Custom USB Drive - Project: Enter the USB

Project: Enter the USB was created by Kurtis Kronk for TheTechLounge.com. You can see the original article published online here.

Back in March I posted about a Customized USB Drive that I thought was pretty cool. Someone took an el-cheapo USB drive and stuck it inside a Lego brick. In the same post I talked about a quick-and-dirty USB drive mod of my own, the Electrical Tape USB Drive. Basically, it was a clunker I picked up at CES that fell apart, so I removed what was left of the casing and wrapped it all up in electrical tape. Funny thing is, it's so fugly that when I recently forgot it in a school lab it was still there a few days later. Things might have been different had it been a SanDisk Cruzer or Corsair Voyager... or if it didn't have "62.4MB" written on it.

As simple as my electrical tape USB drive mod was, I had a good time making it and decided to come up with another, different USB drive mod. Luckily, I had another USB drive, which I'd also received from CES, but this one was a whopping 512MB - yeah, they make 'em that big these days... Unfortunately, as it were, this one wasn't quite so fragile, and I actually had to punish it thoroughly before I could get the casing off. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

In this article I will walk you through Project: Enter the USB from conception to finished product. Step by embarrassing step. No detail spared. So in-depth you'll need a snorkel... Let's get on with it...

Step 1: Getting Started

Project: Enter the USB was created by Kurtis Kronk for TheTechLounge.com. You can see the original article published online here.

Once I had successfully freed the USB drive from its lame shell, it was time to think. Whatever am I going to put this little thing inside? And so the search began. I thought about doing a better Lego mod - unoriginal; ChapStick - too thin (I've been informed that somebody else has made a ChapStick USB drive); film canister - too fat; USB cable shell - too short; gutted iPod - too spendy. Hmm... nothing on my desk was really striking me as a great idea. So the search continued. To the closet! As I rummaged through piles of miscellaneous electronics, cables, and computer accessories, I paused as I held an old keyboard in my hand.

What to do with a keyboard, though? The PS/2 connection isn't large enough to accommodate the USB drive, and the keyboard is a bit bulky to be useful as a USB drive. Think, Kurtis... Think.

As I stared at the keyboard, I noticed some tasty treats (well, they used to be tasty) peeking at me from between the keys. Gross. Ah, wait a second, the keys! Oh sweet, blessed keys.

There are a decent number of keys on the keyboard which look like they could be just big enough to squeeze a USB drive inside: Tab, Shift, Backspace, Enter, Delete, and +. After careful consideration and a quick coin toss, I decided the Enter key would make the best case for my custom USB drive. It sort of makes sense, after all; "Enter" your USB drive into the USB port, with an arrow to help the less technically inclined. Tab is just plain confusing, with the two arrows pointing in either direction, Backspace and Shift don't sound cool, and +... well, + isn't even a word. Stupid +.

Removing keys from the keyboard is easy enough. Using a small screwdriver you can gently pry them off. In my case, the Enter key had a bar stretched across its width to ensure uniform key presses - I just ripped it off. Enter key removed, I check to see if the USB drive fit... and it did - with a little room to spare.

Before hacking away at the Enter key, I decided to perform a practice run on the Backspace key (I only had one old keyboard to work with and didn't want to ruin it, after all). And I'm glad I did.

Comments

[infob]

Done. Same Key. Metal bottom.

[applesaucemodifier]

Here is how mine came out. I used a little sugru on the back and just pushed it in to the cracks. In the picture it looks pretty rough but I have smoothed it down some since then.

[Matrix-technician]

lol, 514 mb's? I have a 16 gig flash drive. And you can buy a 2 gig at wal-mart for 3 bucks. Great "ible" though! 5 stars.

[Fireater989]

He was being incredibly sarcastic, if you didn't realize. He got his for free at CES, where they were handing them out. That's why it is so small. That's also why he used them for this instructable

[chriskarr]

Moore's law, my friend. That was in 2007.

[robot 1998]

me pdrian decir cual es el pegamento

[red-king]

 i have an ancient flash drive and it won't fit into any keys except the space bar... but that would look weird. so i'm looking for one that doesn't involve keys.

[Saturn V]

You could probably fit a candy bar in a space bar. :-)

[red-king]

 probably... but that's not really relevant. xD

[Saturn V]

Who cares?  Everyone loves candy!

[red-king]

 i suppose.

[gogglepoofs]

CANDY BAR FLASH DRIVE!!!!!! probably not possible

[red-king]

definitely possible... until it melts, that is.

[raykholo]

maybe a small hole on the top and one of those little plastic computer things that conduct light ? any idea what that thing is called?

[microman171]

Firbe optic? you mean the thing that extends the LEDs?

[cablemonkey]

 They're called "light pipes"

[raykholo]

yeah -- the plastic thingys ... i thought fiber optic was some totall different thing, but ur probably right

[microman171]

I call them fiber optic anyway. The principal of them is the same. I like the idea though... Would make the drike look cooler!

[raykholo]

i also just found out about an led accessory called the light pipe a flexible one of those might be perfect for this instructable, especially if the flash drive's led is in an "uncomfortable" area to be seen clearly

[raykholo]

drike?

