How to make a USB flash drive?
Our article, dear reader, will tell you about a very exciting activity that can even turn into a hobby. Today, we will figure out how the flash drive is made, its internal organization, various engineering techniques for its implementation in real life... After reading our article, you can do it yourself to build a USB flash drive from scratch from almost any material. So let's get started:
Do-it-yourself flash drive!
I think everyone understands that if these "hands" do not grow from the shoulders, but from another place, then it is best to transfer the construction of the flash drive to your more skillful comrade. If, however, your case is the opposite, then here's what you can do.
The essence of creating a new flash drive is to disassemble the old one. Why is this needed? The fact is that the electronic filling of the old flash drive will be the main component of your future product. Although, if you are able to solder a working electronic circuit yourself, you are welcome. So, the first step is to get the contents out of the old flash drive and "dress" it in a new case.
As already noted, this way case making is not the only one. Craftsmen who feel confident in working with wood can use wooden blocks instead of a ruler. Undoubtedly, such material will be more reliable and durable. Do not forget that you can make various overlays for the body of the flash drive. These can be metal strips, or plastic patterns from ready-made household appliances. All in your hands. In addition, you can try yourself in wood carving directly on the finished case, however, this will not be easy, given the very small size of our product.
In our modern world, to store a wide variety of information, it is customary to use special electronic media, namely flash drives! Now on sale there is a huge assortment of these electronic media, which differ not only in the amount of memory, but also in shape and color. Many people try to acquire a flash drive of an unusual color or shape in order to make it seem original and unique! It is in the event that you want your flash drive to be unique, that is, not like everyone else, then you can make it, or rather its outer shell, your own with my own hands! V this example will tell you how to create a flash drive from deer antlers! You don't need any special craft skills to work with this material! Reindeer antlers are a material that is very easy to process, which makes it very suitable as a cover for a USB flash drive!
Required materials and tools to create a flash drive from deer antlers:
- deer horn or part of it;
- drill;
- flash card;
- jigsaw or hand saw;
- epoxy resin;
- sandpaper or file.
First step. Cooking process
First of all, you need to remember that you need to be careful when working with sharp objects! In the process of chopping a deer's antler, a lot of bone dust can arise. It is for this reason that it is recommended to wear a protective mask and to ensure very good ventilation in the room.
Then you will need to disassemble the USB flash drive. Then you need to outline the approximate place of the hidden "pocket" in the deer horn for the flash drive.
You also need to think in advance about where exactly is the best place to make the hole for the chain.
Second phase. Direct creation process
At the next stage of the work, you will need to prepare a container or box for bone dust.
After that, you will need to saw off the unnecessary part of the horn.
Then you will need to outline a rectangular area for the size of the existing flash drive.
Then the horn will need to be wrapped in cardboard paper in order to protect the product from unnecessary scratches.
When creating a hole, it is best to use a machine tool. But you can also do without it. Then you need to measure 0.3 centimeters or a little more on the drill, after which you will need to stick a piece of scotch tape. Thanks to this, you will have a clear idea of exactly what mark you need to drill in depth without using a machine.
When drilling a rectangular hole for a flash drive, remember to collect the bone dust in a container! After that, you should polish the product with sandpaper.
Then you need to turn the horn over to the other side and create a through hole for the chain so that the horn does not crack!
Stage three. Using epoxy resin
Then you will need to add epoxy resin to the rectangular hole made.
You will need to wait five minutes, after which, with the help of a file, you will need to get rid of the excess coating.
Then you need to insert the flash card into the corresponding hole.
Everything, the product is completely ready! Such an original flash drive can be presented to a friend who, for example, works with computers!
Despite the rapid development of cloud technologies, many people still continue to use external media. Someone for storage, someone for data transmission. Sometimes you need, or just want this media to work very quickly. If you are satisfied with the dimensions slightly larger than a regular flash drive, the read speed is more than 400 MB / s, the write speed is more than 300 MB / s, then you are welcome.
First, you need an mSATA drive.
I also learned about the Chinese company Netac a year ago. Nothing special at first glance, ordinary "Chinese", if not for the reviews of the model with 120 GB of memory. All reviews boiled down to the fact that with one of the most low prices the drive has speeds on the market that are only found in high-volume or higher-end models. Linear write speed exceeds 300 MB / s.
You can buy this SSD at any site. It is on Aliexpress (MALL, the most cheap price), on eBay, in select stores. When I bought a Netac N5M 120 GB for $ 50, its price when translated into rubles was the lowest on Ya.Market among drives with an mSATA interface and approximately corresponded to the cheapest 2.5 "SSD, for example, Smartbuy. Now, due to cheap ruble, on the local market you can buy mSATA carriers of the same volume even cheaper, but this will not last long, as long as sellers have stocks in their warehouses, purchased at old ruble prices.
