From: Mark Gaffney <markgaffney@me.com>
Date: December 2, 2009 3:46:47 PM MST
To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] CRG..OAG..iBook etc.
Hi Milton,
We`ve had this discussion before & I haven`t advanced beyond the stage I was at then-my resources have been drawn into other avenues I`m afraid! At the time I did a good deal of researching CAT 5 extenders etc. I believe which were solutions which were quite expensive & eventually not essential- the scope being now situated only about 20-30 feet from the indoor computer(s). This is the basic FW repeater I have (bought from Amazon too as it happens); http://www.amazon.com/3port-1394-Firewire-Repeater-Unib/dp/B00006B7L6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259790131&sr=1-1
Mine has a small additional DC power inlet on the left (which DC power cord was available somewhere at the time- I can`t remember where?!) If you read More about this product & go to the Product Description you`ll see it says "..& add or reinforce DC power supply capability.." I don`t know how viable this is in practise. The FW cable I`m using with the lap-top (& lately the Scorpion) is a basic 4.5 or 5 metre one powered by the FW bus- this length is necessary to reach the scope from the laptop on a picnic table. In the attached shot below I have the Flea 2 connected-as you know both the iBook & Mac Mini G4 have only one FW port. The Scorpion for some reason will operate through a 5 or 10 metre cable but not doubled up at all through the repeater. My other FW cameras are both OK with the repeater. I did at one stage take the Mac Mini outside on a table but this involves moving the monitor & reconnecting & a few too many cables including a VGA one for the monitor, Power cables & mouse & keyboard as well as detaching my & my otherwise involved USB hubs (& sound!) etc. inside. In the end I opted for a inside situation for the Mac Mini & moved the monitor whilst still connected on a long VGA cable. The only problem then has sometimes been with the USB extensions used for the keyboard mouse. I`m only talking about this connection indoors again on the 10 metre cable as a stop gap `til i can afford something else! I know there are other solutions-some new to me are described in your message, which I`ll look into in detail a bit later...
Mark
On 03/12/2009, at 4:49 AM, Milton Aupperle wrote:
Hi Mark;
Firstly if you have the laptop, why are you running long cables?
Secondly, powered FireWire hubs may not provide power if there is
power coming from the Mac. None of the ones I have here provide power
if the Mac / PC has power on the connector cable. The only way to
force the hub to be the power source is to use a FW cable that doesn't
provide power on the 6th pin.
The easiest way to do it is to buy a 6 Pin Male mail to 4 Pin female
gender bender like these:
http://www.xpcgear.com/firewire4pf6pm.html
http://industrialcomponent.com/firewirestuff/fw6m4f.html
(or search Google with the words " FireWire 4 pin male female adapter ")
and then run a male 4 pin to male 6 pin firewire cable to the hub.
Since there is no power coming from the Mac, the hub will supply all
the power.
But before buying anything this, check to see what the hub will put
out for power too. You want to be sure it can deliver the full rated
spec which is up to 40 volts and 1.5 amps.
Like everything else at Apple, they don't publish specs for which
models of Macs provide what for power on FireWire or USB. I know some
of the early iMacs could not provide enough power to run two DFG/
1394-1 devices or two FireWire cameras at the same time. Apple skimped
on the amperage to save a few pennies.
TTYL..
Milton Aupperle
On 2-Dec-09, at 6:41 AM, Mark Gaffney wrote:
> I was going to do some experiments with the offsets of my Celestron
> Radial Guider tonight & was partly set up when I realised my 10 metre
> firewire cable was already in use burning something. I want to try it
> with the Moon & the Scorpion CCD but have found it won`t connect
> simultaneously with another camera to my small unpowered Unibrain
> repeater/hub. The Flea 2 & DBK cameras will connect to this hub
> together however. So what I`d have had to do is connect the Scorpion
> to my iBook by 5 metre FW cable & Astro IIDC then connect my Flea 2 to
> my indoors Mac Mini & Astro IIDC or (perhaps) the DBK to Metaguide &
> my indoors PC by the 10 metre FW cable. The offsets can probably be
> gauged by Sky Tools 3 Pro by changing the offsets for the FOV`s in
> it`s camera control window (I have a setting for the two cameras
> ready). My set-up with 2 copies of Astro IIDC on the same computer is
> a bit foiled at present (unless perhaps I try to obtain a power
> connector for the repeater) & definitely foiled by having the 10 metre
> cable part way through this burning process! I finally got my new 250
> GB HD drive installed on the iBook by FW targeting the iBook from the
> Mac Mini & cloning the old HD info from my Lacie external HD to it
> using CCC ( kindly directed to this app by Terry Redding). This was
> then bootable. I`ve had a few glitches though like an installation
> disc which got stuck in the inbuilt optical drive of the iBook &
> couldn`t be removed due to a very tight screw on the lid of the OD &
> more recently the internal speakers of the iBook have stopped working
> (not the headphone socket though)..I must have dismantled & put the
> iBook back together about 10 times!
>
> Mark.