CAT5 Repeater-400 Manual
2
Figure 3: Crossover Ethernet coupler dongle
Connecting the RJ45 ports appropriately with one of the above ways, the yellow led on each port should
turn on, indicating that the status of the connection is OK.
Each of the two 1394a 6 pin ports of the
CAT-5 Repeater-400
can deliver data to a 1394 network
segment using 1394 cables as shown in figure 1. The maximum data speed between devices being at
different sides of the UTP cable will be limited to 400Mbps.
Figure 4: CAT-5 Repeater with aluminum base
An aluminum base with screw holes is also provided in the repeater package in order for the device to
become stable and mountable to other surfaces (Fig.4).
B. Power issues
Although CAT 5 repeater is powered up through a 1394 6 pin cable connected to a 1394 network, it is
necessary for the repeater proper operation to be connected to an AC-DC power adapter with a DC
output of 12V/2A.
It is also recommended to avoid powering up devices with total power consumption greater than 15W
through the repeater 1394 ports. At normal operation the repeater requires less than 3W.
C. Driver issues and Unibrain software
CAT-5 Repeater-400 is essentially a 1394b (Firewire-800) device as it is based on a 1394b PHY
(Physical Layer) chipset. This will result in a know speed limitation in Windows XP or Vista, when using
the native Microsoft 1394 drivers.
Even if you use only 1394a adapters or devices, as soon as the CAT-5 repeaters are connected on the
firewire bus, Windows will automatically set the bus speed in 100 Mbps (S100).
This will result in limited performance for firewire devices and limited bandwidth for firewire IIDC
cameras or DV camcorders.
There are two solutions to overcome this limitation:
a) For Windows XP SP2 or SP3 only: Install the following patch from Microsoft which restores the bus
speed to S400 Mbps when 1394b devices are connected on the bus:
Note that there is no solution/patch for Windows Vista or 64 bit Windows XP/Vista editions as of this
moment.
b) Use Unibrain’s ubCore™ 1394 drivers, which support natively the 1394b standard. The ubCore
drivers can be download from our web site and for more details refer here:
Note that the ubCore™ drivers replace completely the Microsoft 1394 stack and so proprietary or
specific devices might not work afterwards. You can always revert back to Microsoft drivers by
either uninstalling ubCore™ drivers or running the ubSwitch™ utility, installed with ubCore™ setup.
Windows 7 supports natively 1394b – 800 Mbps speeds and thus no patch or the ubCore™ drivers are
required.
Mac OS X 10.4 or later and Linux provide native support for the 1394b standard, so there are no special
driver requirements or limitations involved.
