How to make a Physical Gmail Notifier

February 15, 2008 in Electronics + Robotics |

Or: how to turn this..

Google Notifier

into this..

Physical Notifier

I was given a lovely glowing cube by the generous people at Linden Labs as a freebie at a job fair yesterday, and I decided that it was far too attractive to simply sit there on a shelf, pulsating forlornly until its batteries went flat. How about making it useful, while maintaining its visual appeal?

It All Starts With A Cube

The following guide is deliberately fairly high-level, because the exact details will vary depending on your operating system and particular hardware setup. I did this with my Mac, but hopefully there’ll be enough information here for you make it work on your system, perhaps with a little Googling.

If you don’t happen to have a glowing cube lying around, you can modify this to work with almost any output device you could think of, from a simple LED, or a buzzer, to something far more clever like moving a servo (Gmail Notifier Robot, anyone?)

The basic system has three components:

  • the software that runs on your computer,
  • the electronics hardware that sits between the computer and the output device,
  • and the software that runs on that hardware.

Every so often, the computer checks for new emails in your Gmail account, and then tells the electronics board whether any have arrived. If they have, the board turns on the output device (the cube). Simple.

Hardware

The hardware itself is the popular Arduino board, the tinkerer’s dream device. I’m actually using a Boarduino, but any variant should work (subject to a small but important detail, see below). This might be particularly interesting with a Bluetooth Arduino..

The Arduino talks with your computer over a serial connection, which runs over the normal USB cable you use to communicate with your Arduino.

Here’s the first important note: the latest Arduino Diecimila has an “auto-reset” feature which allows you to upload programs to the board without manually pressing the Reset button every time. This works by resetting the board whenever it receives any data over the serial port. Because we are going to be sending serial data to the board regularly, this is not what we want. Fortunately, this feature can be disabled on my Boarduino by simply removing a capacitor (C6), but it may be trickier on the official Arduino. Any suggestions for how to get round this in software would be gladly received (leave a comment!). One way is to simply keep the serial port open all the time (perhaps using the Serial Proxy, link at the bottom of this page). This solution isn’t much use for me, as I’ll be unplugging the USB connection regularly and don’t want to have to disable anything first. However this may be fine if your computer is a desktop and you can leave the Arduino plugged in all the time. If you go this route, you’ll have to use a different script running on the computer, and make sure it runs continually rather than repeatedly. I’ll leave this to you!

I connected up the cube using a PC fan extension cable from Maplin - simply because the connector on the end fits perfectly on the pins of my Boarduino. Use your own method to connect your output device.

Fan Cable

I chopped off the “plug” end of the cable and soldered it onto the battery connectors on the cube, drilling a hole in the battery cover to allow the wires to pass through:

Battery compartment

Cable exit

Connected up to the Boarduino for testing:

Connected up

Software

This project requires two bits of software: one running on the Arduino to receive serial data and toggle the output accordingly, and one running on the computer to check for new emails and send data out over the serial port. To re-iterate, these code listings should only be used as a guide. They work for me, but I don’t guarantee they’ll work for you, and I accept no responsibility for breaking things. If you don’t understand what this code is doing, you probably shouldn’t be running it.

The Arduino software is fairly trivial. It just loops round, watching for bytes coming in over the serial port, and sets a variable called “mail” to be true if the data is an ‘M‘, and false if it’s an ‘N‘ (of course these characters are arbitrary). It then updates the value of the output pin to be equal to this mail variable. You can hack this and expand it or modify it however you like - perhaps you could make an LED blink when you have new email instead of just turn on?

  1. int outPin = 12; // Output connected to digital pin 12
  2. int mail = LOW; // Is there new mail?
  3. int val; // Value read from the serial port
  4.  
  5. void setup()
  6. {
  7. pinMode(outPin, OUTPUT); // sets the digital pin as output
  8. Serial.begin(9600);
  9. Serial.flush();
  10. }
  11.  
  12. void loop()
  13. {
  14. // Read from serial port
  15. if (Serial.available())
  16. {
  17. val = Serial.read();
  18. Serial.println(val);
  19. if (val == 'M') mail = HIGH;
  20. else if (val == 'N') mail = LOW;
  21. }
  22.  
  23. // Set the status of the output pin
  24. digitalWrite(outPin, mail);
  25. }

Upload this to your Arduino, and then connect your output device to pin 12.

