Firewire mod possible?

hey guys, is it possible to solder firewire (IEEE 1394) onto one of the blank usb headers on the motherboard?
I happen to do quite a bit of video editing, but sometimes, I need to use cameras with IEEE 1394.
if people have ideas, that would be great!

 

IEEE 1394 is a different interface than USB. It would require a 1394 card which means a major hack in the ONE. I've done some editing (Sony Vegas) and I don't think a 9" screen would be very useful. If you want to do editing on a portable, you should be looking at a dual core laptop with at least a 15" screen and preferable a 17" screen. I'm no expert, just my opinion.

 

http://www.usbfirewire.com/Parts/rr-527950.html

A single cable, plug one end into your firewired camera, the other end into your PC's USB port. Downsides aree cost and XP only (no Mac/Vista support).

Never used it, it's FYI.

 

yeah, I have to physically solder a daughterboard onto the mainboard, and then I have to shave out a hole for firewire, which will be hard, and challenging.
I know that firewire and usb uses different speed, firewire uses 400Mbps, USB 2.0 uses 480Mbps.

 

USB 2.0 is theoretical 480mbps, while firewire comes close to the claimed 400 mpbs. I think there would be a slowdown of the firewire overall, from overhead and also from the limitations of USB 2.0. Otherwise it would work. But having to carry a cable to go to whatever external device you are using it with negates the need for integrating the adapter in the first place. Just get the adapter and use it externally.

 

I would have to concur about the limitations of getting Firewire through USB - USB is a fairly CPU-intensive bus technology and its theoretical speed limit (480 Mbps) is just the data rate for the underlying interface. But only one device can be communicating with the host at a time (unless the system has multiple USB controllers) and some time is inevitably wasted for one reason or another - personally I wouldn't bother doing Firewire over USB, unless you found you really had no other alternative and needed the feature. The whole point of Firewire is that it's faster than USB, and a true Firewire interface would be able to handle data transfers without CPU intervention.

There's a mod I want to attempt, however, which may solve the problem. The Aspire One has that second PCI-E slot for a 3G card (which, I hope, is a true mini PCI-E slot, and not just the USB part that would be used by the modem...) - I haven't found any mini-PCI-E cards which provide firewire, but I have found Expresscards which do... Expresscard is, as I understand it, mostly just mini-PCI-e with a different connector. So the idea is to get a Firewire Expresscard, uncase it, and wire it up to the mini-PCI-e, then run a new connector from the Firewire card to a point on the case exterior - possibly installing the connector in place of one of the card readers. Or it might be possible to fit an actual Expresscard connector in the 3G bay - but in any case I would need to uncase the Firewire card, since it's oversized to accommodate the connectors.

Of course, another option would be to get a netbook with an Expresscard slot and use that... But that's not as much fun.

 

That usb to firewire cable will definetly work for you.
I edit videos on AAO with adobe premiere pro and it's pretty good. Editing 480P video proved to be an easy task for AAO. There seems to be no lag at all.

 

The biggest drawback to this approach is that they don't sell them any more according to the link you posted. Good luck but it looks like you might be on a hiding to nothing with this.

 

Would some adapter like this work for capturing DV, where the adapter plugs into the USB and the firewire plugs into the adapter?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Firewire-IEEE-1394-6-Pin-F-USB-M-Adaptor-Convertor-/270459078925

 

omg! that's exactly what I'm looking for, THX!

 

Cool. If you're planning on buying one, would you mind reporting back here on how it works? I'm interested in getting one. Thanks!