPort Monitors or Monitors connecting with Mini DisplayPort adapters will not function when connected through a Thunderbolt Display. They must be connected directly to the Thunderbolt port on the computer or to a non-display device as indicated above.
from
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5219#23

Daisy chain an ipod to Ext Drive in a MBA?

I have a G-Drive with 2 firewire and 1 usb ports. The MBA has -as we all know-only one usb port.
So I wonder if I could daisy chain my devices this way:
MBA---(usb cable)---G-Drive---(firewire ipod cable)---iPod
....Is that possible??? (I didnt try it because I couldnt find my FW ipod cable yet...)
Thanks in advance!

Thank you Neil for your answer. Now do you find a way to sync an iPod and an ext drive in the MBA? I've tried wireless but it takes an eternity...
Thanks.

Any Limit to Daisy Chaining FW800 devices

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