In my last post, I showed you to use FireWire on a Raspberry Pi with a PCI Express IEEE 1394 adapter. Now I'll show you how I'm using a new FireWire HAT and a PiSugar3 Plus battery to make a portable MRU, or 'Memory Recording Unit', to replace tape in older FireWire/i.Link/DV cameras.



The alternative is an old used MRU like Sony's HVR-MRC1, which runs around $300 on eBay1.

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Jeff Geerling

A guide to building a portable MiniDV Memory Recording Unit (MRU) using a Raspberry Pi 5, a FireWire HAT (Firehat), and a PiSugar3 Plus battery. The setup replaces expensive legacy Sony MRUs (~$300 on eBay) with a ~$150-200 DIY alternative. It requires recompiling the Linux kernel to enable FireWire support, then installing the Firehat software. The device can record directly from FireWire/i.Link cameras, archive MiniDV tapes via dvgrab, and transfer files over WiFi or USB. Two FireWire controllers are confirmed working on Pi 5: TI XIO2213A and VIA VT6315N. Linux kernel FireWire support is guaranteed until at least 2029.

Bring back MiniDV with this Raspberry Pi FireWire HAT

Other FireWire devices and the 2029 deadline