Power over FireWire

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taoofmarstaoofmars
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
if my iPod can charge its battery via my PowerBook's FW, then why cant my PowerBook charge from my FireWire CD burner or other peripherals?



this is assuming that power can travel both ways down a FW pipe, but i don't see why it couldn't.



in my opinion, that's the only thing that's left to make apple portables truly portable-- wherever you have firewire devices, you can simply plug them into your powerbook and have it charge your battery. sounds like apple to me...



is it doable? is it worth doing?



discuss.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    cubedudecubedude Posts: 1,556member
    The device probably has to be designed with this in mind.
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  • Reply 2 of 5
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    How would a Firewire CDRW drive power a laptop? Does it have a battery in it or something?
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  • Reply 3 of 5
    cosmocosmo Posts: 662member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Luca Rescigno

    How would a Firewire CDRW drive power a laptop? Does it have a battery in it or something?



    Most firewire CD burners have to be plugged into the wall as well as the fireweire port. I believe the original poster was asking if the power could go from the wall into the cd burner, power the cd burner and charge the battary of the laptop via the firewire port.



    My question is: Why do u need 2 charge via the firewire port if you already have a wall outlet to plug your CD burner into. Why not just plug the PBs AC adaptor intot he wall along with the cd burner?
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  • Reply 4 of 5
    taoofmarstaoofmars Posts: 11member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Cosmo

    Most firewire CD burners have to be plugged into the wall as well as the fireweire port. I believe the original poster was asking if the power could go from the wall into the cd burner, power the cd burner and charge the battary of the laptop via the firewire port.



    My question is: Why do u need 2 charge via the firewire port if you already have a wall outlet to plug your CD burner into. Why not just plug the PBs AC adaptor intot he wall along with the cd burner?



    because i have a chain of firewire devices. why should i use more than one plug? i have a firewire audio device and 2 external drives, all requiring their own ac. i just thought it would be an elegant way to eliminate those unsightly cables



    also, the chances of my cd burner or FW peripheral being plugged in permanently to the wall are greater than those of my portable computing device.



    i just the see the AC part of firewire as being underused tech.



    sorry if i'm not being clear
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  • Reply 5 of 5
    altivec_2.0altivec_2.0 Posts: 995member
    Don't the CD burners and other FW devices have a transformer in them to convert the power to what the drive needs. I don't think it's just a direct feed from the drives, cd-burners, etc to the wall socket. In order for the laptop to charge through the FW device. it would need two Power pipe ways, one for the FW device and one to power the comp through the FW. I would only pressume that FW800 would only work with this kinda of charging. Higher AWG cable. If i'm not mistaken.
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