On 12/03/2006, Doc posted this:
I assume you meant the camera port.
Congratulations on the heroic and successful improvising. It's cool that you were a successful toolmaker!
Too bad it was needed - I'd say it's not just surprising, but irresponsible, that it's so flimsy.
-- Gene E. Bloch (Gino) letters617blochg3251 (replace the numbers by "at" and "dotcom")
Doc,
Now that you have the faulty pin working, you might consider adding a Firewire to Firewire adapter like the one shown at:
By "permanently" installing this adapter, and then possibly even cementing it into the damaged socket, you have transferred any future stress and mechanical wear from the weak and fragile repaired 4 pin connector to a new (and larger) 6 pin connector which should absorb some if not all of the punishment better.
The adapter is cheap, adds very little weight or bulk to your camcorder, and may prevent future damage which may otherwise not be easily repaired using your prior method.
Smarty
Hi!
Perhaps there is something, but I had a LaCie D2 external drive that went up in smoke when I connected it to a Firewire port one day. I've also seen current backfeed into a computer when a power-carrying Firewire device was plugged into the computer. It did no damage, but it sure scared me when the computer's fans went into serious overdrive and then shut down.
A better Firewire adapter was installed in the computer and resolved that problem. I never did figure out why the LaCie drive smoked on the other computer, but heavy amounts of damage had been done to the Oxford semiconductor FW chipset.
William
Why would you blame Apple??? I found out the hard way the the chipset driving the Firewire port can make or break the whole experience. I don't know what chip set your Maxtor uses but Maxtor chose it and Apple did not provide it. I hear glowing references to the Oxford's interface and declining opinions of all other contenders. Similar for your fried port on your camcorder.
There are cheap connectors and expensive connectors - if Canon chose one that is too weak for their consumers' needs then those consumers suffer. Apple can't control crappy implementation but maybe you should buy more robust stuff. -Guy
What a great idea - thanks for sharing it. -Guy
Thank you, Guy. I owned an electronics repair business for a while, and this particular type of repair was able to extend the life of a lot of fragile connectors. The reason they often break in the first place is that the connector has more than adequate **electrical** performance but is
**mechanically** under-designed for real-world stresses. Repaired connectors like Doc's are seldom stronger than when they were new, and will thus easily break again unless some other reinforcing method is used. I hope this suggestion may help Doc and possibly others.Smarty
On 12/08/2006, William R. Walsh posted this:
Scary.
I guess I am morally obligated to try to find out more about the FireWire (and USB) specs to see if they have that requirement.
Unfortunately, I probably won't do it :-)
-- Gene E. Bloch (Gino) letters617blochg3251 (replace the numbers by "at" and "dotcom")
CompUSA sold an improperly wired Firewire cable under the store name that had pins reversed. Fried many Firewire devices.
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