The software for the computer takes the form of a Python script, and is slightly trickier. First, it tries to open the serial port for communication with your Arduino. If it can’t do this (say, if your USB cable is unplugged), it quits immediately. If the serial port opens successfully, the script has to talk to Google’s servers to determine if you have any new email waiting for you. It does this by authenticating with your Gmail username and password, and then requesting the Atom feed for your inbox (this part of the script is based on code from here). It then parses out the line containing the number of unread messages (the XML tag is called ). If the unread message count is zero, it sends an ‘N‘ over the serial connection. If it’s greater than zero, it sends an ‘M‘.

This requires the pySerial library!

  1. import urllib2, re, serial, sys
  2.  
  3. #Settings - Change these to match your account details
    USERNAME="username@gmail.com"
    PASSWORD="yourpassword"
  4.  
  5. PROTO="https://"
    SERVER="mail.google.com"
    PATH="/gmail/feed/atom"
  6.  
  7. SERIALPORT = "/dev/tty.usbserial" # Change this to your serial port!
  8.  
  9. # Set up serial port
  10. try:
  11. ser = serial.Serial(SERIALPORT, 9600)
  12. except serial.SerialException:
  13. sys.exit()
  14.  
  15. # Get Gmail Atom feed
  16. passman = urllib2.HTTPPasswordMgrWithDefaultRealm()
  17. passman.add_password(None, SERVER, USERNAME, PASSWORD)
  18. authhandler = urllib2.HTTPBasicAuthHandler(passman)
  19. opener = urllib2.build_opener(authhandler)
  20. urllib2.install_opener(opener)
  21. page = urllib2.urlopen(PROTO + SERVER + PATH)
  22.  
  23. # Find the mail count line
  24. for line in page:
  25. count = line.find("fullcount")
  26. if count > 0: break
  27.  
  28. # Extract the mail count as an integer
  29. newmails = int(re.search('\d+', line).group())
  30.  
  31. # Output data to serial port
  32. if newmails > 0: ser.write('M')
  33. else: ser.write('N')
  34.  
  35. # Close serial port
  36. ser.close()

UPDATE: See below for a nicer version of this script.

Now, this script needs to be run regularly (say, once a minute) so that when you get a new email, your notifier will light up promptly. On Mac OS X, the launchd service handles, among other things, launching programs at set intervals (on other Unix systems liked Linux, you may need to use cron. On Windows, I have no idea - but I’d imagine it’s possible somehow).

Put this code in a .plist file (mine’s called org.j4mie.check-gmail.plist - I have no idea if you have to follow the weird naming format, but it works for me) and save it in ~/Library/LaunchAgents (create this folder if it doesn’t exist). Don’t forget to change the second ProgramArguments string to the location of your Python script.

  1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
    <plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.j4mie.check-gmail</string>
    <key>OnDemand</key>
    <true/>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
  2. <string>/usr/bin/python</string>
    <string>/Users/yourusername/path/to/check-gmail.py</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>60</integer>
    </dict>
    </plist>

To load this plist file into launchd, type launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.j4mie.check-gmail.plist at the terminal (or reboot your computer).

And, with any luck, that should be it! Once a minute, your Python script will execute, checking for any new emails in your inbox. If any have arrived, your cube (or other output device) should spring into life!

