Multilabs - Frequently Asked Questions

MULTILABS

FAQs

Here you will find some popular questions regarding us
and our products. Can't find what you are looking for?
Please feel free to contact us for information either
through email or calling (775) 852-7430. We also now
have a group forum where questions can be asked and
answered by the community. Click here to visit the
group forum.

Question	Answer
Do you have volume discount pricing?	Yes, we offer quantity discounts on all of our products starting as low as 10 pieces. To request a quote email our sales department or call (775) 852-7430.

ezVID SERIES

Question	Answer
Can the ezVID Series receive video signals?	No, the ezVID Series only has a video output jack.
Does the ezVID Series have overlay capabilities?	No, the ezVID Series does not have a video input or genlock capabilities. The ezVID Series are simply video generation cards.
What is the output format of the ezVID Series.	The video output of the ezVID devices is composite, non-interlaced, NTSC, 4:3.
I am using a terminal communications program on my computer to send data to the ezVID but why isn't it working?	Because of the specific timing characteristics of the ezVID Series standard terminal communications programs may not work correctly with the ezVID Series. It is recommended that you write a program that follows the timing characteristics of the ezVID Series to get correct operation.
What kind of video monitor is compatible with your ezVID Series?	Any monitor that accepts NTSC composite video will work with the ezVID Series. A TV monitor will work just fine but a VGA computer monitor will not work as the ezVID Series generates composite video and not VGA signals. The connector available on the ezVID Series is a standard RCA style jack colored yellow. You will see similar jacks on the back of your DVD, VCR, TV, etc that say video in/out. 'Non-interlaced' is the signal format we use. Any video monitor can decode two types of signals: 'Interlaced' and 'Non-Interlaced'. The difference between the two is just the viewing resolution. Our customers have used the ezVID Series successfully on all types of video equipment including LCD screens with a video input. Multilabs also tests 100% of the product on TV monitors for operation, color, and clarity before packaging for shipment.

ezMOUSE

Question	Answer
Does the ezMOUSE store button presses?	No, when you issue a 'Get Data' command the ezMOUSE will return movement data along with a set of information flags. Three of these flags indicate the current state of the buttons at the time the 'Get Data' command was executed. These flags do not indicate button activity that occured since the last 'Get Data' command.
No matter how many times I move my mouse the overflow flags never get set. Why?	During testing of various mice and manufacturers it was found that there are two varieties of mice on the market. Some have 8-bit counters and some have 9-bit counters. The 8-bit counter variety will only count from +127 to -128. These types do not seem to use the overflow bit flags. The 9-bit variety can count from +255 to -256 and do use the overflow bit flags if these maximums are reached. If you are able to read the mouse data often enough you would probably never need to use these flags or even know if the mouse has an 8-bit or 9-bit counter.
Everytime I move my mouse I read large increases/decreses in the movement value. Can I change this?	The standard PS/2 command set has four resolution settings. In the ezMOUSE command set they are called Super-High Resolution, High Resolution, Medium Resolution, and Low Resolution. A mouse that is fully PS/2 command compliant will change its internal counting when you issue one of these commands to the ezMOUSE. When the connected mouse is first initialized it defaults to High Resolution. Try lowering the resolution to Medium or Low and this should lower your movement counts between data reads. During testing it was found that optical mice are much more sensitive to movement then roller-ball style mice. Changing an optical mouse to low resolution still resulted in numerous counts per read. Your application can scale the read data as well to achieve the resolution the desire. Please refer to Applications Note 010 for information on this technique.

ezKEY

Question	Answer
What happens when the character buffer in the ezKEY gets full?	When the character buffer in the ezKEY reaches forty characters it will ignore any further keystrokes until the buffer is read. With a fast typist it would take nearly 5 seconds to fill the buffer so regular reads of the buffer would prevent this from happening.