TechBlog from Sewell

At long last, Display Link has officially come out with their Mac driver for the Usb External Video Card.

One of the very few drawbacks of owning certain Macs is that it is nearly impossible to add extra monitors. For machines that you can’t open or install new cards in, like the Mac Mini or the iMac, you were pretty much doomed to the prison cell of a few inches. With the advent of the USB to DVI, thousands of users of these machines will be turned loose to be able to use more than one monitor. And since the DVI signal is a DVI-I, you can put a DVI-VGA adapter on it (which comes included) for use with a VGA monitor. If you look at the Mac demographic, it is accepted that many of them are designers, video editors, music producers, etc. These are all fields where having more real estate is key. What if you spent that extra bit of money and got a MacBook Pro for the extra DVI port, but still wanted more monitors? Now you can with the new release of the USB to DVI mac driver.

Display Link had a working version of the Mac driver back in January that they showed us at CES. In the last couple months they’ve worked out the kinks and bugs and have officially released their product which is now fit for mass use. We tested it today in-house on a Macbook Air and it worked beautifully. When you open the system preferences menu to change resolution, a resolution menu conveniently pops up on both screens simultaneously clearing up any confusion of which monitor’s resolution you’re changing. One thing we noticed is that dragging windows around on the extra monitor with the mac driver is slightly choppier than its PC counter-part. Display Link says they are working on it and hope to have updated drivers in the future that will fix it. I’m all for the release of this current version for Mac use now as opposed to waiting longer for them to tweak and improve it.

Another thing we noticed about this driver is that it wouldn’t work with the older USB to DVI version with the old chip set. The easiest way to know if your USB to DVI works with the new Mac driver is by looking at the logo on the unit. If the logo says ‘Sewell’, you can rest assured that it is the newer chip set and so will work with the Mac version. If you bought your unit from us and it is more generic, it’s the older chip set and probably won’t work with this driver (although trying it out won’t cost you anything if you’ve already got the adapter).

Mac OSX BETA drivers (These drivers are still in a beta form and are not guaranteed to work in all cases)

I am a strong advocate of cheap, affordable USB extension cables for a number of reasons, all of which I like to believe are well-grounded. Reason number one: the device cables that accompany my purchase of any given piece of technology are rarely, if ever, long enough. Given that USB is my data interface of choice for all my device components, this makes the necessity for USB extension cables painfully apparent. Any poor soul who has been forced to make do with a shorter cable than he would prefer can feel my pain when I say that for a long time, I lacked a mouse cable long enough to reach from my designated mouse ”zone” to the USB port on the back of my computer.

Fortunately I was able to remedy this particular problem by applying one of these handy extension cables. So often I think that we put off purchasing these because we say “well, I don’t need one that badly.” The funny thing is that purchasing a USB extension cable becomes one of those “why didn’t I do this earlier” stories the instant you finally shell out and buy one.

The second reason I like USB extension cables is perhaps a little odd: I couldn’t find my belt one day and I needed a way to keep my pants from falling down. Rather than resign myself to the unenviable fate of manually holding my pants up for the entire day I made do with what I had on hand… So I tied a USB cable around my pants and voila! A cable belt! Geek, yet chic. It’s worth noting that many people complimented me on my resourcefulness and bleeding edge fashion sense!

So there you have it, whether you’re endeavoring to end the frustration from short cables or striving to make a statement with your apparel, the USB cable can, and will, reliably meet your varied and many needs.

Featuring 17 full inches of raw, unadulterated, interactive display surface, the Synaps Touch Screen Monitor kicks the world of touch screen displays to a whole new level. Kiss convention goodbye as you deploy this bad boy into environments typically restricted from consumer electronics. Increase your company’s mindshare by implementing this “gee-whiz!” innovation into retail locations, kiosks, convention booths, and beyond.

So why wait? Enjoy this heavyweight technology without the heavyweight price at Sewell Direct. 

This USB to DVI external video card is amazing! This lets you use two monitors at once (at least!) which is very convenient. On one monitor you can have internet explorer to help you find all the information you’ll need to know to write your paper in a Word document which would be up on the other monitor. This makes it so you won’t have to switch between tabs constantly. This is just an example. There are many other things you can use multiple monitors at once for. Get one today!

