USB 3.0 To Firewire Adapter For Flex 5000a Questions

Chris Tucker

I bought a really fast gaming computer last week for my Flex 5000a. I just assumed it had a slot on the board for a Firewire Card, but it does NOT. The Pawn Shop does not offer refunds, but the owner is a Computer geek who told me simply to get a USB to Firewire adapter cable, and it will work fine, He did state correctly that USB is much faster than Firewire. 
Yet, when I read some older threads on here, we are warned against doing this.
Anyone ever tried this on USB 3.0 with a really fast computer ? 

Tim - W4TME

I am afraid that there are no known USB to Firewire adapters that work with the FLEX-5000 or FLEX-3000.  The only option is to install a PCI or PCIe based Firewire adapter inside the PC.

Chris Tucker

There is no way to do this, on this board. It has zero extra slots. The Pawn Shop owner is very technical about computers, so will you please explain to me WHY it will not work, so I can explain it to him ?

William LaMontagne

I am successfully using a firewire to thunderbolt adapter with plug and play results

Tim - W4TME

Yes.  USB devises transfer data is block (in "chunks") mode but Firewire transfers data by streaming synchronously (in real-time)  Thi is a requirement for the FLEX-5000/3000 because it is a real-time audio device.  In addition, the FLEX-5000 uses 10 isochronous audio channels that operate at 192 kbps. A USB interface cannot properly handle real-time throughput at thee levels.  Many have tried and to my knowledge, and I have been supporting this radio since it was first designed, all have failed. 

The FLEX-5000/3000 is very taxing for many native Firewire adapters and not all work properly, which is why it is recommended to use Firewire cards that have either a VIA or TI (Texas Instruments) chipset.

Tim - W4TME

Yes, Thunderbolt to Firewire adapters do work.  But not USB.

Chris Tucker

I think you need a Thunderbolt Port for that adapter, and I dont have one. 

Tim - W4TME

ou do need a Thunderbolt port.  I suspect you have an "all in one" type PC that only has USB and possibly some memory card slots, which is why I didn't suggest this option.

Paul - K6HR

Can you exchange the computer? Instead of asking for a refund, see if the guy will exchange it for a PC that has an open slot for a firewire card. NFN everyone here suggested that you check for the available slot BEFORE buying any computer. The most important advice was overlooked in this case.
Is it possible that you can remove something to make a slot available?

Chris Tucker

Well, it has 2 hard drives, one is 1 TB SATA, and one is 128 GB Solid State drive.
Perhaps I could just remove the big hard drive, and run the 5000a off the small 128 solid state drive ?

Paul - K6HR

What do the 'slots' have in them now?

Chris Tucker

2 hard drives, one graphics card. This board has 2 extra slots, one above the other vertically. The Huge Graphics card is mounted in the top slot, and is so large, it covers the empty bottom slot! I plan to try to move this card to the bottom slot, and hopefully, it will free up a slot up top, where the graphics card is currently mounted.
The Pawn Shop offered me a full refund BTW. However, this is truly a heroic computer. It has the AMD Ryzen 7 Processor, and a really really good Graphics card.
My plan is to TRY to make it work, otherwise I face  a 2 hour drive back down to Cape Coral Florida from the Tampa area, to get a refund

Jon_KF2E

At least gas is cheap. I know of no one that has gotten anything other than a proper Firewire card to work.

Jon

Chris Tucker

Yes, Gas is cheap, but still, I face 4 hours of driving. The Ham I bought the Flex 5000a included a Firewire card too. 

Jon_KF2E

I'm afraid you're only going to waste more time trying to find a solution to something no one has been able to do for the last ten years. Maybe you can ship the radio back?

Jon

Chris Tucker

Why in God's name would I ever ship a Flex 5000a, with 2nd receiver, tuner, and Firewire Card back ? 
I Will get it working.

Patrick

Gaming graphics card is overkill. And there should be a graphics port on the mother board. If there is no slot available then you could do that. It seems to me that there may be a usable slot available. You need to open up the computer to see what is available. I would think that the fire wire card uses the shorter of the available slot types. You may not need to do that long drive.

Paul - K6HR

Hey Chris, what is the model number on the motherboard?

Bill -VA3WTB

Chris, the bottom line is this. Unless you have an open slot to place the fire wire card, you will not get the radio working. Tell the guy you bought the computer from that you must have an open slot for the fire wire. do you know what type of slot your fire wire card needs? PCI  or PCIE

John - K3MA

Does it have a PMCIA slot?  If so I have a card that I used with a 5000 in the past.

Chris Tucker

It has an MSI Pro Motherboard in it, don't know the model number. The Firewire Card the seller included for me is a PCIe made by Star Tech, it is called a Godshark Card.
This Motherboard has 2 slots, however, the huge Graphics Card is mounted in the Top slot, and it's dual fans are blocking the second, bottom slot. The plan tomorrow is to try and move the graphics card down to the bottom slot, hopefully exposing the emptied Top slot so we can slap the Firewire card in there.
Here is a picture of what this computer is similar to.
https://www.adorama.com/ibn27w106a.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjw-_j1BRDkARIsAJcfmTHa1Pd4vP-tsxNtvd0jTDOoj6oXVNEYFd9aqhcFu4nOUoQq57_tWgYaAvACEALw_wcB&utm_source=adl-gbase-hometech

Chris Tucker

The Motherboard has ZERO extra slots of any kind, unfortunately

Chris Tucker

Here is what is in My Computer 16GB RAM AMD RYZEN 7 1800X 8 CORE 3.6GHZ 120GB SSD AND 1TB HDD Plus an AMD RX 580 Graphics Card.

Bill -VA3WTB

If I can see the slots in that picture, it does not look like either slots are PCIE

Chris Tucker

Well, here is the graphics card, that goes in one of the slots on the board, so you tell me ?  https://www.newegg.com/msi-radeon-rx-580-rx-580-armor-8g-oc/p/N82E16814137118?Item=N82E16814137118

Bill -VA3WTB

That graphics card goes into a graphics card slot, it is not meant to go into the bottom slot. Your fire wire card will not go into the bottom slot as it is not a PCIe slot

Chris Tucker

Bill VA3WTB, you have a point !
Here are some more specs for the AMD 580 Graphics Card - 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5Boost Clock 1366 MHz1 x DL-DVI-D 2 x HDMI 2 x DisplayPort2304 Stream ProcessorsPCI Express x16   - It looks like my slots are PCI, and Not PCIE, so this Firewire card will not work, even if we manage to free up a slot tomorrow.

Bill -VA3WTB

Sorry, that is correct. The slot the graphics card is in now on the top is not the same kind of slot on the bottom. The graphics card will only work on the top slot. This is not what you want to hear,,but you need a different computer with more options. Most gaming computers are very limited because they are only made to do one thing,,,gaming. Sorry.

Chris Tucker

So Bill, you think the top and bottom slots may be different. I WISH I knew the Model Number of this MSI Motherboard

Bill -VA3WTB

I don't need to know the model number, I saw the graphics card, it goes into a graphics card slot, not a PCI slot

Bill -VA3WTB

But the card is a pci express card, so go ahead and try it on the lower one.