Is there any simple way to read/write to a firewrie bus(not video streaming from cameras), regardless of the device kind?

[no1]

Hello,

I want to know that is there any way to read/write to a firewrie bus simply, regardless of the device kind? No matter which device is connected to the firewire port. If yes, tell me some description as well as some tutorial about it, please.

Thanks,

[Jason W]

Hey no1,

You can use the VISA Driver Development Wizard to create a driver to read/write to a instrument via firewire.  The only thing is you have to create a different driver for each device.  You can't just develop a universal firewire driver.  Please take a look at this knowledge base [link removed; article no longer available] for more information about the wizard and see the related links section of the knowledge base for a tutorial about it.

I hope this helps!

Regards,

Jason W
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[no1]

Hello and thanks Mr. Jason W for your reply.

The problem is that I am looking for a tutorial for firewire communication via VISA Driver Development. I don't know what I should write in Unit Specification ID and Unit Software Version textboxes. Because its way is different from USB. And before this I have connected to 1394 bus Host Controller card as a PXI/PCI card via VISA Driver Development. And I thought maybe all bytes from camcorder will go to this card and I can get all bytes and work with them. But when I tested, I understood that when I hit play button of my camcorder, it has no effect on input bytes from barX of this card. So, this way was not helpful at all. And I think I should use firewire radio button, instead. But mentioned problem(Unit Specification ID and Unit Software Version) is existent for me.

Thanks again.

[Jason W]

Hello,

Unfortunately we do not have a tutorial for firewire communication via VISA Driver Development Kit.  The Unit Specification ID is a 24-bit value that identifies the specification to which the FireWire-based device adheres. The Unit Software Version is a 24-bit value that identifies the Unit Specification version to which the FireWire-based device adheres.  Both of these are device specific, therefore I can't say where you should get these values from.  I know with our cards you can find the Unit Specification ID and Unit Software Version in the Registry Editor under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\1394, but I'm not sure if that is where your device's information will be.  I hope this information helps!

Best regards,

Jason W
Applications Engineer
National Instruments