The drive comes in a small box. Inside is only the device itself and a quick guide.
The drive itself is of a standard size. On one side there is a controller - a very popular solution for budget SSDs, a cache based on a 2 GB Samsung K4B2G1646Q module and a flash memory module labeled PHGAC 1519. Netac assures that the drive uses modern Toshiba A19 MLC memory modules. It is difficult to say whether this is true or not, because the marking does not give precise answers.
On the opposite side there is another memory module labeled PHGAC 1519.
The manufacturer does not indicate the number of rewriting cycles or the amount of information recorded per day and the duration of work. There is only an MTBF value of 150 million hours. Which is absolute nonsense, and translated into understandable language means - the probability of AFR failure for the entire warranty period (3 years) is 0.005%. Consumer SSDs from A-brands have MTBFs in the region of 2 million hours.
Secondly, you need a case for such an SSD.
I will be using the quite popular Acasis FA-2283. You can buy it on any site, it costs about $ 10. You can buy another model, but I made my choice for two reasons: the ASMedia ASM1153E controller (more on that below) and the design without protruding parts.
Scope of delivery: the case itself, USB cable 3.0 A<>USB 3.0 micro-B 50 cm, user manual, two screws and a screwdriver.
The box is made of 1 mm thick aluminum. Dimensions 80 x 40 x 12 mm. End cap made of plastic with screw fastening. FA-2283 has USB connector 3.0 micro-B and blue LED for read / write indication.
Inside there is a board with an mSATA connector and a screwless SSD module.
On the opposite side of the board is the heart of the box - the ASMedia ASM1153E controller. This is one of the best solutions on the market among bridges / adapters USB 3.0> SATA Revision 3.0 (up to 6 Gb / s).
Its peculiarity is that it works on the protocol (UAS), one of the purposes of which is precisely SSD drives- full support for all necessary commands (including TRIM) and high speed data transmission.
This protocol is supported in all modern operating systems No third party drivers required.
We insert the Netac N5M into the Acasis FA-2283 and twist the case.
It turns out such a flash drive.
For a visual comparison of sizes: external drive 3.5 ", external drive 2.5", ACASIS, regular flash drive, compact flash drive:
Don't like the long cable? No problem, for a couple of dollars, take a cable of any length, for example, this (10 cm):
We will test the external drive as follows. Connect the drive to your computer with USB ports 3.0, which are executed on a controller from Intel. On Windows 10, we will run tests: CrystalDiskMark 5.1 to measure the speed of work and Intel IOmeter to measure IOPS (operations per second). Then we take the SSD out of the case and connect it to the mSATA port of the Eglobal mini-computer. Let's run similar tests.
And finally, let's measure the linear speeds in Blackmagic Design Disk Speed Test when connected via USB to Mac "y with Mac OS X 10.11.2. In Mac OS X it was not possible to determine whether TRIM is supported when connected via USB. Adequate official support TRIM for third-party drives has been around since Mac OS X 10.10. Whether this support applies to devices that are connected via UAS is unclear.
A small note. During the tests, it turned out that the N5M has a read / write indicator - a red LED.
Testing
Using CrystalDiskMark, we determine: linear speed, speed of work with random blocks of 4 KB and queue depths 1 and 32.
The speed is very high level for USB connection... Linear read speed when connected via USB is limited USB capabilities 3.0 controller (usually up to 450 MB / s) - I have already seen a similar level of speed in other tests of SSD devices. Working with random 4K blocks is generally fantastic for USB devices level.
The speed of work in Mac OS X and Windows is practically the same.
Using IOmeter, we will determine the number of operations per second when working with random blocks of 4 KB and a queue depth of 32. Such a load is practically unattainable in normal use.
On the mSATA interface, the drive does not show an amazing result, it is an ordinary SSD-average. But on the USB interface, the results are excellent.
In comparison, one of the fastest flash drives on the market, SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0, has a linear read / write speed of up to 250/200 MB / s. At the same time, the speed of work with 4 KB blocks generally drops to 10/5 MB / s, regardless of the queue depth. This flash drive costs almost the same as the constructor from the review, but at the same time the capacity is only 64 GB (now, due to the cheap ruble, it costs significantly less).
Then there is the super-fast Corsair Flash Voyager GTX 128 GB. But even it cannot compete with the device from the review in terms of linear speed, 400/200 MB / s, and even more so when working with 4K blocks. But its price is 2-3 times higher than the monitored device.
