Add support to other firewire interfaces

[cpoohee]

I currently have MOTU UltraLite mk3 FW, Presonus firestudio 2626 and Studiolive 32.4.2 AI. All of which uses firewire.
I will be happy to test if you need it, probably when you progressed to point where support for other devices gets more trivial.

I am running M1 pro, still sticking to Sequoia to run the kext based driver for my Motu.
My setup is also using Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter -> Thunderbolt 2 to FireWire 800 adapter connection.

FS 2626 uses the DICE-based protocol. I suspect SL 32.4.2 AI uses the same.
As for the Motu UltraLite mk3 FW, I am not sure.

I am comfortable in coding, but have no experience at driver level. Happy to help you to verify my audio interfaces.

I have been following your progress, thank you for your work.

[ginjo]

I have a MOTU UltraLite mk1, and a Macbook Air 2020 M1 with MacOS 26. Soon as I get a Thunderbolt 3/2 adapter, I too can offer testing.

Also have a 2nd gen iPod, which I believe requires the same adapter chain.

Thanks for your work!

[mrmidi]

Hi everyone! Thanks for the issue.

It's too early to talk about real hardware support: I'm working on stabilizing the streams, etc. At least for stereo. And yes, I didn't started multi-channel audio yet. Only some stubs. That is a lot of work to do actually behind multichannel audio.

Regarding this: I am comfortable in coding, but have no experience at driver level — it's more control level actually. DICE is writing and reading HW registers to control it. You don't need any driver knowledge to do it, it's not so hard.

I'm thinking on how to design some system to easily add HW. Most of the protocols were already reversed, takaswie, maintainer of Linux FireWire stack, do amazing job supporting and developing https://github.com/alsa-project/snd-firewire-ctl-services repository where everything could be found. I have some ported stubs here: https://github.com/mrmidi/ASFireWire/tree/main/ASFWDriver/Protocols/Audio

The real problem is - If you want to develop something - you most probably will need to see HW packets. It's a tricky part with OHCI: you need some tools to analyze it. I've written in readme that I'm using PowerMac G3 for this part.

I have DICE interface to start with: Focusrite Saffire PRO 24 DSP, but I've decided to finish at least one AV/C compatible device for now.

PS. 2nd gen iPod is completely different story from audio. I suppose it's some kind of mass storage device? I don't know yet, but for now I'm focused on audio. If someone is skilled enough - I'll point to https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/IOFireWireSBP2/tree/IOFireWireSBP2-452 and https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport/tree/IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport-261. That is original Apple's open sourced FireWire stack. It could be ported pretty easily on my current codebase. Closed-sourced AppleFWOHCI.kext was re-implemented.

[nathanturczan]

I have a MOTU Traveler mk3 and would be happy to help test when you're ready for more hardware support.

My setup: FireWire 800 → Thunderbolt 2 adapter → Thunderbolt 3 adapter → USB-C

macOSTahoe dropped FireWire support entirely which means that this very expensive interface no longer works with my Macbook, which is where I produce and record music.

[magebarf]

Tossing my Korg Zero04 into the mix when it's ready for alpha/beta testing!
Similar setup as mentioned by earlier "applicants"; USB4 / Thunderbolt 4 -> Thunderbolt 3 adapter -> Thunderbolt 2 adapter -> Firewire 400 to 800 adapter cable.

[diemoschwarz]

Amazing endeavour, I had hoped so much someone would tackle this, thank you! I can test on RME Fireface 400. Also, you might want to contact rme-audio, they really care about keeping their devices running, still publishing firmware and driver updates for 20+ years old interfaces!

[csmoriggia]

I have a MOTU 8Pre and a Saffire Pro 40, I'm currently trying to get this working with a PCI-E IEEE 1394 TI chip on a Hackintosh.

[erikmartinessanches]

Throwing my RME FF400 on Macbook M1 Pro into the mix . I also know some coding but not sure I have the courage. :)

[cube666999]

MOTU 828 MK3 FireWire 800 → Adapter Thunderbolt 2 → Adapter Thunderbolt 3 → USB-C

[dennisknitterscheidt]

Macky Onyx 1640i → FireWire 400 to FireWire 800 cable → Adapter Thunderbolt 2 → Adapter Thunderbolt 3 → USB-C

Using it right now with my Intel I9 MacBook from 2019 but want to use it with my M2 as well. Don’t want to buy something new for 2000€ when I know I have something that could do the job properly.