From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: January 19, 2006 11:51:36 AM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Re: Can't autoguide with Flea (or DSI Pro, for that matter).


Hi Folks;


I had two Unibrains doing stereo imaging at the same time and it all worked fine on the laptop. When I switched out the cameras to the Flea and a Dragon Fly, weird crap started happening like register I/O not completing etc on the laptop. I then plugged it all into the G5 and it works flawlessly. So I powered the Hub with a DC Adapter delivering 12 volts/1.25 amps and tried it again and no problem with G4 laptop at all. I think this might explain the occasional problem I've seen with using multiple cameras on the Lap Top.


So if your running multiple FW cameras you need to also power the cameras with a FireWire Hub for laptops and possibly Minis too.


Further to this posting, their is an added wrinkle.


I'm using a 6 port 6 Pin Belkin FireWire Hub / Repeater which can be Self Powered via a DC 12 volt 1.2 amp power supply or Bus Powered on your Mac via a 6 pin connector. The wrinkle is that the Bus Powered connection takes precedence over the Self Powered.  Your own hub may be different than this.


So this means that I can't run the Flea and Dragon Fly 2 at the same time, as the Laptop doesn't supply enough power. So the only way I can use it in Self Powered is by using a PCCardBus FireWire 400 card on the Laptop, which is not powered. Another option would be to use 6 pin to 4 pin FW cable with a 4 pin to 6 pin adapter to connect it to the Hub. But since I have several PC CardBus FW cards here for compatibility testing (all now useless going forward since Apple has switched to the ExpressCard/34) , I'm going that route from now on.


And my client confirmed that the Mac Mini delivers enough voltage to power and use two 1392 x 1040 Monochrome Scorpion cameras at the same time, in case someone is using one that way.


TTYL..


Milton J. Aupperle

President

ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting

Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist

#1005 - 815 14th Avenue. S.W.

Calgary Alberta Canada T2R0N5

1-(403)-229-9456

milton@outcastsoft.com

www.outcastsoft.com