Alert ! Hot plug HDV deck HVR M25 damages Firewire port.

[Walter Biscardi]

No Firewire device should EVER be connected while it’s hot. Drives, cameras, decks, you name it. Connect the device, then power it up. I don’t know how many times the forum leaders have stressed this point through the years.

Computer can be on, that’s fine, but the device should not be powered up. In the case of the Sony decks, it should not even have the power cord connected as it goes into a “Standby mode” once the power cord is connected.

We’ve discussed the Panasonic 1200A on this forum in the past as it is widely known to cause the same issue. So much so that Panasonic addressed it with a fix in the 1400.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Gary Adcock]

[Neil Sadwelkar] “Incidentally, I’ve hot connected my Sony Handycam zillions of times in the past three years. As I have a PD 150, 170 and other camcorders. But now these new decks as well as a J-30 over FW are not supposed to be hot connected.”

Yes
you should NEVER connect Smart Devices like cameras and decks to your computer while they are powered up.

Drives are dumb devices that do not talk back to the computer, Smart devices need to access the communication protocols and the sync power that is carried over all types of FW ( 400 and 800)
The Panasonic 1200 A deck was plagued with this problem so much there is now a reset internally in the 1400 series decks, it took panasonic 2 years to address the problem.

You are luck however- most often it is the computer’s logic board that gets fried. This is the best reason I can think of to Always use a 3rd party FW card for all of your connections. That way if it does happen only an $80 card bites the dust.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
After a FireWire capture session with a Sony J-30, I turned off the deck (the computer remained powered up, though FCP was closed).
That switch-off was enough to fry the front FW port of a G5 Dual 2.7GHz Mac, and the motherboard had to be replaced (thankfully under Applecare).

Another G5 Dual 2.5 also had a dead front port in the same edit suite, presumably caused in exactly the same way, as the J-30 was shared. However turning the J-30 off whilst connected to the rear FW400 port, or via the hub in am Apple 23″ Cinema Display, caused no such damage.

Reading the linked Sony pdf, whilst it doesn’t specify a disconnection procedure, doing the reverse of the switch-on list WILL STILL cause damage, in the case of a J-30and a G5 Mac front FW port.

[Jeremy Doyle]

We fried 3 decks, 2 cameras, and front ports on 2 computers. It was never an issue with DVCAM equipment so we never thought about until all of our stuff stopped working. Granted the last several we all our fault since we probably fried them trying to troubleshoot our problems. It was all fixed so all is good, but we now have the sony step by step directions tape to all the little decks that get passed around.

I can’t wait for the new sony hdv deck with the HD SDI. Then it will go in the rack in the server room and we won’t have to worry about firewire anymore.

[Rennie Klymyk]

[Jeremy Doyle] “It was never an issue with DVCAM equipment so we never thought about until all of our stuff stopped working.”
This all started with DVCAM, you’ve been doing it correctly before. Looking at sony’s memo, it is when you are physically joining the wires where the wrong leads contact the wrong connection that the damage occurs. You probablly just weren’t using the “pin the tail on the donkey technique” of plugging in the wire. It’s when you don’t think it’s neccessary to walk around the back where you can see the jack but instead reach your hand around and try to locate the jack with your finger while inserting the cable with your other hand the danger exists.

[Sony] “If there is an attempt to insert the plug INCORRECTLY (wrong polarity) the PC / MAC Computer
or other Device can supply power to the signal pin of the i.LINK. This directly connects to the
i.LINK IC and can damage the circuit.

My dsr-11 fried my firewire system in my G5. A pci firewire card won’t co-exist with my kona2 card so that’s no solution. If you look at a bnc connector it is possible to touch the inner lead to the outer lead (you really gotta come in on an angle though) so I hope this won’t happen with other buses other than firewire.

[Jeremy Doyle]

OK I will rephrase my statement. We never had that problem with DVCAM plugging a dsr-45 in and out of studio machines as well as 570’s into laptops to check footage in the field. DId that for several years no problems. Started using HDV not doing anything different and all the HDV decks firewire’s are fried.

I guess we just got lucky all those years with the DVCAM equipment.

[Michael Gissing]

“I can’t wait for the new sony hdv deck with the HD SDI.”

What deck is that? Do you have a model number or is that wishful thinking.

I am using the Canon XLH1 for HD SDI out but still need firewire for deck control. If Sony are finally making a 9 pin HD SDI deck I would love to know

[Andrew Kimery]

I’m assuming he’s referring to the HVR-1500. It’s basically an HDV version of the DSR-1500.

-A

[Michael Gissing]

Well well. When I first saw the Sony Z1 demo, I asked the SOny rep if they might bring out a machine based on the DSR 1500 with HD SDI out just like this machine. He said ‘don’t hold you breath’. Two years to late for me.

Getting back to the original post, I used to have an adaptor box that went between the Mac and any other firewire device that was designed to buffer power spikes that fried chips either in the Mac or the camera. It was firewire thru. I lent it to a friend after he fried his Mac firewrie connecting to a DSR 11 deck.

[Agnei Araujo]

hello, how can I do to change this card from sony fireware the M25?