Looking for a little tech help. Hopefully some of you have had similar experiences...

I've been hired as Sound Engineer for a small theater.  I have a firewire connection between a MiniMac to a Mackie Onyx1640i. For tech, I need to move the minimac out of the sound booth into the house for the sound designer.  I've read that 15' is the max distance for firewire (the connection to the Mackie is firewire 400).  Anybody had any experience stretching this to, say, 25 feet without a repeater?  The extra 10' would really help, but I don't have the budget or time to "experiment."

As always, thanks for any help or advice!

Best,
Rob

Unibrain makes one that is 10 meters (33 feet).  The length depends on the core wire type.  The standard length of 4.5 meters is due to a copper wire inside.  The Unibrain uses something else - apparently.

Here is an Amazon link to some Unibrain Firewire 10m cable: http://www.amazon.com/Unibrain-1394-Firewire-Cable-compatible/dp/B000067U6P

I am quite sure others exist out there.

Bob Bone

My own experience is that even 15' is at the edge of the envelope. When I used a 15' cable I had intermittent data corruption. The solution was to reconfigure my setup so that I could use a shorter cable, and never had those problems again.

I've seen repeaters advertised that purport to extend to more than 200 feet, but I've never tried one.

Anybody had any experience stretching this to, say, 25 feet without a repeater?  The extra 10' would really help, but I don't have the budget or time to "experiment."

Hi Rob,


That's literally begging for problems...   
I wouldn't go any longer than 15' (using a quality cable).

Yeah, Bob I've heard that "Special" cables can increase the distance, but they are a lot more expensive.

I think I'll stay with 15'. 

Thank you all!

Rob

I by NO means recommend exceeding the length, as described in the standard.

I was merely answering his question of is there anything out there LONGER than 4.5 meters.

I provided the name and a link to one such cable, and would think it prudent of HIM to do the research on the viability of using such a cable.

I don't even LIKE firewire myself, 

Bob Bone

robert_e_bone


I by NO means recommend exceeding the length, as described in the standard.

I was merely answering his question of is there anything out there LONGER than 4.5 meters.

I provided the name and a link to one such cable, and would think it prudent of HIM to do the research on the viability of using such a cable.

I don't even LIKE firewire myself, 

Bob Bone

No, probs, Bob.  I've also seen these links about special fiber optic, glass cables vs copper.  I'm pretty sure Jim was responding to me saying I could use the extra 10ft, not you... and you're both right. In the end I'm the one that has to do the research, which is what I'm doing :-)  I consider this forum and guys like you and Jim to be a valuable part of that research.


Again, thanks to all!


Rob

No sweat - I wasn't upset or anything - just trying to clarify.

Also, I thought his Rob was for Bob, so I thought he meant me.

I have done crazy things with midi cable lengths myself, do if you need to give it a shot, by all means do so, I just can't tell you that it will work.

Bob Bone