HP Pavilion 8700 HP Pavilion PC's - (English) 1394U User's Manual - Page 7

3 Using the Card This chapter covers a few points on how to use the card once it is installed in your computer system. Connecting Devices There are two ways to connect 1394/FireWire devices to the host card. Devices can connect in serial in a "daisy chain" or through a repeater connected to one of the card ports. Daisy Chain Connections When you connect devices in a daisy chain configuration you can connect up to 63 devices in a row. This scheme is simple and convenient, but has one drawback. Since 1394/FireWire devices are "hot-pluggable," you can connect and disconnect devices while the computer is turned on. When you disconnect a device, the other devices that come after it are temporarily disconnected until you reconnect them to the chain. The 1394/FireWire card supplies power to devices through the cable connection. This power has some limitations. See the Power Considerations section later in this chapter for more information. Repeater Connections If you use a 1394/FireWire repeater to connect devices to the card, all connected devices are independent of each other. You can then disconnect any device without disturbing the other devices connected to the card. An additional feature of using a hub is that the repeater can also provide power for devices that use more power than the 1394/FireWire cabling supplies. This allows connecting one or more devices that use more power. 1394 Cabling The 1394 standard has a maximum connection cable length of 4.5 meters (15 feet). This means this is the maximum distance between devices. If you need to connect two devices more than 4.5 meters apart, you can use a repeater to extend the cable length between the devices. 7