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http://www.macnn.com/articles/01/06/13/orange.micro/

Orange Micro ships USB 2.0/FireWire PCI card

updated 08:40 am EDT, Wed June 13, 2001

 
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Orange Micro announced that it is shipping its OrangeLink+ USB 2.0/FireWire Combo PCI Board, which supports USB 2.0 transfers at data rates of 480 Mbits/sec—almost 40 times faster than current USB 1.1 peripherals. The $130 OrangeLink+ has four (4) USB 2.0 ports and three (3) FireWire ports and supports OS X.


by MacNN Staff

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  1. 0

    Joined:

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    06/13, 08:46am | report spam | Reply | delete

    1

    Yawn

  1. 0

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    06/13, 09:45am | report spam | Reply | delete

    Buyer Beware!

    Avoid being the first to buy this! My Orange Micro Combo USB/FireWire card has NEVER worked reliably, in either of my two Mac's. The USB side is OK, but the FW ports are buggy, routinely looking up the machine. The Orange Micro card is considered among the WORST in the industry. UNRELIABLE. Orange is LEMON!

  1. 0

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    06/13, 10:02am | report spam | Reply | delete

    Re: Buyer Beware!

    I'd like to dispute that. I bought one of the very first OM FW/USB combo cards available, as they were first to market. I did have problems with the FireWire at first (even sent it back for analysis), but driver updates from Apple and for iMovie and my FW hard drive eventually fixed them. As the above poster said, their USB side has been very reliable, probably the most reliable of any combo card out there. An Apple tech on the 8500 support list concurrs that overall it is one of the most reliable combo cards available.

    FInally, the only thing I can knock the OM combo card for is they used the NEC FW chipset, which is slower than the others. I called OM to complain about this, and they swapped it with their newer version combo card, which uses a faster Lucent chipset (almost 50% faster on reads from my FW drive!).

    Bottom line is that every problem I had with a FW or USB device was solved by a software/driver update, and OM was kind enough to send me a faster card when I asked. In every other respect the card itself has been bulletproof.

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    06/13, 11:20am | report spam | Reply | delete

    OSX drivers?

    How about Orange pull their fingers out and give us OS X drivers for their existing hardware like the Orange SCSI/Firewire convertor so I can use my bloody scanner!...Thanks.

  1. 0

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    06/13, 01:58pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    All my OM stuff rocks

    My USB/Firewire card works great w/o the Orange Micro drivers.. just using stock Mac OS 9.1... it sees and uses the card. Card has worked perfectly for me since the day I got it.. with firewire hard drives and cameras. :)

  1. 0

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    06/13, 05:09pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    All my OM stuff

    Just because OS 9.1 can "see and use" the card, or you can "see" your devices attached doesn't mean the card rocks. Try printing your DV video back to your camera with a half-speed NEC FireWire chip. Try using a pre-approved scanner with their horrible Orange FireWire-SCSI Converter. Crash. Reboot. Crash. Rebo.. no boot. Unplug. Reboot. Return to retailer. All this on a current G4 tower, latest FW drivers, etc.

    And yet, my Evergreen FireWire/USB combo PCI card works in an older beige G3 perfectly, with full speed I/O. As does my Ratoc FireWire-SCSI converter with a CD burner (and every Mac I have).

    Orange is first to market, yeah, but they don't seem to field-test their products. Take the chance, if you feel lucky.

  1. 0

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    06/13, 06:00pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    OM Firewire

    I was a pre-order on the first Orange Micro firewire card (NEC).

    Although it uses the "slow" NEC chipset it preformed flawlessly with Fincal cut pro on my unsupported 8500 g3/400.

    I did not use any Firwire drives however...

    The camera (sony VX1000) worked perfectly.

    So, for in my book Orange Micro is OK.
    Marty

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    06/15, 01:37pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    buyer beware was right!


    Regarding the recently SHIPPED (!!!) OrangeLink+ USB 2.0/ FireWire Combo PCI board, OrangeMicro was asked when/if the board would support USB 2.0 on systems running Mac OS 8.6 - 9.x. Their reply: "A feasibility study has been scheduled for USB 2.0 support on Mac OS 8.6 and Mac OS 9.x and at this time we have not determined if we will develop such drivers."

    I'm glad their are some of us Mac users out their who've had good experience with Orange Micro & their products, but I ask you, how in the world can a company come out with a new product, advertise it as "USB 2.0"...and then 'think about writing a USB 2' driver...but only if it's 'worth their while'...

    Buyer Beware is prudent advice!

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