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Phase One P45 - FireWire repeater to older MacBook Pro USB-C

K

kristyansen

New member
Dear All

I have acquired a P45 (non plus) back for my Hasselblad 500c and want to connect / tether to a MacBook Pro 2019 with USB-C connection, running High Sierra 10.13.6 - the back is not powering up nor connecting via cable despite powering the FireWire connection.

The back works however - it powers up with battery, and I can take photos on the CF card, but it is still not recognized by the computer / cannot tether, which is my goal.
The previous owner has used it tethered to an older laptop which had a FireWire port. I do not have such laptop, but I have a powered FireWire repeater (Unibrain 800). However, the P45 does not power up via FireWire.

Do you have experience on how to troubleshoot?
What should the laptop display? Should only Capture One recognize the device, or should the laptop too mention a new device?

Thanks!
Cristian

PS This is my set-up:
 
Mexecutioner

Mexecutioner

Well-known member
Firewire, thunderbolt 2 and USB-C work and communicate very, very differently, I would be surprised if you actually got the communication protocol working. Safest bet would be to buy a cheap FW laptop that can work natively with this back, or maybe find someone that has a TB2 and test with just one FW to TB2 adapter.
 
K

kristyansen

New member
Thank you Mexecutioner. Meanwhile I had a breakthrough in this matter - after re-checking, re-fitting and re-configuring all cables and connections, several times, on all sides, it seems that the back is now receiving power via cable, and, not only that, Capture One is recognizing it, even transferring the pictures with reasonable speed... fingers crossed it stays like that... My Macbook Pro has in its system properties a Firewire connection although physically it is a USB-C so at least it seems to be backward compatible. I can however imagine that the process is more smoothless with the older FW or TB2 laptops...
 
FloatingLens

FloatingLens

Well-known member
I tried a similar setup with a Thunderbolt MacBook (TB->FW adapter) such that the back would stay powered even without battery, but I did not manage to do any capture with that setup. I attributed this failed experiment to insufficient power provided by the adapter. Have not tried this, but my guess is battery could be replaced in-between shots; computer power supply significantly prolonging the battery cycle.
 
Mexecutioner

Mexecutioner

Well-known member
kristyansen said:
Thank you Mexecutioner. Meanwhile I had a breakthrough in this matter - after re-checking, re-fitting and re-configuring all cables and connections, several times, on all sides, it seems that the back is now receiving power via cable, and, not only that, Capture One is recognizing it, even transferring the pictures with reasonable speed... fingers crossed it stays like that... My Macbook Pro has in its system properties a Firewire connection although physically it is a USB-C so at least it seems to be backward compatible. I can however imagine that the process is more smoothless with the older FW or TB2 laptops...
Click to expand...
That's great! Happy to hear.
 
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