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firewire charger with ipod touch

B

broncopde

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 12, 2007
262
1
Conway, AR
Ok, I know that the firewire charger is supposed to work fine with the iPod touch, but does anyone have experience with it doing so? I own a 4G ipod so I have the firewire cord and power adapter that came with it. I don't have a USB power adapter, so it is greatly preferable for me to be able to charge my ipod touch with the firewire power adapter. But when i try to charge with it, the ipod touch charges sometimes, but more often it doesn't even though it displays the lightning bolt in the little battery icon. I've tried charging the ipod touch with the firewire cord plugged in the computer and it does the same thing. Anybody else have any experiences simiilar?
 
I was actually going to post a similar question, I bought an iPod touch today and I still have the old firewire cable and adapter from my old iPod. Admittedly I haven't tried to charge the touch using the old cable because I want to know for sure that it won't stuff anything up.
 
I use a firewire brick/cable to charge my touch - it works as well as USB cable, USB brick, etc. Haven't tried FireWire cable to the computer.
 
broncopde said:
Ok, I know that the firewire charger is supposed to work fine with the iPod touch... snip
Click to expand...

Long answer: Yes, I can confirm it works just fine. I have an old firewire-only charger from the first generation ipods, back when they used to include a charger in the box. And it works just fine. I also have a car charger with a Firewire plug on it that I use with a SendStation PocketDock that has a firewire port and a line-out port. This also charges the iPod and lets me have a line-level output to my AUX in on my car stereo.

Short answer: Firewire chargers work fine with the touch.
 
yup it works

i bought a 3G iPod that came w/ a firewire cable and charger, now i own a iPod touch (and love it) and the charger works perfectly fine with the touch (it also works w/ my silver nano) That said i am pretty sure that you cannot import music, or use the firewire cable through the computer. I am pretty sure the new iPods work exclusively with USB cables for file transfers and computer charging. Hope it helps and enjoy your iPod!!
 
Good to know bc I plan on using my 4g ipod firewire wall charger. Ohh the good old days when you actually received things you need with your $400 purchase :rolleyes:
 
I'm in a similar situation. I still have a the charging block via firewire from the ipod mini, and I want a second charger for my iphone. It seems to work, but I'm not sure if it's good for it.
The old firewire charging blocks output 12V whereas the new iphone usb charging block outputs 5V. (This kinda makes sense since USB uses 5V rail too)

I'm not sure what the answer to the question is however...
 
quicklook2 said:
why will it not sync with firewire?
Click to expand...

Because there is no hardware inside the iPod Touch that knows how to communicate using Firewire. The pins on the dock connector which were formerly used for the Firewire data signals are not connected up to anything on the inside.

The charging portion can still function as it always did because from the iPod's perspective, the Firewire power pins appear to be nothing more than a passive DC power supply, and it is trivial to convert that into something that can be used to charge the battery.
 
Yeah I use my FW cable from my 3G iPod to charge at work. It's great - you dont have to quit iTunes each time you plug the iPod in. Pesky iTunes.. I dont want to sync with my work computer :)
 
ChrisBrightwell said:
FW will charge while the Mac sleeps, too, which is something you can't do over USB.
Click to expand...

Hmm, my MacBook can charge my iPods when in sleep mode via USB (didn't try it with my iMac though). The biggest IMO drawback of charging via USB from a computer is that when you plug it in or disconnect the computer wakes from sleep. Thats why I use my old FireWire wall charger from my iPod mini.

pulsewidth947 said:
Yeah I use my FW cable from my 3G iPod to charge at work. It's great - you dont have to quit iTunes each time you plug the iPod in. Pesky iTunes.. I dont want to sync with my work computer :)
Click to expand...

Uncheck "Open iTunes when this iPod is connected".
 
I have a 4th gen firewire charger and when i left my touch to charge overnight i found in the morning it had not done so. I can confirm that the charger works perfectly with 5th gen videos and even a mini.

After that it seems only to work when it wants to.

When i finally gave in and bought a usb one i have had no problems at all.
 
Anyone have any experience of using the official Universal dock with the firewall charger?

My Touch won't charge when it's connected to the charger via the dock but will if directly connected to it.

I've tested the dock by plugging the USB cable into it and my MBP and it charges...

I suspect this is a cunning ploy to make me have to buy the USB charger.

Grr...
 
Only works sometimes

Hi

I have a firewire charger from an old ipod mini, and have noticed that it will only charge my ipod touch sometimes.

Sometimes i plug it in and it doesn't even show the lightning bolt - then other times it will charge fine.

Same when I plug it into my MBP with firewire.

I am almost certain it used to work fine, am wondering if it is something about the ipod OS 3.0 which has caused this..

Hmmm.
 
Does not work on iPod Touch 3G

I have an iPod 3G with 20GB and an iPod Touch 3G with 64GB. I tried to charge it with the Firewire cable and my Monster Car FM Transmitter, neither one works.
After a bit of research on the web I found this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1476

I believe that makes it pretty clear the new iPods do not charge with a FireWire cable. Although, I don't know if that changes once you Jailbreak the iPod?
 
My ipod touch is fully charged!

Hi

I am sitting looking at a fully charged ipod touch after leaving it plugged into my old firewire cable wall charger.

So, it seems it does sometimes work.

Strange huh?
 
zankty said:
I have an iPod 3G with 20GB and an iPod Touch 3G with 64GB. I tried to charge it with the Firewire cable and my Monster Car FM Transmitter, neither one works.
After a bit of research on the web I found this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1476

I believe that makes it pretty clear the new iPods do not charge with a FireWire cable. Although, I don't know if that changes once you Jailbreak the iPod?
Click to expand...
Hmmm... I don't believe that Jailbreaking can change any hardward options ;)
As per the Apple article (and my "extensive" real world experimentation) FireWire charging is (properly) supported by the iPhone 2G and iTouch 1 and 2G, NOT 3G.
Old thread, too.
 
Mr_Brightside_@ said:
Hmmm... I don't believe that Jailbreaking can change any hardward options ;)
As per the Apple article (and my "extensive" real world experimentation) FireWire charging is (properly) supported by the iPhone 2G and iTouch 1 and 2G, NOT 3G.
Old thread, too.
Click to expand...

Just to correct your slight typo. The 2nd Gen does NOT support it either... hence none of my stuff works. Except my original Apple wall charger (that uses a dock cable) from my Video iPod. I only mention this because my Belkin USB car adapter plug does not work with the same dock cable to charge.

Note: iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch (2nd generation), and iPod touch (Late 2009) do not support FireWire and will not charge from any FireWire-based power source. If you connect either of these devices to a FireWire-based charger or accessory, you will receive the alert screen below:
Click to expand...
 
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