Thanks Jean this now makes sense, really appreciate your time and effort mate.
def __init__(self, parent): self._init_ctrls(parent) self.t1 = wx.Timer(self) self.t1.Start(2000) # 2 seconds self.Bind(wx.EVT_TIMER, self.OnTest1Timer) self.OnTest1Timer(self) def OnTest1Timer(self, evt): if os.path.isfile('images/page1.txt'): print "ok file present" i = wx.Image('images/pageGreen.png',wx.BITMAP_TYPE_PNG) b1 = wx.BitmapFromImage(i) self.staticBitmap1.SetBitmap(b1) else: print "ok file present" i = wx.Image('images/pageGrey.png',wx.BITMAP_TYPE_PNG) b1 = wx.BitmapFromImage(i) self.staticBitmap1.SetBitmap(b1) The above works a treat, thanks again Jean janama -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list