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Can the iPhone accept the 12V input from a firewire charger? Lots of people have firewire chargers hanging around from older iPods and there are some people reporting problems. I would expect it to work as I'd be very surprised if Apple sold a charger with a physically compatible plug but is electrically incompatible in a destructive way.


From a disassembly of the iPhone dock, pins 19 and 20 are wired through, and that is the two pins that carry the 12v firewire power, along with pins 29 and 30 carrying the ground. 3 of the 4 data pins are not wired at all, with the 4th likely being connected simply to inform the user that firewire cannot be used for syncing. I'm not sure why Apple would wire up the power pins if the iPhone couldn't accept them, since the dock is iPhone specific.

If it does work, I'd be tempted to go with this solution, as the firewire port on Macs can still provide power even when the machine is asleep.