Question : Problem: Firewire camera not recognized by laptop

Hi all!

I have 2 firewire cameras (IMAGINGSOURCE DBK21AF04) with 6pin connections. My laptop(Dell Inspiron 640m) only has a 4-pin connection so I bought a 6 to 4 pin converter. Using this neither camera is recognized in any way by the laptop. I have a driver cd that says there are no recognized devices attached. I also tried installing new hardware etc and all the usual steps. Unfortuantely there is no indicator on the camera itself to indicate if it is powered or not. With all the above in mind I decided to purchase a firewire hub. This connects to the laptop through USB. I am aware that USB doesn't cater well for streaming but the device still isn't even being recognized. There is an led indicator on the hub to show if a firewire device is connected or not and this remains off. The hub has a seperate power supply so I can't see it being a problem with the power. I have tried a number of different cables and as I said I have 2 cameras and neither work. I have also tried a different laptop with the same results.  Does anyone have any ideas what the problem could be??? I have tried to include as much information as possible but if anyone has anymore questions I would be happy to answer them. I would really appreciate any help on the matter as I need to get these working as soon as possible.

Thanks for your help! i'm sure you'll have a few ideas :)

Regards,
AnthonyFee

Answer : Problem: Firewire camera not recognized by laptop

Here is the documentation for connecting the camera to desktops and laptops.
http://www.theimagingsource.com/en/resources/whitepapers/download/fwacccamswopsuwp.en.pdf
Nowhere does it employ a usb interface conversion  in the connections. The original issue is probably one of no power using the 4pin firewire, then it is compounded by using the USB port to convert the signal from firewire.
You need to use the known methods of connecting this  camera as stated in the Documentation.