FireWire Mini

I have a laptop with a mini-FireWire connector. Can you I use this to drive a Cell?

The FireWire camera inside the Cell is expecting power from the FireWire bus. The mini-FireWire connector does not give the power, and thus it will not work automatically.

To fix the issue you need to use some device to get 12V power to the FireWire bus. The most usual way to do this is to use a FireWire hub between the laptop and the Cell, with 12V power fed to the hub. The hub will then deliver the required power to the camera.

Alternatively, you could buy a ExpressCard (or PCMCIA card) that has on option for power input.

We have used Unibrain FireWire hubs and FireWire expansion cards for this purpose.

Caveat: In general we do not recommend the use of the FireWire mini connectors, simply because the mini connectors tend to be far less robust than full-size connectors. Due to this the connectors may break down after some time, which is can easily cause "demo effect" in production use, even with systems that have been tested to be stable.