Conclusion
At less than $ 60, this compact 120GB USB drive is only slightly larger than a regular USB stick. Its linear read / write speed is exorbitant 417/315 MB / s, which is unattainable for ordinary flash drives. For example, to record a 30 GB video project on it, you only need about 100 seconds. It will also cope with a huge number of small files without any problems.
In this video I will show you an idea of how to make your own USB hands a lighter from an old flash drive! Do-it-yourself modding of an old flash drive is very easy at home! In order to make modding of an old flash drive and turn it into a USB flash drive - a lighter will not be difficult! But, for that you will 100% stand out from the crowd with such a unique device! With such a little trick, you can diversify a simple ugly old flash drive, but turn it into a stylish USB flash drive a lighter! With such an interesting idea and trick, you can diversify a simple ugly old flash drive and turn it into a stylish USB flash drive - a lighter! ************************************************* ********** Welcome to my Roman Ursu channel, where you will learn how to make homemade products, New Year's crafts, gifts, toys, scarecrows for Halloween, and most importantly, all this can be done at home and with your own hands! Are you fond of handicrafts, homemade products or you just have nothing to do? Then you got to the channel you need, here you can find a lot of homemade products, handicrafts that are made with your own hands, and most importantly, they are all made from improvised means and at minimal cost! ************************************************* ********** main channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/romanursu my second channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/romanursuvlogs VKontakte group: http: // vk.com/club59870517 group in classmates: http://www.odnoklassniki.ru/romanursu Attention! be careful not to repeat this at home, the author is not responsible for your actions, this video is of an entertainment nature, not a training or call to action! ATTENTION!!! - my channel is for decent: for mate, abbreviated or modified mate, for insults and "trolling" - WILL BE BATHING !!! ************************************************* ********** Channel of Ilukha “Zveriyo”: https://www.youtube.com/user/3BEPbEnokia In this video I "m going to show you an idea of making a USB lighter with your own hands out of an old flash drive! It "s very easy to make a modding of an old flash drive at home! It "s quite an easy job to do a modding of an old flash drive and turn it into USB flash drive-lighter! There" s a 100% chance to be unique with having such a device in your disposal! With such a little trick you may vary an old plain flash drive, and turn it into a stylish USB flash drive-lighter! Such an interesting idea and trick will help you to vary an old plain flash drive, and turn it into a stylish USB flash drive-lighter! Welcome to my channel Roman Ursu where you will learn how to make hand made crafts, New Year crafts, presents, toys, Halloween scares. The main thing is that one can make it at home and with one "s own hands. You are interested in handiwork, craft or you just have nothing to do, haven" t you? You have found the channel you really need. Here you can find lots of crafts, hand made items, and the main thing is that they all made of make-shifts and at the lowest cost! Main channel.
A beautiful and interesting flash drive looks much nicer and attracts people's attention. A funny flash drive is nice to hold in your hands. It doesn't take much time and money to make an interesting designer USB stick. And the result of the work meets expectations. Especially if the old flash drive has already been rubbed and it is very desirable to update it.
To remake the flash drive, you need a new case. This video features a hollow cow. From the electronic filling, a 300 ohm resistor and a red LED are required.
First you need to parse the contents of the flash drive. Having freed it from the old case, we prepare the flash drive for placement in a new case. We mark the right place on the cow for dividing into two parts. In this case, you need to focus on the connector.
If the new body is hollow, it makes the job easier. Otherwise, you will need to additionally prepare a place in the case for placing the electronic filling and the connector. We cut the cow. Let's make holes in the toy in the area of the eyes and mouth. When our device is plugged into a computer socket, the eyes and mouth of the cow will glow red from the LED. This is an interesting idea of this craft, which it was decided to make on our own.
Next, we connect the positive contact of the LED to our resistor. In order not to confuse the polarity, be guided by a simple rule - a large cup is a minus, a small one, respectively - a plus. After that, we need to attach the positive contact to the USB flash drive on the first leg on the right, and the minus contact to the last fourth leg.
Now you just need to carefully fix the board with glue in the new case. To do this, you need to carefully put the board in the case and fill it with a lot of hot melt glue. If you wish, you can equip the lid of the updated design flash drive with a magnet. With it, it will close perfectly after use.
DIY flash drive modding.
