Nikon Super Coolscan 9000 E/D use on a Mac mini M4

lonelaser wrote:

Thank you. It still surprises me that Apple simply dropped support for FireWire to USB adapters. It’s evidently of little interest to 3rd party producers as well

Do not buy, or risk your equipment, by trying to use a so-called "USB to FireWire" adapter. The protocols are too different. What you'll get is a USB connector glued to a FireWire connector. If you are lucky, it simply won't work. If you are unlucky, pins will be connected in such a way that the "adapter" poses a risk of frying equipment.

In the Thunderbolt 1 & 2 days, there were several ways of going from Thunderbolt to FireWire:

• Using Thunderbolt 1 & 2 docks with FireWire ports
• Using the Apple 27" Thunderbolt Display (model A1407), which has a FireWire 800 hub port
• Using the Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire 800 adapter

Unfortunately, I can't recall anybody ever making equipment to go from Thunderbolt 3, 4, or 5 to FireWire. It's not that later versions of Thunderbolt are incapable of supporting FireWire – simply that nobody actually implemented the products that were possible.

Cracked it! Coolscan to M4 Mac mini …..use a FireWire 800 to Thunderbolt and then a second Thunderbolt 2 to USB-C (Thunderbolt 4) adapter and plug it into a USB port with the flash icon (Thunderbolt). Make sue you click it in firmly.

A direct adaptor/cable from FireWire to USB-C as used for hard drives or displays does not work for any Nikon Scanners. Without the Thunderbolt adaptor, FireWire commands from the driver do not reaching the scanner.

At least old DV/D8 Firewire camcorders still work on Silicon Macs and Sequoia via these hard-to-find and pricey adapters.

A workaround is to get an old Mac with built-in support for Firewire.

Maybe you might have to Restore legacy video device support also for a scanner:

If you can't use your camera or video output device after updating to macOS Sonoma 14.1 - Apple Support

Apart from VueScan ( paid app/software) available at hamrick.com, i got nuthin’ .. do what Matti Haveri recommended/posted.. get an old Mac with

FireWire support…

john B

Thank you

very ridicuous, but:

1) "direct" connection between mac mini pro and Nikon 9000 via Firewire 400to800 cable/Firewire to TB2 adapter/TB2 to TB3 adapter failed

2) same chain with TB3 to TB2 adapter plugged between Mac mini and TB2 port of WD Thunderbolt Duo, with FW/TB2 adapter plugged in another TB2 port of than WD Thunderbolt Duo, works fine for Silverfast.

Another words, using TB2 disk or TB2 dock station could resolve connectivity issue.

1) "direct" connection between mac mini pro and Nikon 9000 via Firewire 400to800 cable/Firewire to TB2 adapter/TB2 to TB3 adapter failed

2) same chain with TB3 to TB2 adapter plugged between Mac mini M4 pro (Sequoia 15.2) and TB2 port of WD Thunderbolt Duo, with FW/TB2 adapter plugged in another TB2 port of than WD Thunderbolt Duo, works fine for Silverfast.

Another words, using TB2 disk or TB2 dock station could resolve connectivity issue.

Same issue here.....Mac mini running sequoia 15.2 unable to link Nikon 9000ED scanner via silverfast 9 using Firewire 400 to USBC cable. Any advice gratefully received.

You’re welcome