Physical Notifier

UPDATE: Here’s a much nicer version of the Python script, using the Universal Feed Parser module from www.feedparser.org

  1. import serial, sys, feedparser
  2.  
  3. #Settings - Change these to match your account details
    USERNAME="username@gmail.com"
    PASSWORD="yourpassword"
  4. PROTO="https://"
    SERVER="mail.google.com"
    PATH="/gmail/feed/atom"
  5.  
  6. SERIALPORT = "/dev/tty.usbserial-FTDK0P3M" # Change this to your serial port!
  7.  
  8. # Set up serial port
  9. try:
  10. ser = serial.Serial(SERIALPORT, 9600)
  11. except serial.SerialException:
  12. sys.exit()
  13.  
  14. newmails = int(feedparser.parse(PROTO + USERNAME + ":" + PASSWORD + "@" + SERVER + PATH)["feed"]["fullcount"])
  15.  
  16. # Output data to serial port
  17. if newmails > 0: ser.write('M')
  18. else: ser.write('N')
  19.  
  20. # Close serial port
  21. ser.close()

63 Comments »

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  1. I really like your idea :)

    Comment by Sohail — February 15, 2008 #

  2. […] enough information here for you make it work on your system, perhaps with a little Googling.  Click here for full article  Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! Published Feb 15 2008, 12:05 […]

    Pingback by How to make a Physical Gmail Notifier - Information Technology — February 15, 2008 #

  3. Jamie, this is really cool and I want one. If you have any spare cubes and Arduino boards lying around send them my way :)

    Comment by Scott — February 15, 2008 #

  4. And to anyone who doesn’t have one of these cubes on hand, let me suggest that Ikea has a lot of lamps that are ripe for modification.

    I turned one of these: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10029220
    into this:
    http://flickr.com/photos/recursive/2253405271/

    (That’s just a dimmable colorful lamp. I have another, and I might turn that one into some sort of network-controlled RGB lamp.)

    Comment by Michael Magin — February 15, 2008 #

  5. The Hacktory here in Philly is working on putting together a kit like this for Ikea lamps (like Michael mentioned). I’m aiming to have the class run this summer or fall.

    Great minds thing alike!

    Ikea is my best source for project boxes ever, by the way.

    Comment by FarMcKon — February 16, 2008 #

  6. […] How to make a Physical Gmail Notifier - Link […]

    Pingback by HOW TO - Make a physical email notifier — February 16, 2008 #

  7. […] How to make a Physical Gmail Notifier at j4mie dot org […]

    Pingback by holotone.net — February 16, 2008 #

  8. […] GMail son pequeñas aplicaciones que muestran un mensaje cada vez que recibimos un correo nuevo. Esta guía nos enseña cómo hacer un notificador en la vida real, que enciende una luz cada vez que tenemos […]

    Pingback by Cómo hacer un notificador «real» para GMail | Bitperbit — February 16, 2008 #

  9. I made a similar thing :-)
    http://www.s-m-l.org/dev/ezusb-frosty.html

    Comment by mike — February 16, 2008 #

  10. […] Gmail são pequenas aplicações que mostram uma mensagem cada vez que recebemos um novo e-mail. Este tutorial nos ensina como fazer um notificador real, que acende uma luz cada vez que temos um e-mail novo na […]

    Pingback by faça um notificador verdadeiro para gmail | blog xkill — February 16, 2008 #

  11. This is awsome. I’m going to make one 2!

    Comment by Supernova — February 16, 2008 #

  12. That’s weird - the 2nd life cube you have looks identical to one I bought in Barcelona.

    I did a similar hack to yours using it, except that I disconnected the 3 LEDs from the little epoxy chip running them and hooked them up individually to PWMs (on a different controller board, but maybe the Arduino can handle it too?).

    Then I had different states for the cube:
    * off
    * blinking red/green - new IM
    * orange, new mail
    * violet - “I’m busy, don’t bother me” to keep people away from my desk :)

    Comment by Jan Schmidt — February 16, 2008 #

  13. […] lying around, an Arduino board and some software. Hit the link for a full set of instructions. [j4mie via […]

    Pingback by DIRBIZ DOT INFO | Make Your Own Physical Gmail Notifier [DIY] — February 16, 2008 #

  14. I’m not 100% sure, but I think that in your arduino code, the first line of void setup () should be

    pinMode(outPin, OUTPUT);
    not
    pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);

    Thanks a lot for this post! I’ve been looking for something exactly like this!

