Microsoft Mouse Keychain DoorBell
I picked up a bunch of Microsoft promotional keychains at a conference thinking that they were
pretty cool. They were in the shape of their new (and at the time yet to be released) optical
mouse and the neat part was that they lit up when you pressed the little scroll wheel button.
Now, I've already got enough stuff to carry around in my pockets, so I wasn't about to attach
one of these things to my keyring. I mean does anyone actually use keychains? Well, women
do - and not only do they usually have one - they have several. All at the same time!
On the same keyring! Well, I don't pretend to understand thais but I gave several away to my
to some of my appreciative female friends. Interestingly, none of them laughed or made a
comment involving the words "geek" or "nerd". So I thought, wow - if even fashionable,
non-technically minded friends think this thing is OK, then I could make a doorbell out
of one! Well, OK, I skipped a few steps there - bit of a non-sequiter really - but that's my
story and I'm sticking to it. So anyway, I wired it up so that it always glows red - and gets
its power from the doorbell circuit (a skillful utilization of a resistor saw to that) and
the doorbell rings when the button is pressed. And it works! Of course, the true test came when
someone actually came to the door - what would they do? Would they be confused by the appearance
of a miniature glowing computer mouse stuck to the door frame? Would they (horrors) knock!?
Well, the next day the letter carrier came by, and in addition to his usual habit of delivering
our neighbours' mail to us and folding any envelope that says anything like "photos" or
"fragile - handle with care" he pressed the button! He had a package to deliver and he decided to
press the button! All was forgiven - I didn't mind deliverng the mail to my neighbour that day
because he had pressed the button! He might have said something like "Nice doorbell" or
some such thing, but it didn't really matter because he had proven that my little project
had passed the test. So anyway, here are some pics.