Power connector on PCI ieee1394 card?

[Sillyname]

What's this for? I forgot...

[Josef K]

Any more information? Make, model?

There aren't that many cards that include a molex...

[Supreme2k]

Just provides that extra "kick", since most (all?) firewire devices are slf-powered (from the port).

[Josef K]

Just provides that extra "kick"

I can't see why it would need it. Take one card that does use an extra molex and it comes from nVidia. As you can probably guess, it's a graphic card and a hefty one at that. I could understand it in this case - but a FireWire...?

[Supreme2k]

You got me, but I have yet to see a (low-end) firewire card that doesn't have it. I'm paraphrasing from memory what the instructions specified.

[gastorgrab]

Remember that your not only powering the FireWire card, but any device plugged into it.

[Josef K]

Remember that your not only powering the FireWire card, but any device plugged into it.

Sure you're not thinking of USB?

[Supreme2k]

No. Firewire operates (in some ways) the same as usb. It's not just for video anymore 8)

[Josef K]

I was referring to:

...any device plugged into it.

[Supreme2k]

Oh yeah, the "any" part. Though "many" firewire devices don't need external (ie. AC) power, and get it straight from the source.

[gastorgrab]

Fine!

Any FireWire device that needs power.

The iLink-type connection has only 4 pins and doesn't require power. (MiniDV cams)

They make a thing called FireWire Power Injector because some cards don't supply enough power.

http://fwdepot.com/thestore/product_info.php/products_id/372

http://fwdepot.com/thestore/product_info.php/products_id/652

[miksu]

IEEE1394 (Firewire) standard has option for supplying power to devices. It's 1.5A, voltage anything between 8-30V, which means it can supply lot power (ca. 12-45W vs. USB 2.5W).

However, not every PC is able to supply that much power via PCI-bus. But it's easy load for PSU, therefore normal PSU-connector.

[DVD_Ripper]

However, not every PC is able to supply that much power via PCI-bus. But it's easy load for PSU, therefore normal PSU-connector.

This is very true... used to work for a mfg that made digitizers for various I/O ports. Most of the time it was self powered off the port... but on occassion you'd find a port that didn't have enough power... subsequently a wall wart was supplied, but rarely needed.