    Comment by TinyEnormous — February 16, 2008 #

  15. Thanks tinyenormous, you’re absolutely right, well spotted! I changed the variable names when I posted the code here, and I must’ve missed that.

    Thanks to all for the comments!

    Comment by Jamie — February 16, 2008 #

  16. Awesome ideea. Thanks for sharing. This is good to know.

    Comment by Dan — February 16, 2008 #

  17. Fun stuff.
    I am using the Arduino Diecimila and to get around the ‘auto reset’ problem, I just looped the python code. Probably not the most elegant method, but it works.

    Comment by Jeph — February 16, 2008 #

  18. hmmm.. it seems to me that it would be easier to control the cube directly from the pc… the arduino seems redundant as you can just raise the pins on your parallelport…

    – just a thought..

    Comment by DeepCore — February 16, 2008 #

  19. […] megvizsgálni, hogy hétfőn mit kell beszereznem az új gmail notifieremhez […]

    Pingback by h e n r i e t t a » Gnocchi — February 17, 2008 #

  20. looks cool, i made a similar picaxe circuit, pics and schematic here: http://successlessness.blogspot.com/2007/07/ambient-email-notifier.html

    Comment by tom — February 17, 2008 #

  21. Awesome idea man. I want to try all this, just that I am not sure if I would be able to away with technicalities.

    Comment by Prateek — February 17, 2008 #

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    Pingback by dahlstrm.nu/blog » Arkiv » Kaniner, pingviner, datorer och byggen — February 17, 2008 #

  23. […] Physical GMAIL Notifier 17 02 2008 How to make a physical GMAIL notifier! […]

    Pingback by Physical GMAIL Notifier « Cynq — February 17, 2008 #

  24. […] recently came across a little project which would turn on an LED box when there was mail your gmail account. I thought it was quite […]

    Pingback by USB Controlled RGB Blob : ..the cat came back.. — February 18, 2008 #

  25. […] lying around, an Arduino board, and some software. Hit the link for a full set of instructions. [j4mie via […]

    Pingback by sakitjiwa@1stlink — February 19, 2008 #

  26. […] How to make a Physical Gmail Notifier at j4mie dot org Gmailが届くと光るキューブの作り方 (tags: gadgets Gmail hack hardware) […]

    Pingback by links for 2008-02-22 « tscpannex — February 22, 2008 #

  27. […] be able to quickly write your first “Hello World” and then get hacking. Just look what one enterprising person did with some Linden Lab schwag from the recent Wired Sussex Jobs […]

    Pingback by BarCamp Brighton Blog : Introduction to Arduino at BarCampBrighton2 — February 24, 2008 #

  28. […] bis aus einer Waschmaschine ein Rechner geworden ist oder aus einem leuchtenden Plastikwürfel ein physischer Gmail-Notifier. Die ganzen Genies, deren Heimat das Make Magazine ist oder […]

    Pingback by EA PLAY » Do It Yourself: Wahnsinn und Genie — February 24, 2008 #

  29. […] Find out how to make this incredible gadget here. […]

    Pingback by MilitantGeeks.com » Blog Archive » How to make a physical ‘GMAIL Notifier’ — February 26, 2008 #

  30. If you are already running Google Notifier, you can write an appleScript plugin, so it will send the trigger bits out the serial port. One less process polling Gmail.

    Comment by David Phillip Oster — February 26, 2008 #

  31. David: the problem with that approach is that you can only configure Gmail Notifier to trigger an Applescript when a new mail arrives, but not when there are no new mails waiting. So the cube would light up when when you get a new email, but it would have no way to know that you’ve read it (and you want the cube to turn off).

