Your Recommended FireWire Adaptor Cards

[Guest]

Due to the wide range of FireWire (IEEE 1394) chipsets and cards available today it is not possible for us to test every possible configuration. In many situations users will not experience any problems using their Focusrite product with their current setup.

[midierror]

Thanks for the heads up! I have been given a liquid mix and have just ordered the recommended card.
Cheers

[Dramatic Hammer]

The last post here is pretty old but does anyone have any idea how I can get my firewire card working in windows 7? It's a new skylake/z170 build and I'm getting a code 10 error with a Dynamode PCI-3PFW card (VIA chip).

I've tried choosing legacy drivers in device manager, to no avail

[Exalted Wombat]

There have been reports of Firewire problems with these new motherboards. Sometimes grabbing the latest BIOS has helped.

If it's new build, why is it Windows 7? With brand new hardware, at least give Microsoft a CHANCE to keep up-to-date alongside you!

[Dramatic Hammer]

Well it was an unplanned upgrade and I wanted to get everything working as it was previously, before thinking about moving to 10. I also have a few bits of older hardware that aren't supported any more and I'm not keen to upgrade them too!

[Dramatic Hammer]

As I don't have time to mess around with this, I've ordered a PCIe (apparently runs natively, no bridging chip required) card to arrive this evening - cost 4 times as much so let's see if it was me being cheap that was the problem

[robinv]

As I don't have time to mess around with this, I've ordered a PCIe (apparently runs natively, no bridging chip required) card to arrive this evening - cost 4 times as much so let's see if it was me being cheap that was the problem

Yes, PCI firewire cards stopped working a few generations ago, this is the most compatible one i've used with recent motherboards:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/lycom-pe-107-pci-e-2-port-fi...

[Dramatic Hammer]

Wish I'd known that a few days ago haha! Thanks though, I'll try that one if the one tonight doesn't work.

[Goddard]

See this. FW on Z170 (and also X99) platform can be problematic.

[Dramatic Hammer]

Good news! This startech.com PCIe card seems to be working perfectly so far http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IAABHFE

[Martin Walker]

Excellent - always good to hear of a combo that actually works!

Martin

[studer58]

Without any proof or even knowing the devices involved I'm wondering whether these adapter boxes: Village Instruments and
Aquitek
enclosing one of these: SIIG Firewire card might not be a good solution for those laptops still sporting an Express card slot ?

[John Reid]

[quote="Dramatic Hammer"]Good news! This startech.com PCIe card seems to be working perfectly so far http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IAABHFE />

Same problem here with Z170 and a TI XIO2200A chip; bizarrely though, that Startech card seems to have a VIA chipset, which were long regarded as poison for audio. Can you confirm the chipset please?

[Pete Kaine]

Yes, the TI XIO2200A found on the cheaper 2 X FW400 port cards, that have been the go to solutions for years, no longer function properly on X99 or Z170

Cards based around the TI XIO2213B most often found on cards with three outputs (normally 2 X FW 800 + 1 X FW 400), which even TI themselves stress is the replacement for the now legacy XIO2200A seems to work fine in everything that we tested it with.

The VIA's were always hit or miss, depending on the interface being plugged into it, great if and when they work however.

[John Reid]

Thanks guys, for saving me a second day of head-scratching! Now to find such a card ... a sense of deja vu sets in ... retailers sure don't make it easy, previously it was a case of hunting for the TI logo, which could often be spotted by zooming in on the pic, but now we need to look for the exact chip. Firewire itself seems to been consigned to the scrapheap, but I'm not ready to give up on a perfectly good interface yet!

So far, I've found a Delock 89153 and this Digitus which seems to have the desired chip, but I'll need an adapter FW800->FW400 which I am assuming will not cause problems.

[Exalted Wombat]

Your previous reply was from a retailer who can sell you a suitable card. Check Peter's sig.

[Pete Kaine]

Aye, can't 100% confirm on the brand your looking at as I've not physically handled one, but given the info they provide and looking at the card layout I suspect you'd be absolutely fine.

They look to have mounted the FW400 port internally in that design however (along with the two external FW800), which if it was outwards facing would save you from the convertor. FW 400 - FW800 cables also exist, which might prove better than hanging the plastic off the port.

FWIW the validated card we use over here is the Lycom PE 107, as that's what we import. Plenty of other brands exist based around the same design however.

[Wonks]

I've been running a Sonnet Allegro 3 x FW 800 PCIe card in my music PC for over a year now with no problems whatsoever; under both Win 8.1 and then Win 10.

It's got a Ti chipset, with the added benefit that each of the three outputs is on its own FW bus, not a single shared bus like on a lot of FW400 cards with three FW connectors. Quite a few audio interfaces don't like sharing a bus with other devices, so if you have multiple interfaces or other FW peripherals, this makes things a lot easier.

I'm using it with a FW 800 to 400 cable to connect to my MOTU traveller. I chose it because I wanted it to connect to my Liquid Mix as well (and hence the bonus of separate buses, as I had to use two FW400 cards on my previous music PC), but found out after buying it that Focusrite had stopped supporting the Win 8.1 (+ Win 10) Firewire drivers, so that went off to someone still on Win 7.

I haven't got any FW800 devices, so can't comment on its performance at that speed, but it's been rock solid with the MOTU running at around a 3ms latency.

At around £60, it's not the cheapest FW card out there, but if you would benefit from separate FW buses, then it's a much neater solution than multiple cards.

[Dramatic Hammer]

Via - VT6315N according to this: https://www.startech.com/uk/Cards-Adapters/FireWire/2-Port-1394a-PCI-Express-FireWire-Card~PEX1394A2V
Looks like you've already solved your problem though!

[Pete Kaine]

The Sonnet Allegro is based around the TI XIO2213A chip, rather than the TI XIO2213B solution. I've had feedback that the "A" revision is running fine, but I can't verify first hand.
(A number of other resellers & manufacturers give me positive feedback, so fairly certain)

Just to clarify Wonks, what chipset is your system running? The issues being discussed only applies to X99/Z170 rigs at the moment, although I don't expect that to change on newer chipsets moving forward.