One last thought, what resistor was that guy using on the tutorials page that I posted in my first post about this project?
**broken link removed**
He claimed to have got it to work, using a resistor? 3 volt motor, same type of design initially.
Was he doing it the wrong way? Can it really cause damage to the usb system?
I found this article on a site discussing USB power and how it works:
Power Management
One special feature of USB systems is that they can directly supply power to the peripherals and the hubs attached to them. It can also regulate power usage for peripherals that use independent power sources. USB devices are classified based on the amount of power they supply or require. Low Bus Power devices take all their power from the bus, but no more than 100mA at a time. High bus-powered devices also take all their power from the bus, but can draw up to 500mA at a time. Self-powered devices use an external power supply, but can draw up to 1mA from the host if necessary--such as in the case of a power failure.
Hubs can also be low, high or self powered. Power flows downstream in a USB system, which means that a self-powered hub can be used to power high- and low-powered peripheral devices located further down in the network. This power arrangement has both advantages and disadvantages. For desktop systems where power is not a problem, it is extremely convenient not to have to use a separate outlet for each peripheral connected to the PC. In notebooks where battery longevity is often a problem, it might be more advantageous to use peripheral devices that have their own power source.
Any glimmers of hope? Or completely fully doomed? From the specs about USB, it seems like it would deny any requests more that 500mA. Wouldn't that effectively prevent current from overloading the usb port?