    Comment by Jamie — February 26, 2008 #

  32. Home Engineering: Physical Gmail Notifier…

    How to make a Physical Gmail Notifier
    Every so often, the computer checks for new emails in your Gmail account, and then tells the electronics board whether any have arrived. If they have, the board turns on the output device (the cube). Simple.
    The h…

    Trackback by Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog — February 29, 2008 #

  33. […] How to make a Physical Gmail Notifier - Very interesting.  A step by step instruction on how to setup a cube to glow when new emails are received. […]

    Pingback by MYNITOR.COM - Great Stuff. » GMail Notifiers — March 16, 2008 #

  34. […] every so often on your own computer. I’m doing this using launchd in Mac OS X. See my Physical Gmail Notifier post for instructions of how to do […]

    Pingback by PyTwitFace: Twitter/Facebook mashup with Python at j4mie dot org — April 13, 2008 #

  35. […] How to make a Physical Gmail Notifier […]

    Pingback by Gmail notification cube | Development Feeds — May 16, 2008 #

  36. […] a cool hack on how to make a physical gmail notifier.  You could probably use any other type of LED RGB device too. I was given a lovely glowing cube […]

    Pingback by DIY Gmail HACK - How to Make a Physical Gmail Notifier! | zedomax.com - Obsessively profiling DIYs, Hacks, Gadgets, Tech, Web2.0,and beyond. — May 19, 2008 #

  37. Ok that works. Now, does anyone have control over the light color? I’d like to have it turn RED if there is a voicemail.

    Thx

    Max

    Comment by kunau — May 19, 2008 #

  38. […] are as cool, and actually quite useful as this one. Jamie Matthews on his blog shows us all how to turn an external device into a Gmail notification lamp. The article is fairly detailed, but I think if you put in some time and effort you should do […]

    Pingback by Hack Your Day Productivity | DIY Gmail notifier lamp and beyond — May 19, 2008 #

  39. […] How to make a Physical Gmail Notifier at j4mie dot org […]

    Pingback by Blogrilla » How to make a Physical Gmail — May 19, 2008 #

  40. […] my near-hysterical delight, then, when I found this little guy, the literal convergence of my two nerdiest, guiltiest pleasures, over at […]

    Pingback by Probably the coolest thing — May 19, 2008 #

  41. […] http://www.j4mie.org/2008/02/15/how-to-make-a-physical-gmail-notifier/ […]

    Pingback by Tool to integrate hardware feedback into software apps « Gerald Tarcisius — May 20, 2008 #

  42. […] How to make a Physical Gmail Notifier at j4mie dot org Nice hack. (tags: gmail electronics hardware hack projects) […]

    Pingback by links for 2008-05-20 « Romulo Lopez Cordero — May 20, 2008 #

  43. Marvellous Jamie!

    Comment by Ali Muslim — May 20, 2008 #

  44. […] j4mie.org) Tags: diy, gmail […]

    Pingback by marks.dk  – Gmail-notifier - nu som lampe — May 20, 2008 #

  45. Im old but it reminds me of “bit” in the movie Tron. The little blinker thing that told him stuff? I really liked that. Kindof a techy version of tinkerbell.

    It also reminded me of some of my own security hacks. To notify me in case of really nasty activity on my servers and other servers Im being paid to keep an eye on. this lamp would work in well with that system.

    Create an email address for someone like May B. Bhad
    Have the most important warnings sent to that address.
    Create a .forward which sends the email to the sms address for your cell phone AND to another email address OFF system since the sms will only be part of the message. Having the message go to another address off system will insure that you keep a full copy of the warning email and have it in a place that is not reachable by a possible attacker or able to be destroyed by the system problem it is reporting.

    Examples of the types of things which should be sent to may@example.com would be root kit notifications of course, and notifications of a runaway log (df shows a use of over 98%?), maybe each time someone becomes root, if the load average shoots up over a certain level? Anything you consider as something which immeadiately needs your attention.

