TechBlog from Sewell

Before there was today’s IEEE 1284 or RS-232 and all of those super fancy high-tech data transfer protocols, there was GPIB, or IEEE 488. GPIB has been used for almost 40 years and it is a marvel that for certain applications, GPIB is still alive and well.

Remember those old Commodore computers you grew up with, spilling milk in between the keys and getting in big trouble with dad? Well, many models of those old computers used to use GPIB interfaces to connect peripherals like disk drives. It was developed originally by HP in the late 60s to use with multimeters and logic analyzers and the interface lives on today in industrial and commercial settings to control automated machinery.

Often times it is much cheaper to somehow get today’s modern computers to comunicate with older machines rather than building or buying new manufacturing equipment or automated systems. That’s where the USB to GPIB comes in. With the universal serial bus (USB), it gives a new fighting chance for old modules with legacy to continue living.

GPIB works on the parallel data transfer specification and the maximum transfer rate is generally 8 megabytes per second.

There are many different types of USB ports and I found a helpful image to show the different common types of USB. There are still other types of USB connections but most of them are proprietary and are only made to work with a specific device that it plugs into. The USB types in the image below from left to right are USB mini-A, USB mini-B, USB B, USB A(female), USB A(male).

12/17/07 Update: The newest version of the driver (available here) now supports Windows Vista Aero effects. You do not need to do anything with your hardware - simply download and install this newest driver and you’ll be running Vista Aero on your additional displays in no time.

Note: We got a very interesting and informative comment from a representative of DisplayLink, which makes the chip in the USB to DVI external video card, explaining some crucial points of the USB to DVI’s capabilities:

- this page mentions a limit of displays up to 20″ - that’s not really true - it will support any display up to 1600×1200 or 1680×1050 (wide), regardless of the panel size. For instance, most 22″ panels these days are 1680×1050 and this resolution is compatible with this adapter.

- The big thing about our technology is its low-latency; that’s what DisplayLink does best. The USB connected display will feel like a DVI connected display in almost every respect, and it will get better quality than VGA especially at high resolutions. This isn’t anything like previous generations of USB to video products.

- Support for Vista Aero is coming soon - we have demonstrated this at WinHEC this year:

http://www.displaylink.com/news/news150507.htm

Special thanks to Jason at DisplayLink for the update. Hey Jason: any word on Mac compatibility?

So, we love our new-found USB to DVI External Video Card. Well, the news just gets better and better and we’ve come to really appreciate her older sister (yes, design this brilliant deserves a feminine pronoun in personifying a PC adapter….), the USB to DVI High Res version.

The new addition boasts two big time features that the low-end model simply doesn’t have. First off, it obviously (by its name) supports a higher resolution, up to 1600×1200. This means you get a clear picture on any display up to 20 inches.

The second major difference between the low and high res versions is that the high resolution USB to DVI video card will let you use MULTIPLE adapters on a single computer. That’s right - you can add up to 5 additional displays from a computer with available USB ports. Sounds too cool to be true, right? It’s not. I tested it just this afternoon. And I even have photo-proof (you’ll have to trust me on this since I recognize it would be pretty easy to duplicate this scenario without actually driving displays via USB). Want to see?

Neat stuff, right? It’s a beautiful thing, too, since the USB to DVI high res is a pretty affordable solution at about $150/unit. (Compare that to the VTBook which retails at $230 and maxes out at 2 additional displays)

I was quite the skeptic regarding what it would actually be able to do when using multiple displays, but I was very impressed when I actually tested the adapters. I was able to do my regular work stuff, navigating between FireFox, Outlook, etc. while running (on the 3 monitors in the distance) an instance of Windows Media Player full screen at 1600×1200, a video in FLV player at full screen, and a YouTube video in FireFox. I was very impressed as all the videos ran fine. I’m not running a supercomputer either. This was all driven by a Dell Inspiron 9400 with 1 gig of RAM, an Intel Core2Duo @ 1.73 GHz.

The bottom line? Check out the USB External Video Card over at Sewell Direct.

This adapter would work well with a touch screen monitor as well.

A lot of people want to add another monitor to their laptop - up until now the best choice was a VTBook. The VTBook is a PCMCIA card that gives you a true digital DVI port out - very cool, but also pretty expensive ($230) and it only offers 32 MB onboard RAM.

Sewell, however, now offers the best of all worlds with a brand new USB to DVI Adapter. This allows you to add another monitor to a laptop or a desktop without dealing with awkward cards. With 128 MB of RAM you can drive a display up to 1280×1024.

The adapter features a DVI port but also comes with a DVI to VGA converter in case you want to use it with a VGA monitor - with technology this good (and cheap - $120!), nobody has an excuse not to drive multiple monitors.

I know this sounds cheezy, but still it is good to hear when a product gets a good review. One of our presales customers called in, and was having problems with his USB extension cables losing a connection for his touchscreen monitors. The result was that he had to unplug and replug the cable every ten minutes. So he ordered some of our Gefen USB 2.0 Active Extension cables, and they solved the problem. He hasnt had to replug the USB cables for over a week now. May not seem like a big deal, but it does show that not all USB 2. Active Extension cables are created equaly.

