(changed) notebook for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

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oNNogitaar
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(changed) notebook for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by oNNogitaar »

Dear all,
since my Dell Latitude D630 laptop is not working with my Audiofire12 breakoutbox i am investigating what i should do to get my AF12 working and my recording going again. (preferably anytime soon)
Is it true that this "Firewire chipset" is actualy an integral part of the motherboard? Or could i get a different one and connect it (like a HD)
Is something like this TI FW400 ExpressCard an option? or does it internaly use the o2 chipset anyway?
Does it make sence anyway to invest in this 5yr. old Laptop?
If i get a new one, which one should i get, it seems prety hard to find a notebook wth FW at all let alone with this TI chipset.

Thanks in advance, any help is highly apreaciated.
Please ask for any info my question is undoubtedly missing :)
Cheers
Last edited by oNNogitaar on Wed Feb 20, 2013 4:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thad E Ginathom
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Re: adaptation for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by Thad E Ginathom »

Yes, the Firewire chip will be an integral part of the motherboard where a laptop or a desktop comes with built-in firewire. And yes, some firewire chips are said not to play nice with audio devices. You can find recommendations from Echo Audio on their site. You probably shouldn't buy any add-in card without knowing for sure that the actual chip is one recommended by Echo.

I have a Compaq laptop which is nearly ten years old. No built-in firewire, and I bought a PCMCIA add-in card so that I could use it with my video camera. I have no idea what the chip is, and I was not interested in FW audio at that time, but yes, my Audiofire2 does work with it --- but it was only a very brief test. I would not buy an add in card for any laptop, for this use, without being sure, ore being prepared to make a complete gamble.
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Re: adaptation for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by oNNogitaar »

Hi and thank for the input!
i found this on the Echo Audio site.
The following FireWIre chipsets have produced good results:

Texas Instruments: TSB12LV26
Texas Instruments: TSB43AB23
Texas Instruments: PTSB41LV03 (This is an older chipset and does not work well at 192K with our AudioFire 12.)
and all the way down is stated:
FW400 6pol. 2
Chipsatz TI
So that "should" work then?
Thanks!
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Re: adaptation for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by oNNogitaar »

If i would get that one: how do i tell my computer to use it instead of the onboard one?
Is there a terminal command that will show me what ExpressCard bus i have?
this is the outcome of lspci:

Code: Select all

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02)
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G86M [Quadro NVS 135M] (rev a1)
03:01.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. Cardbus bridge (rev 21)
03:01.4 FireWire (IEEE 1394): O2 Micro, Inc. Firewire (IEEE 1394) (rev 02)
09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5755M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)
Thank you!
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Re: adaptation for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by oNNogitaar »

I think it is this one:
03:01.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. Cardbus bridge (rev 21)
And i found this:
If you already bought a notebook computer that has a problematic 1394 chipset, you may be able to Disable it in the Device Settings area of your control panel and purchase an ExpressCard 1394 with the TI chipset. I have been told that this only works is you have an Intel ExpressCard bus.
and this:
on many (perhaps most) current laptops there is integrated system so the benefit of TI express will be none.
And, i do not seem to have an expresscard but a cardbus... (that is the 54mm wide one)

Alltogether i am not sure if it is a good plan...
What do you experts say?
Thanks in advance!
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Re: adaptation for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by oNNogitaar »

no one?
SR
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Re: adaptation for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by SR »

I'm not sure what you're asking. The card will have a firewire port on it. You don't necessarily have to disable the onboard chipset if you want to use a card. The biggest problems I've run into were from devices being on the same IRQ's. My laptop has one of the Ricoh chipsets which is said to be problematic so I bought a TI card. I never had problems with the TI because the Ricoh was still active. I did have problems with the TI because it didn't support MSI but that's not to say that you would run into the same issues. I ended up going back to the Ricoh and it's reasonably stable.
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Re: adaptation for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by oNNogitaar »

edit: double
Last edited by oNNogitaar on Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: adaptation for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by oNNogitaar »