    Another email you might create is M.Urgency@example.com which has instructions to process emails in a specific manner. That way, if you are away from home and get an SMS from May B. Bhad which shows a serious problem you can just forward it to M.Urgency to shut the system down until you can get home. What you have M.Urgency do on getting an email is up to you. Backup, or restore, or kick up an ssh daemon on an unusual port number, or reboot to single user mode, or even just do a complete shutdown. Or have it actually process a message to decide which of all of them its being told. Such as having it read the Subj: for the words backup, restore, backdoor, reboot, shutdown.

    In other posts I have also discussed having the same options available by other means. Such as watching the weblog for a request to process a CGI request. The CGI itself does not even have to exist since you are only watching for it to be requested such as seeing any site trying to access http://www.example.com/WarningWarningDangerDanger. I would not setting up either the email or the cgi to accept passed parameters. Simply make them absolutes and not have them try to pass anything to root. Simply setup a watch routine that says “if you see this then do this”.

    The advantage of such low-tech things is that attackers might search and shutdown fancier (and well known) watchdog programs. But they will often leave common user accounts alone, and leave web daemon running. These actions are not recommended to replace serious security programs but to simply augment them.

    The funniest thing I got from this was on a server I was paid to admin. I saw a notification that someone had become root. The email included a full netstat (from a hidden clean version) and I saw someone poking around ON THE CONSOLE. I was able to surprise the machines owner by telling him “I see you have someone else checking the system. Should I shut it down? Or am I being replaced?”. The fact that I saw it, that I could stop it, and that the other guy couldnt figure out how either thing was done allowed me to keep the job.” :)

    Gandalf Parker
    –
    Having locks on the gate doesnt mean that you dont need a watchdog in the yard.

    Comment by Gandalf Parker — May 20, 2008 #

  46. awesome idea and i love it
    cheers

    Comment by srikanth — May 20, 2008 #

  47. So if I am not tech savvy enough to understand this how would I go about buying one?

    I’d love to have one notify me of gmail and IM :).

    Comment by Matthew — May 20, 2008 #

  48. […] How to make a Physical Gmail Notifier at j4mie dot org […]

    Pingback by countnazgul.com » Blog Archive » Diigo bookmarks 05/20/2008 (p.m.) — May 20, 2008 #

  49. fuck, this is great, thanks

    Comment by zero — May 21, 2008 #

  50. […] How to make a Physical Gmail Notifier at j4mie dot org (tags: programming projects hardware hacks diy electronics arduino) […]

    Pingback by links for 2008-05-21 at Eraserhead — May 21, 2008 #

  51. To get it to not reset on opening the serial port, try to get your system to not unassert the DTR line.

    DTR low drags the /RESET line down after the capacitor C4 (in the boardino USB schematic) discharges. Not allowing DTR to fall (possibly through manually manipulating the FDTI chip’s driver in the USB version) will prevent the reset due to serial actions.

    Comment by Kevin B — May 22, 2008 #

  52. Cool project and a good write up, nice work.

    The Arduino boards are just great and so easy to get going with.

    Some time ago I made a build indicator for Cruise Control using a USB SnowMan but the hardware wasn’t ideal and difficult to get hold of, I’m planning to update it soon to use the Arduino also.

    If your readers have problems getting their hands on the cube they might like to try the SnowMan like I used, it’s a standard off the self USB SnowMan (without the sound), remove the base and pull out the old LED then put in a standard 5mm LED (I used a TriColor LED) – don’t forget the appropriate resistors, then hook-up similar to how you’ve done it – or even just chop the cable going to the USB connector and use the built in multi-color LED. Hey presto a SnowMan GMail indicator!

