Can Firewire power a Ninja?

by **Stevexyz** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 4:37 pm

I have a Firewire camcorder mounted on a Ninja which has also got two power supplies (one for the camcorder, one for the Ninja).
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Typically a device can pull about 7 to 8 watts from the port; however, the voltage varies significantly from different devices. Voltage is specified as unregulated and should nominally be about 25 volts (range 24 to 30).<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
So today's question is... will the Firewire bus have enough power for the camera and to move the Ninja pan/tilt? We'll see [:p]

Steve

by **MindBender** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 5:37 pm

Not if your computer is offering the small 4-pin FireWire connector because that type of connector is not carrying any power. If your computer is offering the bigger 6-pin connector it may be possible, depending on the power demands of both devices.

Though I wouldn't tinker with it: The voltage offered is unragulated and can be anything from as low as 9v up to 30v and higher.

by **Stevexyz** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 10:01 am

It's proper 6-pin. I'll watch the voltage carefully as I slowly draw more current from it. I think it's unlikely to be enough, but I'll let you know!
Cheers, Steve

by **Stevexyz** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 1:47 pm

In my case the Firewire power seems to come directly from the PC's regulated 12V line. All I've needed is a little 12 -> 8.4 voltage regulator to power the camera and everything is fine. Now there's only one line to the ninja+camera rather than three, although I made a bit of a mess of the Ninja putting two Firewire sockets into it. So it can be done, but as you say the voltage is not guaranteed to be anything other than 9v - 30v unregulated so check this first!
Steve