Question

I am looking to upgrade to the Presonus Firepod but only have Thunderbolt 2 on my 2015 Macbook Pro. Originally when buying the computer, I was hoping to get an interface with thunderbolt, but opportunities have risen where I need to upgrade a lot sooner. I tried to get a MOTU 8pre firewire interface. I purchased an Apple Thunderbolt->Firewire 800 adapter, then a 800->400 cable. Unfortunately I could not get interface to interact. Upon further investigation, I found that you need two separate Thunderbolt adapters? This I am unsure of because I've only seen the one Thunderbolt->Firewire 800 available. Before considering testing out the Firepod, does anyone have a working adapter chain that would ensure success? Thanks

Apple MacBook pro (Retina, 13-inch, early 2015)
El Capitan 10.11.15
Studio One 3 3.5.6
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2

Answer 1

Make sure the OS you are using is compatible with the interfaces you're trying to use it with. Last supported OS for FP10 (aka FirePod) was Mac OS X 10.7.5. This may be one of the reasons your other interface was not seen either. Apple initiated signed drivers in 10.11 which means most of the 1394 devices from 10+ years ago may not work in 10.11 or newer OS, even with the right adapters it may not work. Development has since ceased on the FirePod project. We would recommend updating to a newer device to run on your newer system and OS.

Answer 2

I have a 2016 MacBook Pro (macOS 10.13.6) with Thunderbolt 3 ports and use two Apple adapters to connect a PreSonus Firepod to my laptop: PreSonus FP10 > Firewire 400 to Firewire 800 cable > Apple Firewire to Thunderbolt 2 adapter > Apple Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter. I imagine this chain will also work for computers with Thunderbolt 2 when just leaving out that last adapter.