The creation of unusual cases for flash drives has long been a separate trend in modding. Many craftsmen work exclusively with flash drives and, moreover, even sell their mods through online stores and auctions. It would seem like an ordinary compact USB drive - why exactly has it become so popular? Before the advent of flash drives, almost every PC was equipped with a floppy drive for reading and writing floppy disks. Unfortunately, floppy disks were not very convenient and greatly limited the capabilities of users. The flash drive, on the other hand, has become a step forward - a compact device characterized by reliability, lightness and the ability to accommodate a large amount of memory. The flash drive has become a constant companion of many people, because they carry disks or bulky external HDD very inconvenient and much easier to take a neat keychain in which all necessary information... Since this thing is always at hand, many began to think about external design and style. USB drives... Modding a flash drive does not require a huge amount of materials, a lot of money and time. There are a lot of ways to decorate your USB flash drive or make it a full-fledged custom case with a unique design, and many can be done even by novice and inexperienced modders.
Steampunk flash drive modding.
Steampunk has appeared relatively recently, but its popularity only grows with each. Many designers have even started to deal exclusively with steampunk, as the demand for such unusual and original things is growing at a tremendous speed. In the modding of flash drives, steampunk style occupies a special niche. Particularly popular is the direction of alternative historical steampunk, which is based on stylization under the real historical world of the 19th - early 20th centuries.
Modder Rob Smith, also known under the nickname Back2root, became known in the foreign modding scene precisely because of his quality work on creating custom cases for flash drives. For all of his mods, he uses wood, elements from old mechanical watches for styling, and small copper and brass inlays. Each USB drive has an interesting design and a convenient body. For example, here's a stylish flash drive that can hold up to 16 GB of information in a new steampunk-style case:
Almost all Back2root flash drive mods have a similar case design. First, the modder removes the flash drive from the standard case, then makes a wooden base, and then all the decorative elements are attached to this base. Here are some more photos of the most interesting projects of this modder:
It is worth noting that Rob Smith is also involved in modding very compact flash drives. An example of such modding is the stylish steampunk pendant. Inside is a 4 GB flash drive:
All the projects in the photos above refer to the modding of flash drives in the steampunk style, which is especially popular among both Western modders and domestic craftsmen. Modder Shipton Bellinger, which we talked about in detail in one of our articles, is also fond of steampunk mods of USB drives. It works according to the same scheme - first, a wooden base is made, then the body is decorated with additional elements, but there are some differences from the works of Rob Smith. For example, as you have seen, Rob Smith installs decorative elements inside the wood base, while Shipton Bellinger prefers to mount them directly to the surface. Another, no less important difference - Rob's projects relate more to the clopunk style, since they only use elements from mechanical watches for decoration, and in Shipton's mods, you can see copper pipes and a huge number of movable handles and rings. In other matters, it's easier to look at everything with your own eyes:
Modder also known under the nickname BasementFoundry has been collecting neat and stylish steampunk flash drive mods for many years. The main rule of his projects is that the body should not only be beautiful, but also comfortable. That is why the modder practically does not use additional decorative elements in his projects. The base is most often made of a copper tube, sometimes durable glass is used in the work. So, let's take a look at one of the most popular projects of this modder. Copper tubes, which at first glance seem completely unnecessary, in fact serve as latching for the flash drive cover. Especially for this, the modder cuts out a small rubber band of the required diameter for the lid:
Of course, talking about modding flash drives in the steampunk style, we could not forget about Steamworkshop, which makes stylish custom-made mods and puts up many of its works for sale through online stores. Like many modders, Steamworkshop has its own, one might say, unique style of modding flash drives. Many techniques are used from project to project, but let's not get ahead of ourselves and look at projects in more detail. The main materials for modding are copper, brass, durable glass and many additional decorative elements - from gears from mechanical watches to various springs, small screws and rivets. Most mods are supplied with rubber pads by the modder, thanks to which they become waterproof. In almost every flash drive from Steamworkshop, a window is cut out in the case. Through it, you can often see a small crystal of quartz, illuminated by an LED (this stroke was long time a kind of visiting card of Steamworkshop), but already in new projects the modder tried to change the established traditions and experiment not only with the shapes of cases for flash drives, but also with the methods of their stylization. So, let's take a look at the photos:
Often, modders use old, seemingly unnecessary things as a basis for the body. Steampunknation did the same. He used an old vacuum tube to create a custom case for the flash drive. Inside the drive was covered with a fine metal mesh, and was also illuminated by an LED. The result is a stylish and original work. The only drawback of this project is its relatively fragile case.
A modder under the nickname autumnsteam also sometimes deals with flash drives. The main difference between his works is the use of old brooches and pendants. He especially succeeds in mods of compact USB drives - a base is made of a thick sheet of metal, and decorative elements are attached to it:
https://www.liveinternet.ru/users/megaline/post180072730