Hi SR,
thank you for the input!
My laptop has one of the O2 chipsets and since i have been trying "everything" else, i guess that is the reason for my AF12 not working properly.
SR wrote:I'm not sure what you're asking.
i try to find out what i should do to get my AF12 working and my recording going again. (preferably with my Dell Latitude D630, or with a different notebook if necesary)
SR wrote:The biggest problems I've run into were from devices being on the same IRQ's.
i am not sure what that is influencing "interupt request"
Thanks in advance, any help is apreciated.

i found this here on the Echoaudio site:
6 What FireWire card do you recommend for my AudioFire?

We recommend more recently manufactured FireWire cards with a Texas Instruments chipset. If you are encountering problems with the built-in FireWire in your desktop or laptop, we suggest that you try a PCMCIA or ExpressCard FireWire card and disable the built-in FireWire.

The following FireWIre chipsets have produced good results:

Texas Instruments: TSB12LV26
Texas Instruments: TSB43AB23
Texas Instruments: PTSB41LV03 (This is an older chipset and does not work well at 192K with our AudioFire 12.)
Agere: FW323-06
Agere: FW323:05

We have had mixed results with the following FIreWire chipsets. Newer cards with these chipsets have produced better results:

Via: VT6306
Via: VT63061

We do not recommend:

Ricoh chipsets
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Re: adaptation for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by SR »

oNNogitaar wrote:i am not sure what that is influencing "interupt request"
Thanks in advance, any help is apreciated.
If you look in /proc/interrupts you'll see what IRQ's are being used by which drivers. In my case, the TI firewire adapter looks like this:

Code: Select all

16:         40          0        161          0          0          0          0          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ehci_hcd:usb1, firewire_ohci
In this case it was sharing an IRQ with the USB. It was flaky that way and there wasn't a way to move either of them.

At any rate I was wondering if what you were asking was what to do about the integrated FW chip if you got the TI card? You shouldn't have to do anything unless there is a conflict. Unfortunately I don't think anyone here can predict if that will happen. But the good news is the TI cards are fairly cheap so it would probably be worth a try before deciding you need to invest in a new laptop.
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Re: adaptation for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by oNNogitaar »

thanks for your help,
the card will not fit since i need a 54mm.
So i will have to search a bit further.
cheers
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Re: (changed)Notebook for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by oNNogitaar »

...after reading too many stories about these cards not working anyway i dropped the idea.
So i decided to search for a new Laptop/notebook with Texas Instruments FireWire...
...and i almost gave up. Since even Apple gave up on them it is impossible to find one.
Until i ran into this company
What are your ideas on these machines?
No one seems to run a Linux distro on them, is that not possible?
Thanks!
Last edited by oNNogitaar on Tue Apr 02, 2013 7:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: (changed) notebook for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by oNNogitaar »

ghehehe :D currently i am running Lubuntu on my wifes 8yr old(!) HP compac with 512mB RAM.
It has the TI chipset...
No need for new hardware (yet)
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Re: (changed) notebook for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by oNNogitaar »

Since the latest recording session with my ensemble Ardour reacts very slow. It sometimes refuses to playback.
Removing markers in Lokations takes 9-24 seconds, with task manager saying cpu 100%. Memory has 187 of 463MB used, it is a 512, does that mean the RAM is broken?
I tried session cleanup but if i "flush wastebasket" nothing happens and the all the files in Deadsounds are still there.
Image
As mentioned: it is a pretty old box.
So it can well be it is near passing away...

Any ideas?
Thank you!
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Re: (changed) notebook for Firewire device (Echo AF12)

Post by Pablo »

What jack settings are you using?

Also, Ardour shows relevant data which are hidden by the task manager in your screenshot :?:
Memory has 187 of 463MB used, it is a 512, does that mean the RAM is broken?
I don't think so. 512 is a nominal quantity. I think this is because 1 MB equals 1,024 kB, but when advertised they use 1,000 kB as one MB.
But you can always make a memory test.
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