FireWire
PIKE Technical Manual
V5.0.0
42
FireWire Plug & play capabilities
FireWire devices implement the ISO/IEC 13213
configuration ROM
model for
device configuration and identification, to provide plug & play capability. All
FireWire devices are identified by an IEEE EUI-64 unique identifier (an exten-
sion of the 48-bit Ethernet MAC address format) in addition to well-known
codes indicating the type of device and protocols it supports. For further
details read Chapter
FireWire hot-plug and screw-lock precautions
Caution
Hot-plug precautions
•
Although FireWire devices can
theoretically
be hot-
plugged without powering down equipment,
we
strongly recommend turning the computer power off,
before connecting a digital camera
to it via a FireWire
cable.
•
Static electricity or slight plug misalignment during
insertion may short-circuit and damage components.
•
The physical ports
may be damaged
by
excessive ESD
(electrostatic discharge), when connected under pow-
ered conditions. It is good practice to ensure proper
grounding of computer case and camera case to the
same ground potential, before plugging the camera
cable into the port of the computer. This ensures that
no excessive difference of electrical potential exists
between computer and camera.
•
It is
very
important
not
to exceed the
inrush energy of
18 mJoule in 3 ms
. (This means that a device, when
powered via 12 V bus power must
never
draw more than
1.5 A, but only 0.5 A in the first 3 ms, assuming con-
stant flow of current.)
•
Higher inrush current may damage the physical
interface chip of the camera and/or the phy chip in
your PC
. Whereas inrush current is not a problem for
one Pike camera, daisy chaining multiple cameras or
supplying bus power via (optional) HIROSE power out to
circuitry with unknown inrush currents needs careful
design considerations to be on the safe side.
