imac 400 firewire to usb?

[kathmat]

First of all - hope the forum police are in a Christmas frame of mind as I seem to be always posting in the wrong place here. I live in fear and tremble when posting.

However, my only beef with my imac and I am sure there are reasons for it, is only having 4 usb ports. Bit of a problem when your Wacom tablet, WD passport, Apple keyboard and APC backup all won't work properly unless they are plugged directly into the hard drive. That leaves nowhere for the hub. I spend my life pulling out the passport and plugging in the hub so that I can use my printer.

The only port left open on the iMac is the Firewire 400. Before I take off on a wild goose chase, what is the opinion (anyone??) on the feasibility of using my Epson printer with a usb to firewire cable? Will anything blow up, or fizzle and die??

Thank you and if this is in the wrong forum (I give up - I can never get it right) I was never here, you never read this, and I am just a figment of your imagination. ;D

 

[harryb2448]

Much better idea may well be a mains powered USB hub and run printer, tablet etc from that but make sure keyboard still plugs into the computer.

 

[Slydude]

Also once you have a mains powered hub try plugging the keyboard into the hub. It works for me pretty consistently.

 

[bobtomay]

The Firewire to USB would be a wild goose chase. The cable will not work. Firewire and USB are inherently incompatible. A powered USB hub as suggested above is the way to go.

We're using several of this D-Link in our office - link.

 

[chas_m]

There is in fact no such thing as a functional USB to Firewire cable, so that idea is a total dead end.

Your Apple Keyboard at the very least will work fine using a POWERED usb hub. I suspect all your devices will -- I have a WD drive on a hub right next to me.

 

[kathmat]

iMac400 firewire to usb

Much better idea may well be a mains powered USB hub and run printer, tablet etc from that but make sure keyboard still plugs into the computer.

That is exactly what I am using and it still does not do the job. To be slightly more specific it is a powered Targus 7 port hub (see image attached) and none of the peripherals mentioned will have anything to do with it. The passport blinks in and out and I keep getting the error message about not having disconnected it properly, and the Wacom flatly turns its back crosses its arms and eyes and says "No way - no how!" It works fine for my camera, iPod, scanner and even the printer, but due to the fact that I often need to use both the printer and the passport in conjunction that still does not help.
Thank you for responding.

 

[hughvane]

I know how irritating it can be when a respondent says 'ooh, I don't have a problem with ......", but in this case I plead guilty.
I have an identical Targus hub with all but one port in use, thus leaving two direct USB ports on the eMac free. To test a theory, I pulled the power supply pin out - and it carried on working. How long it might do so without power is open to question, because power from Mac USB ports is not terrific. Perhaps there is a power supply issue.

What happens if you pull all USB connections from the Targus, and then the hub from your Mac; and then replace/reinsert them one by one in reverse order, ie, hub to Mac first? Check especially the troublesome peripherals.

Next action to try is to make sure you put high-demand devices like the Passport (don't know about Wacom) into the high-powered (1000 mA) USB port (only one unfortunately) on the Targus, or directly into your Mac. Low-demand items like keyboard & mouse can plug in anywhere.

 

[kathmat]

Actually there is no problem with the actual hub. I have the scanner, camera cable and iPod all plugged in there. Even the printer works perfectly fine through the hub. The items that dig in their heels are the Wacom tablet and the passport. So to review again; I have 4 usb ports on the iMac.
One for the keyboard (Apple recommends you plug that directly into the hard drive)
One for my APC backup system
One for the hub
One for the tablet (I rarely use a mouse - my tablet is my be all and end all as I work in the area of digital art.)
This leaves the passport out of the equation since as mentioned it flits in and out of existence when plugged into the hub, even the high powered connection.

There is no way therefore for me to use the passport, and if I am working on a file that has been stored on the passport I need to have consistent access, and be able to print at the same time, and to use the passport I have to disconnect the hub. I have pondered over this problem for a while, and thought that maybe the 400 firewire to usb cable was the solution for the printer.
I will probably give Epson a call and see what they think and take a trip to the Apple store, although frankly many of their "genius'" are somewhat less so...
Thank you

 

[harryb2448]

Your best solution may well be a wireless printer, freeing up one port.

 

[EvenStranger]

Actually, there is one solution that will bridge USB to Firewire if you choose to do so, while also providing external storage for backups. NewerTechnology's MiniStack v3 is an external hard drive, originally designed to stack with a Mac Mini. However, it has both Firewire and USB ports in the drive, and according to their representatives, will serve as a FireWire to USB bridge. The 500gb model starts around $150.

I don't work for NewerTechnology or any of their resellers.

 

[kathmat]

Sounds very good - I will investigate. Thank you very much.

 

[Slydude]

Actually, there is one solution that will bridge USB to Firewire if you choose to do so, while also providing external storage for backups. NewerTechnology's MiniStack v3 is an external hard drive, originally designed to stack with a Mac Mini. However, it has both Firewire and USB ports in the drive, and according to their representatives, will serve as a FireWire to USB bridge. The 500gb model starts around $150.

I don't work for NewerTechnology or any of their resellers.

Why didn't I think of investigating that. I think the case of theirs that I just bought has both Firewire 400 and USB.