    Comment by stephen harrison — May 23, 2008 #

  53. […] How to make a Physical Gmail Notifier at j4mie dot org (tags: gmail electronics diy hardware arduino hack reddit) This entry was written by delicious and posted on 5/22/2008 at 11:33 pm and filed under Home. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. « links for 2008-05-22 […]

    Pingback by the eXternal mind » links for 2008-05-23 — May 23, 2008 #

  54. […] How to make a Physical Gmail Notifier - Fun project that uses a glowing cube to make a GMail notifier. […]

    Pingback by Blue Onion Software - Onion Peels Blog - Friday Links #2 — May 23, 2008 #

  55. […] I found an very interesting project on a blog it will let you to make a Notifier in form of a lamp which will glow up whenever a mail reaches in your GMAIL box I guess with some change in programming you can make same for other mails which supports POP3 or IMAP All the details can be found >> Here […]

    Pingback by Physical Gmail Notifier « ThinkFree, Think Different :) — May 30, 2008 #

  56. Hi, this is very cool. I have an arduino and have been wanting some web -> physical thing for ages.

    So I got everything going, figured out why my serial port wasn’t working (some weird character in my tty.usbserial text) and the only stumbling block now is that my version of python doesn’t seem to have ssl installed, so won’t do https requests properly.

    I’ve been installing python lib after python lib in an attempt to access https and I can’t get it working! I’m sure others have this problem, but I haven’t found a solution.

    Any ideas!?!?!??!

    Cheers, Ben.

    Macbook - os x 10.4 - python 2.4

    Comment by Ben goMako — June 1, 2008 #

  57. That seems strange, Ben. I’m using 10.5 and Python 2.5.1 so I can’t reproduce your problem. Perhaps you could try installing the Universal Feed Parser module from:

    http://www.feedparser.org/

    and then use this new “short version” of the Python code:


    import serial, sys, feedparser

    #Settings
    USERNAME=”username@gmail.com”
    PASSWORD=”yourpassword”
    PROTO=”https://”
    SERVER=”mail.google.com”
    PATH=”/gmail/feed/atom”

    SERIALPORT = “/dev/tty.usbserial-FTDK0P3M”

    # Set up serial port
    try:
    ser = serial.Serial(SERIALPORT, 9600)
    except serial.SerialException:
    sys.exit()

    newmails = int(feedparser.parse(PROTO + USERNAME + “:” + PASSWORD + “@” + SERVER + PATH)[”feed”][”fullcount”])

    # Output data to serial port
    if newmails > 0: ser.write(’M')
    else: ser.write(’N')

    # Close serial port
    ser.close()

    EDIT: Oops, WordPress seems to have lost the indentation, but you should be able to work it out.

    Comment by Jamie — June 2, 2008 #

  58. Hi, what a great idea! When I saw this I wanted to try it for myself. Everything works for me when I run it from the terminal. But when using launchd I get this error:
    ImportError: No module named serial.
    I’m thinking it has got something to do with Mac OSX 10.5 build-in Python interpreter, but I have no idea how to fix this…
    Any help would be great! Thanks!
    Allan

    Comment by Allan Knoop — June 2, 2008 #

  59. Hi Allan,

    You need to install the PySerial library from here:

    http://pyserial.sourceforge.net/

    Good luck!

    Comment by Jamie — June 2, 2008 #

  60. Thanks for your reply! I did that, and it works fine, but only from the terminal! Somehow the module isn’t being recognized when I use launchd to run the script…
    Anyway, I’ll keep trying to figure it out!
    Thanks! Allan

    Comment by Allan Knoop — June 2, 2008 #

  61. i’ve done the “server side” software with visual basic. if someone’s interested you can mail me at teto9001 [ @ ] gmail.com

    Comment by stefano — June 5, 2008 #

  62. Hi Jamie, i’ve done a (windows only) Visual Basic version, and modded the Arduino software. It blinks N times, where N is the new mail count. If you have 5 new mails, it blinks 5 times (fading) and pauses for 2 seconds. Check it out here:
    http://0xteto.com/jhome/physical-gmail-notifier-v2
    Thank’s for your work! Arduino r00lz!

    Comment by stefano — June 6, 2008 #

  63. […] GMail Notifier The work by Jamie Matthews inspired me to create the similar GMail […]

    Pingback by Hardware GMail Notifier « Rudi’s Electronics Blog — June 22, 2008 #

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