Can an 828mk3 hybrid connected via USB act as a “Bridge” for FW devices?

[Dogsmell]

Intricate question so I’ll try to explain. If I connect an 828 mk3 to my Mac via USB, can I connect additional FireWire-only devices to the FW ports on the 828 and the Mac will see them via the USB connection?

I’ve had an 828mk3 FW-only connected to my Mac over a firewire to thunderbolt adapter, with additional FW devices daisy chained off of the 828 and it’s been rock solid for years. Today it appears that my thunderbolt ports have died - a logic board failure - but everything else on the Mac still works great. I’m wondering if I can buy an 828mk3 hybrid, connect it to the still-working USB port, and then connect my FW devices to the 828 and resume.

[mikehalloran]

I’m guessing No but it’s easy to test. Hook it up to the USB port with the other devices attached — they’ll show up in Audio MIDI setup or they won’t.

When ports collapse, they can usually be brought back to life by resetting the NV RAM. Many things can cause this including hubs, bad cables, power outages/fluctuations and hot connect/disconnect.

Boot with p r Command and Option keys held and wait for the chimes 3x before releasing. One time, with Apple Support on the line, it took 3 times for the ports to come back to life on one of my iMacs — it was still under AppleCare so, if it hadn’t worked, the next step was an exchange.

[Dogsmell]

Thanks, Mike! Unfortunately I don’t own a hybrid version with USB, I just own the original FW-only one - so I’m trying to decide if it’s worth buying a hybrid one.

[mikehalloran]

Ok… have you reset the NV RAM yet?

[Dogsmell]

I did. And reinstalled the OS. No thunderbolt hardware found.

[grrrz]

I'd say there's no chance in hell. You absolutely can't have firewire over a USB connexion; even 3.2/usb-c; those are too different protocols; FW will only work through thunderbolt.

[papageno]

I'd say there's no chance in hell. You absolutely can't have firewire over a USB connexion

Exactly. Audio interfaces do not act as USB<>Firewire bridges. Don't waste your money buying a hybrid interface for that purpose.

[nk_e]

You could use the ADAT optical connections of the hybrid to pipe in the connected 828s. There’s a limit on the number of streams USB from the 828 mk3 will support, but I think it can accommodate 2 independent streams of 8 inputs and outputs. (You’ll want to verify that.)