Feasability of repairing dead 1394 connector on Sony Dig8 camcorder?

[Gene E. Bloch]

As a follow-up, I got a close-up look with a magnifier and saw a bent
contact inside the port. I ground down the ends of a pair of pointy
tweezers so they'd fit in the channel of the contact and a straight pin
which I bent the end of to allow me to push down on the contact and
managed to manipulate it enough to get it back in line with the other
contacts and am now back in business. I also fiddled with the contacts
on the cable end to make sure they're as even as I can make them on an
eyeball basis, which is to say, straighter than they were out of the
box.

As others have mentioned, after having gotten this close look at how
it's configured, I'm really surprised how flimsy a design it is. The
cable end seems to have way too much ability to wiggle around and
inadequate strain relief given how little margin there seems to be for
the contacts range of motion. I'm surprised I haven't had problems
before this. From now on I'll tape the cable to the body of cam
instead of just letting it hang.

I assume you meant the camera port.

Congratulations on the heroic and successful improvising. It's cool
that you were a successful toolmaker!

Too bad it was needed - I'd say it's not just surprising, but
irresponsible, that it's so flimsy.

 

[Smarty]

Doc,

Now that you have the faulty pin working, you might consider adding a
Firewire to Firewire adapter like the one shown at:
http://www.lindy.com/us/productfolder/07/70395/index.php

By "permanently" installing this adapter, and then possibly even cementing
it into the damaged socket, you have transferred any future stress and
mechanical wear from the weak and fragile repaired 4 pin connector to a new
(and larger) 6 pin connector which should absorb some if not all of the
punishment better.

The adapter is cheap, adds very little weight or bulk to your camcorder, and
may prevent future damage which may otherwise not be easily repaired using
your prior method.

Smarty

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

FWIW, the RS-232 spec explicitly states that the interface electronics
will be immune to any short-circuit or misconnection of the pins. I
have no idea if USB and FireWire have such a provision, but it *would*
be nice.

Perhaps there is something, but I had a LaCie D2 external drive that went up
in smoke when I connected it to a Firewire port one day. I've also seen
current backfeed into a computer when a power-carrying Firewire device was
plugged into the computer. It did no damage, but it sure scared me when the
computer's fans went into serious overdrive and then shut down.

A better Firewire adapter was installed in the computer and resolved that
problem. I never did figure out why the LaCie drive smoked on the other
computer, but heavy amounts of damage had been done to the Oxford
semiconductor FW chipset.

William

 

[Guy]

apple's firewire is a horror! my maxtor drive with firewire port doesn't
recognized at time and I have to turn the drive off - disconnect the
cab;e - turn the drive on - reconnect the cable. also, my canon
camocorder's firewire port was fired. it was my fault but WHO designed a
port that is so fragile?

Why would you blame Apple??? I found out the hard way the the chipset
driving the Firewire port can make or break the whole experience. I
don't know what chip set your Maxtor uses but Maxtor chose it and Apple
did not provide it. I hear glowing references to the Oxford's interface
and declining opinions of all other contenders. Similar for your fried
port on your camcorder.

There are cheap connectors and expensive connectors - if Canon chose one
that is too weak for their consumers' needs then those consumers suffer.
Apple can't control crappy implementation but maybe you should buy
more robust stuff. -Guy

 

[Guy]

Doc,

Now that you have the faulty pin working, you might consider adding a
Firewire to Firewire adapter like the one shown at:
http://www.lindy.com/us/productfolder/07/70395/index.php

By "permanently" installing this adapter, and then possibly even cementing
it into the damaged socket, you have transferred any future stress and
mechanical wear from the weak and fragile repaired 4 pin connector to a new
(and larger) 6 pin connector which should absorb some if not all of the
punishment better.

The adapter is cheap, adds very little weight or bulk to your camcorder, and
may prevent future damage which may otherwise not be easily repaired using
your prior method.

Smarty

What a great idea - thanks for sharing it. -Guy

 

[Smarty]

Thank you, Guy. I owned an electronics repair business for a while, and this
particular type of repair was able to extend the life of a lot of fragile
connectors. The reason they often break in the first place is that the
connector has more than adequate **electrical** performance but is
**mechanically** under-designed for real-world stresses. Repaired connectors
like Doc's are seldom stronger than when they were new, and will thus easily
break again unless some other reinforcing method is used. I hope this
suggestion may help Doc and possibly others.

Smarty

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Hi!


Perhaps there is something, but I had a LaCie D2 external drive that went up
in smoke when I connected it to a Firewire port one day. I've also seen
current backfeed into a computer when a power-carrying Firewire device was
plugged into the computer. It did no damage, but it sure scared me when the
computer's fans went into serious overdrive and then shut down.

A better Firewire adapter was installed in the computer and resolved that
problem. I never did figure out why the LaCie drive smoked on the other
computer, but heavy amounts of damage had been done to the Oxford
semiconductor FW chipset.

William

Scary.

I guess I am morally obligated to try to find out more about the
FireWire (and USB) specs to see if they have that requirement.

Unfortunately, I probably won't do it

 

[GMAN]

Hi!


Perhaps there is something, but I had a LaCie D2 external drive that went up
in smoke when I connected it to a Firewire port one day. I've also seen
current backfeed into a computer when a power-carrying Firewire device was
plugged into the computer. It did no damage, but it sure scared me when the
computer's fans went into serious overdrive and then shut down.

A better Firewire adapter was installed in the computer and resolved that
problem. I never did figure out why the LaCie drive smoked on the other
computer, but heavy amounts of damage had been done to the Oxford
semiconductor FW chipset.

William

CompUSA sold an improperly wired Firewire cable under the store name that had
pins reversed. Fried many Firewire devices.