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Firewire: To Hot-Plug or Not to Hot-Plug

S

stomplex

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 16, 2008
30
0
Pacific Coast
I've seen threads on this but there were mixed opinions. I have the Apogee Duet and a MacBook Pro.

I've seen all of the problems that people are having with this combo as well... Thank God I don't have those problems so far. I think that is because I have the Texas Instruments FW chipset and I'm still running Tiger.

The people that were having the problems seemed to be those with some new chipset(the manufacturer escapes me right now) and they were running Leopard.

My question remains. I have not had a problem either way but I've seen one post in particular where the guy was adamant about NOT hot-plugging it.

Even though I have not had a problem, I don't want to do something that will reduce the life of either my MBP or the Duet.

Does anybody know and have data to back it up?

Thankss.
 
stomplex said:
Even though I have not had a problem, I don't want to do something that will reduce the life of either my MBP or the Duet.
Click to expand...

Well in that case the only option is not to do it. Technically though the Firewire bus specification allows hot plugging in just the same way as USB does. Really if a device follows the specification exactly then there should be no problems. Unfortunatly things don't always work out that way in real life.
 
Fwiw, both my audio interfaces throw an eppy when something's hotplugged into the same Firewire bus. The Saffire Pro 26 i/o shuts down into protection mode causing a nasty spike out of the monitors if they're on and my M-Audio Firewire goes absolutely spastic if anything suddenly appears on the same bus... :eek:
 
Either way I still see a spike and little pop when power is applied to the Duet, whether it's by hot -plugging it or by plugging it in first and then powering up my MBP. That can't be good :confused:

Guess I'll just have to hope for the best:rolleyes:
 
stomplex said:
Either way I still see a spike and little pop when power is applied to the Duet, whether it's by hot -plugging it or by plugging it in first and then powering up my MBP. That can't be good :confused:

Guess I'll just have to hope for the best:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

It's always good practice to power up the power amp powering the speakers last, and the reverse when powering down.
 
lockjawdavis said:
Dumb question, perhaps...what does it mean to 'hot plug?'
Click to expand...
It means to connect or disconnect a device (FireWire in this case) while the device and/or computer are switched on. As opposed to making sure everything is powered down before making any changes to the connections.

There have been cases reported of FireWire MiniDV cameras that, when hot-plugged to a computer, damaged the FireWire port either in the computer or in the camera. Sony has made an official recommendation to NOT hot-plug their cameras to a FireWire port, to prevent damage to the FireWire interfaces.

[Edited to add this reference to a related thread in another forum.]

- Martin
 
Got it, Thank you! So ideally, the device and the computer are both powered down before connecting. Very good to know.
Are there similar concerns with USB devices?
 
I don't seem to have a problem hot-plugging my Digi002 as long as Pro Tools isn't open. However, I always make sure to eject and power down my external drives before unplugging them and the reverse when plugging them in.
 
I've never had a problem hot-plugging my MOTU 828, but I never ever would do such a thing with a storage device (like my FW HDs). Maybe this is why there could be problems with doing this with some digicams?

And I second hakukani's suggestion: always power up your amp last and shut it down first.
 
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