Edit: Subtect was “That pesky S400/Firewire/i.Link Power Socket… - SORTED!!!”

Hi all

Does anyone know anything about it?

Does anyone have a cable that fits the power socket?  What’s it for?

What i wanna do is perhaps have a cable with:
4-pin firewire plug + power plug —>  6-pin firewire plug

That way i can run my external firewire HDD without using up a USB port with the power take off cable…

Any info would be great!

Cheers,
  Rich.

EDIT:  Sorted It… See bellow…

Some sort of an adapter would be great, although I don’t think there is one.  That port only fits i.Link cords for camcorders and some sony external optical drives.  There were also some sony external HDs that used the port.

OK,

I’ve found the cable used for the VAIO External Optical Drives:

 

I was wondering about buying such a cable and perhaps the useless end could be lopped off and a 6-pin firewire plug fitted…

Looking at a VAIO Portable Hard Disk - PCGAHDM06   This has a power supply that gives it 10v, 1.5A if needed (not when plugged in with an above cable of course)

So i am assuming that the power socket next to the i.Link socket will be supplying something similar to this…

If it does supply 10v then it falls in between the 8-30v supply stated in the 1394 specs for a 6-pin connector…

So perhaps with all this wired up, my external HDD that has a 6-pin (and 4-pin) connector will be quite happy and will start up no worries…

If the voltage supplied doesn’t satisfy the spec/hdd then it’s likely to be 5V… so i could just fit a 4-pin and have another wire coming off with a std 5v power plug on it.  I have several old 5V power supplies with the correct plug on it (3.5mm i think) that i can chop off.

Then that should work…

Maplin (think RS) do the plugs:
  4-pin
  6-pin

...Unless anyone else knows of a cable with the correct plugs on it???

Cheers
  Rich.

OK, i bought the sony I-Link Cable with Integrated Power off eBay for 20 bucks (+ postage) and found an old 6-pin cable and cut the connector off that, and wired it up, copying a standard 4-pin to 6-pin cable, plugged it in to the VAIO and also into my 2.5” external HDD, and it started up, autoplayed and there was the drive connected perfectly with FireWire with only one cable!

I put a meter on the DC port next to the VAIO’s i-Link port, and it kicks out 15V DC So this is perfect for running those external drives

My Belkin FireWire + USB 2.0 PCI card in my desktop kicks out 12V DC, and it runs my external HDDs just fine thru 6-pin cables… So 15V is great!

Getting the 6-pin donor connector off the old cable was really easy… just get yer penknife out and cut off the plastic… this leaves a two-part metal case that clips together, lever this apart carefully and strip off the soft plastic that fills the cavity where the wires solder on… unsolder the wires, and your are left with a little shaped plastic block that holds the 6 connectors…
Solder the new cable wires in, using an existing standard 4-pin to 6-pin as the guide, using a volt/continuity meter to work out what pin goes where… i used a standard 6-pin to 6-pin cable, plugged in, to workout which pins carried the power, and how much was coming from my PCI card in my desktop PC (12V).  Make sure you check the wiring, and double check it all again!!!

Sorted.

Two great benifits are:
1) There is only one cable with nice neat connectors on each end…
2) The cable itself is really thin, light, flexible and short!... good for carrying around with yer laptop!  All my other firewire cables are heavy, thick, stiff things that are far too long.  Note: you can cut the cable down to the exact length you wish… so you could have it really short!

About my external drive:

My 2.5 HDD (The 160GB Seagate Momentus 5400.3 ST9160821A) Was fitted into a Firewire/USB external case (An A250CP Diamond case)
 
With USB, it doesn’t start with only the bus cable… you need the aditional usb power take-off cable… This is a PITA!  I believe that the case is definitely the cause… if not the drive as well…  I have the same external case with an 80GB Toshiba drive in it and i doesn’t start either… but it used to just fine in a usb only Transcend external case… Hmmm…  But if you plug the power take off plug into the host USB slot, and then piggy back the usb cable into the back of that, and plug it all into the external case, it all starts fine!!! All from ONE host USB slot!!! The bloody case just doesn’t like the power coming thru it’s USB connector i guess…

Bear this in mind if you wanna Buy this Case!

Cheers
  Rich.