I only have the built in Firewire bus on a Mac Pro, so when I capture DV, I have to unplug the Mojo SDI or Avid will alert me to bus errors. 

Does anybody use the 1394 camera/deck port on the Mojo SDI for capture? Is it usable for anything without a third party firewire card installed?

The third party FW card is more for the Drives than it is for the deck. Have you tried capturing to the internal without any decks connected? 

 Yes-I use the Mojo with firewire connection to a small Sony deck (DV deck) with full machine control. I use the firewire connection on th mojo. I have a MAC Dual core G5 with Avid MC 2.8.

No bus errors with the Mojo.

BLKDOG-

I'm capturing to SATA raids so I've got nothing but the Mojo SDI on the firewire bus. It seems Avid does not want the Mojo SDI & DV deck on the firewire bus. I get bus errors even if I plug the DV Deck straight into the front firewire port on the Mac Pro & leave the Mojo SDI plugged in on the back.

I would like to find a way to leave my DV deck patched through the mini firewire port on the Mojo SDI for capture so I don't have to unplug Mojo SDI everytime I need to capture.

MrBill-  

Do you use a Mojo SDI or a Mojo? The Mojo has a hardware DV codec while the Mojo SDI does not so there is a diference there. 

I am running 2.8 on a Mac Pro and I can configure the firewire port on the Mojo SDI, but it never actually works for capture. I get bus errors and then have to disconnect the Mojo SDI and plug the DV deck straight into the Mac Pro.

Yeah me too frosty. Have yet to hear what the problem is. I can only export mini dv with the Mojo unplugged and deck hooked in directly.

OK so it's not just me. For me this problem creates a very clunky workflow to have to disconnect the Mojo SDI. It's not easy to get at.

So why is there a firewire port on the Mojo SDI ?

have a look at this perhaps?

http://community.avid.com/forums/t/56643.aspx

Thanks for finding that post siencs:

"Plug the DV Deck firewire cable plugged in the Mojo SDI firewire input.... turn DV deck on...wait until computer sees the deck...launch MC...Under the "Special" pull-down menu, click to "Device" and switch from "Avid DNA", to IEEE1394.

THEN, open then "Deck Configuration" menu and "add new channel', "autoconfigure and so on...The software should instantly recognize the DV deck.

When finished digitizing, switch back to "Avid DNA" under the "Special", "Device" menus."

I will try again with the exact sequence above (I have done this before w/ no luck, but I was using the DNA/1394 button in the timeline).

Ok I followed the above directions and when I went into Deck Configurations, I selected ADD CHANNEL "Firewire on Avid DNA". Then I click Auto-configure. I get a message saying "Auto-configure will not be successful because 'Avid DNA' is not selected. So I switch to 'Avid DNA' and I get a message saying "Please switch to 1394 mode before configuring an OHCI device".

The only way Avid will capture from my DSR-11 Pal deck is if I plug it directly into the Mac Pro and disconnect the Mojo SDI.

That's the catch 22. This 4-pin firewire port on Mojo SDI is absolutely useless.

I'm just setting up my system again after an extended on-site gig.  Since I have the luxury of setting it all up again, cable for cable, I decided to try to get this thing up and running.  I'm hitting the same problem that frosty has reported.  So what is the official word from AVID on this?  

Are we (the users) doing it wrong, or is this just yet another one of Avid's failings?  If I treated my clients like this (over promise, under deliver), I wouldn't have any.  (Oh wait, that is what is happening, isn't it?)

Don't plug the deck into the Mojo. Plug it directly into the CPU. Does it work then?

Hi BLKDOG, thanks for replying.

Yes, yes it does.  I've been doing that way for the past two years(?) but hadn't tried the Mojo SDI 1394 (firewire) 4-pin in a while and thought maybe I'd get lucky.  Ha ha, lucky with an Avid?  

Now don't get me wrong, I'm at an all Avid shop here, and it's nice once you've got your workflow/configurations all sorted out, but it is very frustrating using stuff that doesn't "just work."

BLKDOG the point is you have to UNPLUG Mojo SDI & then you can plug your deck into the CPU. The 4-pin port on Mojo SDI is useless.

Yeah, I know. That's why I suggested the CPU. We haven't had to unplug the Mojo. If we had an external FW card,  the Decks and drive could live there together with the mojo on the  internal bus.

Ok let me clarify. I have to unplug the Mojo SDI (the old Mojo may be different) and I don't have anything on the firewire bus besides the Mojo SDI (media files reside on an internal raid). So in my senario we are talking about the deck & Mojo SDI not playing well together on the same bus.

So are all agreed that the 4-pin firewire on the MOJO SDI cannot be used to configure a deck, even though the software allows for the option to configure a deck using this port?