1394 - 4 pin no power / 1394 - 6 pin powered - why?
 

I am thinking about getting a PCM/CIA card with dual USB 2.0 ports along with a 4 pin unpowered port and 6 pin powered 1394 port all on one card. My question is why is the 6 pin 1394 powered and the 4 pin 1394 not powered? Is it a standard for all 6 pin 1394 connections/ports to be powered? I don't want to short something out.

some devices like the ipod use the 6 pin powered ports to charge their batteries.. and i do think all 6 pin ports are powered... the two extra pins are used ot carry the power.. and i dont knowe if you can short something like a camera out by plugging it into a 6 pin port when it doesnt need the power. i would like to know as well...

Yes, 6-pin is powered and 4-pin is not. It is fine to plug a camera in to a 6-pin port via a 4-pin to 6-pin cable. The power is simply ignored by the cable.

My dell inspiron 8500 notebook has only one 4-pin firewire, no power. So I got a PCMCIA adapter with dual 6-pin firewire ports...but when I plugged in devices into the 6-pin ports, guess what? No power either...

Get the card, it comes in handy, but whether or not your devices will get any power from it depends on your specific system. The presence of 6-pin ports on my card didn't give me power at all.

But I got the card not for that reason but because it lets me use the hefty 6-pin plugs instead of the 4-pin plugs which slip out way too easily.