FireWire-800 (IEEE 1394b) ‘smart’™ cables

Overview

Unibrain introduces a new family of long Firewire-800™ cables.
The Active – “Smart” Firewire-800™ cables can extend your firewire topology to distances up to 40 meters (130 ft) without the use of repeaters or Bus extenders, via a single, thin 75 Ohm coaxial type cable.
Available lengths are at 20 and 40 meters. Custom length options are possible under an OEM/volume request basis.

• 20m (65 ft) Firewire-800, 9 pin to 9 pin standard 1394b ports (Part #: 1660)
• 40m (130 ft) Firewire-800, 9 pin to 9 pin standard 1394b ports (Part #: 1661)

Each end is actually a ‘Smart’ device using EqcoLogic’s equalizer with the following unique characteristics:

• Auto-adaptive: controls a multiple pole analog filter that compensates for attenuation of the cable
• Variable gain: EqcoLogic’s equalizers are used in pairs. Any differences in transmit amplitude are removed by the input pre-driver. The receiver equalizer has variable gain to compensate for attenuation through the transmission line
• Multi-speed: it supports S800, S400, S200 and S100 speeds

Power requirements for the IEEE 1394 bus

The most important factor considered on any Firewire topology is that sufficient power is provided to the devices guaranteeing stability on the bus.
In long distance solutions, there may be significant power loss across the power as well as the data lines.
Thus it is strongly recommended that the firewire adapter on the PC side is fed with additional power internally through its power connector.

With the 20m (65 ft) version of the Long cable you will be able to operate reliably up to 3 industrial cameras simultaneously without any additional power (provided the firewire adapter in the PC is powered internally though its additional power input).

With the 40m (131 ft) version you will need to provide additional power (12V) unless the device is self-powered (e.g. it is an external firewire disk).
If the device does not have input for additional power, you can use a FireRepeater at the end of the long cable for providing additional power to the bus through the repeater’s power input jack.

Features