Hi everybody,
 
Have any of you all ever used an active FW extension cable with success?
 
Thanks,
 
Donny

I've used a FW extension cable with a Saffire Pro 40 and no problems. 

Duplicate post.  Deleted
 

An active cable has an amplifier built in, but it does not have a power supply for it. Your computer's firewire port therefore has to supply the power. That shouldn't be a problem as long as the cables are high-quality, you're only using one extension segment, and your audio interface isn't also relying on firewire power. You could avoid any potential power-related issues by using a powered hub as a repeater rather than an active cable (but it'll be more expensive).
 
The spec says you can go over 200' (using multiple 15' segments with powered repeaters). I've heard of people going up to 60' using active cables, but that's just hearsay. The longest I've gone is 15' with a single cable, and initially I had a LOT of issues with even that length. Those issues turned out to be the result of having bought a cheap generic cable because the one that came with my interface was too short. After replacing it with a high-quality cable the problems went away. The moral of that story is don't scrimp on cables.

I've used a repeater (repeater hub) but not those so-called active cables..
 
If you need to extend a longer distance, there are FW<>Cat5 repeaters which use Ethernet (LAN) cable for the long run portion, although no idea how well they work.

I have never used a repeater nor active cable but I have tried to use Firewire Hubs, with limited success - not sure if that was because I could only get a relatively cheapish hub (see Bits comments above)
Nigel
 
 

doncolga
Have any of you all ever used an active FW extension cable with success?

How far are you needing to go? If not too far, then just get a standard, high-quality Firewire cable. StarTech makes an excellent Firewire cable, and I highly recommend them. I even recommended it to Focusrite and they took note. Another, cheaper cable I bought beforehand did not work.