If you are having probs getting your USB to Cardbus adapter (SW-7851) working with an Option wireless cards then try these steps provided by ELAN.

So you’ve got a USB device or two that you want to share between multiple computers. Whether it’s a printer or a USB fish tank (yes, such a thing exists!), a USB peripheral switch will help you get everything connected.
A USB peripheral switch allows you to share a device (or many devices) between any number of computers. When one computer needs to use the device, the switch connects the two for a flawless, reliable connection.

USB peripheral switches are great because they are inexpensive compared to alternatives such as device servers, and many of them even perform automatic switching.

The most simple switch we carry at Sewell Direct is the 2×1 manual USB peripheral switch. The first number (”2″) represents the number of computers that can be connected to the switch. The last number (”1″) represents how many devices can be connected. So in this case, you can connect two computers to one device. Because the switch is manual, you must push a button to toggle between which computer is connected to the device.

We also carry a 4×1 version of the same manual USB switch.

From there we get into automatic switches. Automatic switches do not require you to push a button to toggle between computers. The switch figures out which computer needs the device automatically and performs switching by itself - you never have to touch a thing.

Our most basic options are our 4×1 automatic USB peripheral switch and our 2×2 automatic USB peripheral switch. Whichever one you need depends on how many computers you need to connect to how many devices.

Unfortunately installing the USB to Serial adapter in Mac OS X isn’t as intuitive as it is in other OS’s. So here’s the steps to install our part number SW-1301 or other USB to Serial adapters that use the prolific chipset:

(make sure the cable is not currently connected to the computer)

1 - Find and run the Mac OS installation file from the CD or download it here:
USB to Serial installation file for Mac OS X

The program should open a window like this:

Just run through the basic setup instructions and it will install the driver.

2 - Once that’s done, plug the cable into the computer (without it being attached to any serial devices). Then we’ll want to make sure that it is being recognized properly. Click on the apple icon in the corner and click “about this mac.” This window should come up:

Click the more info button and this window should come up:

Click on the USB link on the left hand side and you should see “USB-Serial Controller” listed under one of the USB Bus sections. If it is not then the Cable did not detect properly or the Driver did not install properly. Before moving on you’ll need to make sure that it is detecting.

3- If it is detecting then we need to enable it. Go to the apple button then click “System Preferences.” Click network at the top and you should see a window like this:

Then you need to click on the Show button and choose the bottom item in the list, “Network Port Configurations.” The window should change to this:

Check the box next to usbserial and click apply now. Now your USB to Serial adapter should be enabled and ready to go.

If it’s still not working feel free to give our tech support a call or an email.

Do you have a new express card that you want to use on a different computer that doesn’t have an express slot, such as a desktop?

You can use our new USB to Express Card Adapter by SIIG (part number SW-8229) so that you can use your USB-based express card (54mm or 34mm) through a USB port. Express cards are USB-based or PCI express-based so make sure that your express card is USB-based or it will NOT work with this adapter.

This is great if you have a wireless modem express card that you want to plug into your desktop so that you can access the internet on your desktop using your express card modem.

Note: This adapter is Windows Vista compatible.

Here a Sewell Direct we get a good number of calls about our USB to PCMCIA cellular modem adapters. This setup help will attempt to cover the basic steps you can take to get your card to work.

Make sure your card is supported. Jordan wrote an excellent blog to help with this at Jordan’s compatibility chart.

Once you’ve verified your card is supported the next step is to make sure your drivers are installed correctly.

1) Plug in your adapter without the phone card inserted.

2) Go to the device manager. This can be accomplished through the control panel, but my favorite way is to right-click “My Computer”, go to properties. On Vista there is a button on your left, on XP go to the hardware tab and there is a button there.

3) Once inside the device manager, check for a category called “USB PC card readers”. For the U132 it looks like this-

Notice that there are two devices under this category. It is the same for the U142, but on the U111 there is not a diagnostics port. When I installed this the first time my computer only found one device, so I unplugged the adapter and plugged it back in so that I could install the second driver.
If there are no error messages on the devices in the “USB PC card readers”, congratulations! You’ve finished installing the adapter.
If there ARE error messages, or a device isn’t showing up, try disconnecting then reconnecting the adapter to the computer to see if the found new hardware window opens up again. If you can’t get the found new hardware wizard that way, in the device manager you can right click the device and select “update driver” to get the wizard up. Show the wizard where to find the driver on the cd. It should install correctly once you manually show it the driver.

4) While in the device manager, check to make sure your card is installed. Plug your card into your adapter. The device manager should refresh, and (assuming you’ve installed the drivers for your card on this computer) your cellular modem should show up if you expand the “modems” drop-down menu. Once again, make sure there are not any error messages.

5) Now that you know the adapter and modem are functioning properly, it is time to try to establish a connection. My suggestion is to try your provider’s software first, but if that doesn’t work (some software is unable to recognize the card through the adapter) you may need to set up a manual connection. The process requires a blog of its own, and if you get lost feel free to call our tech support. As a general guide use this link on the manual setup for the Verizon 5740 in combination with the setup information for different providers to set up the manual connection. If your provider is not listed in the second link, you will need to call your provider in order to get their manual dialing information.