need some help with a little hardware hack

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Im trying to do the same thing with these guys.

It's pretty complicated and being on a Mac doesnt help. Your idea looks compelling however it's not cross platform.

I am taking a look at this guy.

http://www.j4mie.org/2008/02/15/how-to-mak...gmail-notifier/

[dallaskorben]

When a new email is received, it blinks, but it does not have enough power to move its head. I checked all of my connections and everything seems good. When I put my hand on it, I can feel the motor trying to move, but it seems like it is starved for power. Any idea why this would be?

You can try disconnecting R6 (the common anode) - that will disable the LED, which will save a bit of power. What values of resistors did you use? Also, do you have another computer to try it on?

I noticed with mine that the owl moves slightly slower than normal (but it does still move). On mine I have removed R6 to disable the LED. It seems like we are hitting the current limit supplied to the USB device, but it surprises me that the USB webmail notifier would use so much power. I tried it with a USB light and it seemed to work normally (but maybe the light doesn't require as much current as the owl).

I'm not at home for the next week, so I won't be doing any hands-on testing until then.

It's pretty complicated and being on a Mac doesnt help. Your idea looks compelling however it's not cross platform.

The USB webmail notifier is recognized by Windows as a human interface device, I think a Mac may also recognize it. Of course some software would have to be written, but by monitoring the USB traffic while the Windows software is running we should be able to see what needs to be sent to the device and then write software for Mac.

Also - using an Arduino, as aloishis89 suggested in his first post, would be a good option. I recently bought an Arduino Diecimila ($40 CAD) and it looks like a great device. It would be no problem to get that working as a cross-platform email notifier. It's a bit more expensive than the USB webmail notifier, but a lot more hacker-friendly.

[aloishis89]

You can try disconnecting R6 (the common anode) - that will disable the LED, which will save a bit of power. What values of resistors did you use? Also, do you have another computer to try it on?

I disconnected R6 and tried it on another computer, but still nothing. The resistors I am using are 10K ohms, which I am pretty sure are the ones you used in your picture. Did you do the math and pick 10K ohms on purpose, or would it me safe for me to go lower?

edit: I looked over the schematic carefully and I do not understand why 5v is not getting to the owl. I also looked at the data sheet for the transistors and it made me wonder if one of the reasons the owl isn't getting the full 5v in your case is that the transistors absorb some current. I have lowered the values of some resistors in the circuit and I still couldn't get the head to move. I didn't lower them a lot, I changed the 10K ohm resistor that was between the NPN emitter and the PNP base to 8K ohms and the 10K ohm between the NPN emitter and the PNP emitter to 4.7K ohm (does this resistor even need to be there?). I was afraid to lower them any more. It doesn't make sense because I built the exact same thing you did! Let me know of any ideas you have of things to try.