Why would you want to use more than one color of the Cat5e bulk cable?

We don’t have them yet, but shortly we will have multiple colors of the bulk cable to offer. Different colors can especially come in handy when wanting to provide internet to multiple computers in different locations at the office at once. It helps you to distinguish which cables are going where instead of having just a huge mass of grey cables going to many different places. Soon we will have red, blue and grey available!

With the various USB to serial adapters we sell it is often necessary to change the COM port it is assigned to. It’s a fairly simple process once you know the method. You first just need to get into the windows device manager. If you’re not aware of how to get there you can do it as follows:
(Right click on My Computer -> click propterties -> click hardware -> click Device manager)

This will bring up the device manager. Then you need to click the plus next to the Ports (COM and LPT) category.

FTDI USB to serial Port in the Device manager:

Then double click on the USB to serial adapter.

FTDI USB to serial port properties:

Click the port settings tab.

Port settings tab:

Click advanced.

Advanced options:

Once you get to this point you can select the proper COM port for your equipment. COM 1 is generally the most universal. Once you’ve selected the COM port just click the OK buttons until you are back to the device manager. Then you can close that and you’re all set.

Okay. This tutorial is kind of rushed. But if you do have questions, dont hesitate to bring them up at the Sewell Direct Forum. Suppose your name is Cameron Postelwait. This is what your System profile will look like when you have the USB to Parallel adapter installed. To get there:
1. Click on the Apple in the corner
2. Click on More Info
3. Click on USB on the left hand side
4. You should notice IEEE 1284 on the right hand side. If it isnt showing up then either it isnt plugged in good enough, or it is bad, or it isnt using the Prolific chip.

Next lets move onto the System prefrences.

5. Click on Print & Fax
6. The Print & Fax window will pop open

7. Click on the Plus sign

8. The Printer Browser opens
9. You should see the IEEE-1284 controller if the adapter is connected without a printer. If the printer is also connected, then it should show the printer name instead.

10. Go ahead and select it and Click on the Add button.
11. If you just see the USB adapter in the Printer Name list, then click on it and change the Printer being used through it down below on the drop down menu.

Firewire has a cable limit of 15′ without a repeater. If you are coming from a powered 6 pin firewire port, (like those on desktop computers) repeater cables like our SW-1101 are a simple and inexpensive solution.

If you have a 4 pin port on your computer, (or an un-powered 6 pin port) then the repeater cables will not work. The repeater requires in-line power from the 6 pin port.

Gefen has a solution for exending firewire cables. It is a little more complicated, (and unfortunately more expensive) but it will allow you to run longer distances.

You will need the firewire 400 repeater from gefen, and the power supply (which isn’t included) and a couple of the longest firewire device cables.

Depending on your total distance, you can daisy-chain repeaters together with specialized 33 foot cables.

Modular adapters can be a technician’s dream. Imagine yourself having to troubleshoot devices and having to carry a variety of cable to match individual devices. It can be tedious and back breaking to have such a large array of cables. That’s why there is such a great advantage to something like the DB9 Modulator Adapters .Now these nifty little adapters fit directly onto a cable with RJ-45 ends. The adapters come un-terminated so that a technician can choose which end they might want. This allows you to chose if you want a straight through connection or even throw in a twist. Now you can imagine the technician with a lighter load since all he needs to carry is a standard Cat5e Ethernet cable and an assortment of adapters.

Just when you thought you had a grasp on modern technology, another new standard is introduced. In the near future (?) you’ll begin seeing plugs in camcorders and other A/V devices that none of your other cables will fit in. This is most likely a variation on the new HDMI 1.3 standard called a mini-HDMI connector. It is similar in shape to the current HDMI plug, but a little smaller.

A new mini-HDMI connector next to the current HDMI plug

In addition to the cute new form factor, the HDMI 1.3 standard increases the current HDMI standard’s bandwidth from 165 MHz, or about 4.95 gigabits per second, to 340 MHz, or about 10.2 gigabits per second. Basically, this means you get a more consistent, clean audio and video signal from point A to point B.

So prepare for the up-and-coming technology, likely to be released with major A/V hardware providers like Sony. And when you see it, don’t freak out, just contact us with any questions you may have about mini HDMI and mini HDMI cables.