dallaskorben

I put together a circuit with a couple of transistors, connected to the green cathode, and it seems to work well. When an email is received, the owl blinks its eyes and moves its head, when the alert is dismissed the owl stops. The USB connector I used sticks out of the case a little bit because of poor planning - I cut the hole for the socket in a place where there's not quite room for the socket to fit inside. But it turned out to be not too bad. Photos are on this flickr set. I'll draw and post a schematic in the next few days. I used a 2N2905A PNP transistor to switch +5v to the USB socket, and a 2N2219A NPN transistor to invert the signal for the green cathode, so the USB socket has +5v when the green led is off. (edited to correct 2N2219A NPN transistor part number)

I often buy parts from Digikey, they offer next day delivery. On Digikey, a search for 'pushbutton', then narrowing it down to 'Tactile' (under switches), then narrowing it down to 'illuminated' gives a result of 119 items, spanning 5 pages. Digikey mails out catalogs for free, they are over 2400 pages and it makes it a lot easier to browse for items than the website. (the website is great if you know exactly what you're searching for) A couple of examples that I saw looking through the catalog: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch...ame=708-1319-ND - it looks very nice, the catalog says it is 'vandal resistant' (but they are $23 each). For $2.69 there is this one: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch...;name=EG4398-ND (now that I reread your post and see you want 10 or so, the $23 ones might be a bit expensive.. But there's a wide variety, you may find something in your price range) Another online source with large inventory is Mouser. And a great site with lots of neat hobby-type electronics is SparkFun - it is definitely work checking out, they have some cool parts.

Some photos of the usb webmail notifier, for anybody interested in what it looks like. Also a photo of the PCB, I labeled pin numbers of the LED and what they control.

I'm not sure how the pins are numbered on this kind of package, I think they are numbered like a regular IC. (pin 1 at top left, counting down the left side and up the right side, with last pin at top right) What I found is: pin 1 = R6 (75 ohm) (common anode) pin 2 = R4 (0 ohm) (blue cathode) pin 3 = R5 (0 ohm) (green cathode) pin 4 = R7 (56 ohm) (red cathode)

Me too! But I left it at work and I'm at home right now. I'll get the photos later. I thought the same thing! I was expecting something much bigger. It's an IC under a glob-top encapsulant. From Wikipedia IC packaging: ""blob on PCB" that attaches the raw die directly to a PCB, bonds the die wires directly to the PCB traces, then covers the die and the die wires with a blob of insulator;" Instead of putting the silicon die into a plastic package, they put it directly on the PCB and cover it for protection. (it's cheaper) You can make the connection to the resistor that is in series with the LED, as long as you don't overheat it (and pull the LED off the board) it should be pretty easy - there is plenty of space between parts at least. The R, G, B pins of the LED are not all at the same voltage level. Normally G is at 0v (to have green led on), when a mail is received it turns off G (sets pin to +5v) and pulls the B pin low. (it flashes the blue led, so actually the B pin is pulsed low, not just held low) After the new email alert completes, the B pin goes back to idle (+5v) and the G pin goes to 0v to turn the green led back on. Using the B pin for control will mean that the output is flashed on and off. Using the G pin works better - when the G pin is at 0v, we want output to be disabled, when the G pin is at 5v output should be enabled. (I tested it this way using a MIC2981 driver ic, and it worked well) A USB-powered snowman (that lights up) worked fine when I had it controlled from the USB email notifier, but I had problems getting the USB owl to work. It seems like the owl is starved for power - I tested the control circuit using a 5v power supply and it worked well, but when I piggybacked 5v from the USB email notifier it had problems.

I got my ThinkGeek order today! Attached is a picture of the USB owl. (but I still haven't received the USB email notifier)

They sell Astronaut Ice Cream. ASTRONAUT ICE CREAM! Soon, I'll be dining like a spaceman! That is a nice tutorial, and it probably could be easily controlled by the USB email notifier. (but it's overkill for controlling the USB owl) I have used a MIC2981 chip in another project, and it worked well. It's only about $3 for the chip. I think it might work for this project also. There are lots of simple circuits that could work for this. I think once we get the devices and open the USB email notifier up to see what its circuit looks like, then we can figure out the simplest way to control the owl.

I placed my orders for the owl and notifier tonight. (and a short browse at ThinkGeek ended in a $223 order. way too much neat stuff! lol)

Thanks for that - I had no idea of Terry Fox's pioneering work as a wifi hacker. The man is a great inspiration. Truly he covered a lot of ground.

I don't usually put stickers on my laptop, so I'm trying to find some other fun places to put them.

You should be able to do something like that, yes. (you may need a transistor or something between the LED connection and the relay, to provide the necessary current to switch the relay - same basic idea, just a detail of the circuit) I'm going to order a couple of the USB notifiers to tinker with myself. I have a little electronics lab to tinker in, I can try to help you figure out how to wire it up. It shouldn't take more than a few dollars of parts (in addition to the USB owl and the USB notifier), but will probably require a small amount of soldering.

The 'USB Webmail Notifier' from Usb.brando.com.hk (link in your first post) looks like it would probably be the easiest/cheapest way to do what you want. At the price ($17), it would be hard to build hardware from scratch to do what you want. (and most homebrew projects use parallel port or serial port for control, which many PCs don't even have anymore) If you're looking for a hardware 'do it yourself' project, there are many ways to accomplish what you want. If you want to control the device by parallel or serial port then you can build very simple hardware to do so (basically just a relay). If you want to control the device by USB then you need to build slightly more advanced hardware (with a microcontroller that can talk USB). The USB Webmail Notifier is a nice option because then you only need to plug one thing into USB (the webmail notifier), and the other device you want to power (the owl) can be connected to the webmail notifier for power. No need for parallel or serial ports, no need for external power. I don't think a DC to DC converter is what I would use, but it would be pretty straightforward to use a relay to control power to the owl.

Maybe there is a way in software to enable/disable a specific USB port? In that case you could plug the owl into a USB port, and have a program enable that USB port when an email is received. But I don't know if it's possible to enable/disable individual USB ports, so maybe it won't work - just throwing that idea out there. edit: doing some googling and found this post saying what I am suggesting is not possible - http://www.mail-archive.com/python-win32@p...g/msg02616.html

I don't know of a list of default icons for different development tools, but it would be useful. If you are making a list, here are a couple: Borland C++Builder: http://www.decompile.com/images/cppfaq/Con...efault_icon.gif Delphi: http://uploads.neowin.net/forum/post-47-1084979198.png (circled in red) (I found them by Google image search and I recognize them from when I've used them in the past)