[icruise]

Originally posted by KP*:

I'm sure someone who knows what they're doing could make this do a lot of interesting things. I already have Entourage throwing a party with music and dancing icons every time I get important mail, so I don't really need that feature, otherwise I would try to write it myself.

The main reason I am interested in that feature is that I will often leave my computer on all the time (checking mail every few minutes) but I have the screens turn off after a while. So if I am out of the room for a while, I have to wake up the screens to check if I have gotten any mail. If I could set the powermate to always blink in a certain way when I have new mail (but be able to change it back when I have read it) it would be useful to me.

[off/lang]

It would be fun to set it to beat along with the iTunes... (it would light up when bass is heavy and dim when it is low, for example)

I'm going to get one of these, I think--just need to wait until next paycheck.

[emdash]

Well, I just wanted to provide a little update....

The verdict: PowerMate-enhanced Photoshopping is indeed Big Fun.

One or two minor annoyances that I'll mention here (If these are just due to my ignorance, somebody please tell me):

• "Global settings" in powermate-speak refers to what happens when you're in an application that you haven't set specific settings for, NOT actions that supersede the specific ones for the various applications. In my case, I'd like to have a PowerMate "click" always send F8, which I have set (via PTHiTunes) to get iTunes to skip forward one song. To do this, though, you have to define that mapping for each application (there's no "make this behavior GLOBAL!!!!" switch in the PowerMate settings, aside from the "make *all* actions global" setting, which is pointless for me). This would be solved if they implement the two-PowerMate scenario that some of you have been talking about -- solved, that is, for those willing to buy two powermates.
• You can set the brightness of the LED when it's glowing steadily, but it doesn't seem possible to set the maximum brightness it gets to when it's pulsing. My bed's about 6 feet from my computer, so I've had to turn "pulse while sleeping" off.
• There seems to be infrastructure in place to get the LED to do distinctive things depending on the state of the computer (i.e. pulse when new email received, etc.), but it doesn't look straightforward to actually get that running. I hope Griffin and/or various AppleScript gurus turn their attention to this soon.

Anyway, it's really really nice, and for the purpose I really bought it for (Photoshop) it's perfect.

[KP*]

Originally posted by emdash:
Well, I just wanted to provide a little update....

The verdict: PowerMate-enhanced Photoshopping is indeed Big Fun.

One or two minor annoyances that I'll mention here (If these are just due to my ignorance, somebody please tell me):

• "Global settings" in powermate-speak refers to what happens when you're in an application that you haven't set specific settings for, NOT actions that supersede the specific ones for the various applications. In my case, I'd like to have a PowerMate "click" always send F8, which I have set (via PTHiTunes) to get iTunes to skip forward one song. To do this, though, you have to define that mapping for each application (there's no "make this behavior GLOBAL!!!!" switch in the PowerMate settings, aside from the "make *all* actions global" setting, which is pointless for me). This would be solved if they implement the two-PowerMate scenario that some of you have been talking about -- solved, that is, for those willing to buy two powermates.
• You can set the brightness of the LED when it's glowing steadily, but it doesn't seem possible to set the maximum brightness it gets to when it's pulsing. My bed's about 6 feet from my computer, so I've had to turn "pulse while sleeping" off.
• There seems to be infrastructure in place to get the LED to do distinctive things depending on the state of the computer (i.e. pulse when new email received, etc.), but it doesn't look straightforward to actually get that running. I hope Griffin and/or various AppleScript gurus turn their attention to this soon.

Anyway, it's really really nice, and for the purpose I really bought it for (Photoshop) it's perfect.

Yeah, you're right about all those things, as far as I know there's no way around them. I tried yesterday to write an AppleScript to get the PM to pulse when there's new mail in Entourage and couldn't quite get it to work. I was able to get various commands into the script menu in Entourage (pulse on or off, change brightness, etc,) but when I tried to make a rule to execute the scripts I found that the options Entourage gives for defining rules were too limited to do what I wanted. Maybe it requires a better understanding of Entourage scripting (which I have virtually none of).

Also, I stumbled across a widget for Konfabulator called PowerMate Mail Plus which claims to do this, but it wasn't working for me. I'll give it another try, though.

Yesterday was the first time I had to do much Photoshop work since applying aaanorton's slider commands to the PM, and it was so much fun. This thread has made me appreciate my PM so much more!

[KP*]

Originally posted by KP*:
I stumbled across a widget for Konfabulator called PowerMate Mail Plus which claims to do this, but it wasn't working for me. I'll give it another try, though.

I'm replying to myself here with an update. I tried this widget again, and it works. You set a certain brightness or pulse rate (but not both -- that's a limitation of the PM, as stated above) as your default state and unread mail state, and it switches between them instantly. It works for the Mail app and Entourage (I've only used it for Entourage). A quick pulse rate is more attention-getting than I thought it would be, so I am finding it useful.

For anyone looking into it, go to http://www.konfabulator.com/gallery and search for "PowerMate Mail Plus."

[icruise]

Originally posted by KP*:
I'm replying to myself here with an update. I tried this widget again, and it works.

This doesn't seem to be working for me. I am using Entourage with an unregistered version of Konfabulator. Did you do anything special to make it work?

(Yes I just bought a Powermate...)

[icruise]

By the way, the Powermate pulses in sleep just fine on my 12" powerbook.

[icruise]

Sorry for three posts in a row, but I've been working on the Entourage mail notification thing. I have it set so that it will pulse very quickly when a mail arrives (just have a rule that applies to all messages execute the "pulse rate" script -- I had to recompile it in Applescript editor for Entourage to allow me to select it though). The problem is that this alerts you to new mail but doesn't go back to the original state when you have read your mail. So I made another script that set the pulse rate back to low (7 in my case) and have that assigned to the click action for Entourage. So I can switch the pulse back manually after reading my mail. Not the best solution, but it works at the moment.

[Peter]

what is the apple script pulse script?

[icruise]

There are some applescipts that come with the Powermate driver that you can use to control the powermate. It's one of them.

[KP*]

Originally posted by Icruise:
This doesn't seem to be working for me. I am using Entourage with an unregistered version of Konfabulator. Did you do anything special to make it work?

(Yes I just bought a Powermate...)

I don't think I'm doing anything special with it. My version of Konfabulator is also unregistered, so that's not it.

The settings I'm using are:
Mail application: Microsoft Entourage
Default Brightness 255
Default Pulse Rate 0
Default Pulse unchecked
Alert Brightness 255
Alert Pulse Rate 15
Alert Pulse checked

It only alerts me to unread mail in my main inbox, though. My spam-filled account goes to a separate folder and the PowerMate doesn't react to that. At first I didn't think it was working, and it surprised me when it started flashing the first time. I don't know if I did something to activate it. Maybe try restarting or closing and reopening Entourage or something.