Mac Mini M1 firewire through adapters

[waloshin]

Mac Mini M1 would there be any compatibility issues with the new M1 and firewire? I need to transfer Mini-DV, and Digial8 tapes through firewire.

Thanks

 

[joevt]

I don't have an M1 Mac mini to test, but I do have Big Sur. It looks like all the FireWire drivers are compiled for arm64e.

This gets a list of FireWire related drivers currently being used:
kextstat | grep -i -E 'fw|firewire|1394'

You can use the driver name to find the file that it came from like this:
kextfind -b com.apple.driver.LSI_FW_500

This gets a list of FireWire drivers that are compiled for arm64e:
find /System/Library/Extensions -type f -ipath '*/Contents/MacOS/*' -exec printf "%s " {} \; -exec lipo -archs {} \; | grep -i -E 'fw|firewire|1394' | grep arm64

Add -v to get a list of FireWire drivers that are not compiled for arm64e (none that I could see).

This gets a list of all drivers that are not compiled for arm64e (are any of these FireWire related?):
find /System/Library/Extensions -type f -ipath '*/Contents/MacOS/*' -exec printf "%s " {} \; -exec lipo -archs {} \; | grep arm64 -v
Mostly they are Intel CPU or Intel chipset, Intel GPU, AMD GPU, and Nvidia GPU drivers.

 

[waloshin]

Awesome

 

[doboy]

Wow, FireWire. Haven’t heard that in ages.

 

[fastlanephil]

You’ll need a TB3 to TB2 adapter and also a TB2 to FW800 adapter if you don’t already have one.

I have a couple of FW400 Apple iSight cameras still in their box which would also need the small FW800 to FW400 adapter. They’re probably more a collector’s item.

 

[Boyd01]

I used one of the Apple Firewire 800 adapters a few years ago with a Sony video deck. The adapter got surprisingly hot when it was plugged in, even if nothing was connected to it. Guess it was working as intended, but I made a point of unplugging it from to computer when it wasn't in use.

 

[Nihilvor]

Besides the external SSDs, I have several firewire 800 enclosures that I'll be using as redundancy backups for the main drives once my M1 Mini comes. They're plenty fast for the HHDs, and I see no reason to buy new cases, which would end up costing more than the adapter.

 

[joevt]

I have a couple Thunderbolt docks (Thunderbolt 2 and Thunderbolt 3) with FireWire (both from OWC before they removed the FireWire port).

A third option is a Thunderbolt PCIe enclosure with a FireWire PCIe card but you may need to make a way to provide extra power via SATA or molex (I don't know if these cards require 5V or 12V).

2+1 FireWire 800/400 PCIe Combo Host Card

The Vantec 2+1 FireWire 800/400 PCIe Combo Host Card is the easiest way to update any computer with FireWire ports. Once installed, this host card will add two FireWire 800 ports and one FireWire 400 port (6-pin) allowing support of various types of FireWire products such as external hard...

www.vantecusa.com

 

[pkamb]

the FireWire iSight Camera does NOT seem to work with M1 Macs:

Firewire Isight Audio is back for Catalina and Bs ?

[edited] I've changed the name of the folder, so now it s the good one ;) thank you @Andrew Kinnear Hi all, I was so upset that my iSight wasn't no more supported by apple system, I had video working but no sound, no iSight sound in sound pref pane ... and after some research I found this...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[MacCheetah3]

They're plenty fast for the HHDs, and I see no reason to buy new cases, which would end up costing more than the adapter.

I had an OWC FW800 RAID up until recently and the speeds were indeed not bad. However, after buying a USB 3 drive, which was primarily to reduce clutter/save space, I realized just how far behind FW has gotten in comparison to today's I/O.

Granted, the RAID enclosure was the old Mercury Elite Pro with dual EIDE bays, not SATA. Although, the ~60 MB/s write and ~85 MB/s read weren't far off from FW800 max throughputs -- and again, not bad for up to a few GB transfers. Even so, the Mercury Elite Pro mini with a 5400 RPM, 128 MB cache, 2.5" WD HDD I replaced it with achieves ~90 MB/s write (~115 MB/s if it's able to utilize the cache) and ~110 MB/s read.

I guess, my point is... Despite how much we appreciate these legacy devices' proven grandness, there is validity/sensibility in finally letting them go (at some point) and embracing their successors.

 

[ivnj]

You’ll need a TB3 to TB2 adapter and also a TB2 to FW800 adapter if you don’t already have one.

I have both so I can test.

 

[pkamb]

FireWire does still work on M1 / Big Sur in the general case: