Description: Mac user's guide for the Sonnet Qio Professional Universal Media Reader/Writer Plus Four eSATA Ports. This manual applies to QIO-E34 (Qio with the PCIe Bus Extender ExpressCard/34 adapter) and QIO-PCIE (Qio with the Bus Extender PCIe adapter card).
This powering method is not officially supported because the Qio can require more power than one FireWire port's power specification. However, the single FireWire port on the unibody MacBook Pro seems to be capable of providing more power (up to 20W in our test) than its specification. In Sonnet tests under the following conditions:
1) If Qio is used with only memory cards (SxS's or SDHC, but not ExpressCard/34 controller cards; P2 cards but not CardBus controller cards; and/or CF Cards);
2) Qio has not more than one Fusion F2 powered from the Qio; and
3) MacBook Pro is unibody model;
then the Qio plus one Fusion F2 seems to be able to be bus powered from the unibody MacBook Pro FireWire port. You would need to use the FireWire power cable provided with the Fusion F2. Sonnet does not guarantee or support this configuration.
This does not seem to work in MacBook Pro models previous to the unibody.