[microman171]

XD. Oops, I meant drive.

[mr.cole]

my only problem is that i cannot find a keyboard to get the "Enter" key from. i would jack one from school, but i would most likely get charged for vandalism if i got caught. and also i dont have a keyboard that DOESNT work.
any ideas on where i could get a cheap or non working keyboard? Good Will possibly? 

[geekster]

Just finished this, used a shift key :) I found that hot glue, while slightly less pretty allowed me to do it in about 20 minutes, i also used a band saw to cut the key to shape and then an extremely sharp chisel to take the remainder of the plastic out of the key. Once complete I trimmed the excess hot glue with the band saw once more. For a smooth finish, sanded with 320grit. The hot glue has the advantage of nicely difusing the LED that was on the USB drive I used as a donor, looks good. A tip for anyone who has access to them, older dell systems have ruberised caps on the molex connector which used to connect to a floppy drive, these fit the USB plug perfectly so make a great cover for an otherwise cap-less USB drive.

[Mr Williams]

What brand of Flash Drive did you use? Or will virtually all of them fit into an "Enter" key?

[The Flashfire]

Cool

[twitch2009]

Thats Awesome. What About an Easy computer case mod..

[TTLKurtis]

Hm... Like, stickers? :-D Case modding is actually relatively easy, so long as you don't make it overly complicated for yourself. Making a case mod look stock though... that takes serious skill.

[uzumakishade]

cool mod, might do this. just a sorta off topic question, what kind of gloves are those that you were wearing in the pics? where did you get em/how much?

[TTLKurtis]

Those are bike gloves. Not recommended for this mod - it was purely for comedic effect. Granted, I did actually use them while cutting, but only because photos were being taken. :-D I think I picked them up at a local bike shop when I bought a mountain bike, for what it's worth.

[legendofaj]

i haven't tried this yet, but i dont have a dremel, do you think i could just use a sharp knife or pliers to cut the notch? -aj

[bikerguy7]

i used a soldering iron, lol, which probably wasn't such a good idea with the fumes and all but it worked quite well. just make sure u have a wet paper towel or sponge on-hand 2 wipe off the molten plastic. the dremel works much much better though

[speedyspy2]

same. ive been using one to melt/cut plastic for like, all the instructables.

[ultrauber]

yeah, i've cut plastic and stuff with a hot glue gun

[Saturn V]

HOW IN THE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!



POST A INSTRUCTABLE ON IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bikerguy7]

i just used an exacto knife 4 the notch it worked well and as long as you're patient and dont rush it, you'll get a clean notch

[TTLKurtis]

Possibly - depends how precise you want to be and how clean you want it to look.

[legendofaj]

okay, thx but do you know where i could find a cheap usb drive, incase i screw up that one, and it'll let me practice b4 i go and do this with my nice 4gig usb flash drive

[raykholo]

1 word - ebay

[bikerguy7]

staples sells little $5 64mb ones at the checkout counter also checkout microcenter.com they have loads of them. just buy the microcenter brand they're like 1 gb for 12 bucks which is pretty good

[speedyspy2]

for 5$ i got a 4 gig microSD with an adapter

[giddy_yup]

Cool Instructable! I tried it out with the "stupid +" and the enter key from the numpad. :) Here's how it turned out...

[terrapinlogo]

I would Of use the Enter And the 0/Ins Key for Dummy's Who don't know what way to put it in

[cormac3050]

Cool!!

[mrmoneybagss]

it's shiny!!!

[TTLKurtis]

Nicely done.

[bassclarinet23]

Pretty cool.

[fwjs28]

512mb isn't that big..i have a 5gb flash drive with windows vista pe and like three linux os.

[Derin]

i use 512 meg and it never overflowed with data

[fwjs28]

rlly......215 makes me feel restricted...lol....u can never have enough space...and plus i have 2 gigs of music and a whole lot of pics...and the occasional school project.....

[fwjs28]

wups i musta hit 5 by acc. i meant 8

[bomberman3]

I didn't know they made 5. I mean I've heard of 1, 2, 4, and 8gb but never a 5. huh.

[ismaelplague]

they have 16 and 18 too look at staples

[bomberman3]

keep in mind that was 5 months ago. They even include 32 now. (And probably larger sizes)

[ismaelplague]

omg where at staples.?

[bomberman3]

well, maybe not at staples, but online retailers such as newegg have flash drives with 32G and 64G capacities.

[ismaelplague]

wowo cool thanks

[Derin]

those are too big,for me a 512 meg cuts it

[kenny94]

1gb for 10$

[anickle060193]

4GB for $15 and it's as big a my thumbnail!! XD

[Derin]

why does it have that little "slant"on the key? i sanded it so it sits flat

[Derin]

i found keys on the grass playground months ago,and sanded the letters off

[M F]

nice idea, Did you add a back to it yet? I made a usb instructable too. a beltclip holder.

[pistolpete3521]

That keyboard is NASTY ! ! !

[TTLKurtis]

Yes. Yes it was. That's what happens when you pretty much live at your computer and eat lunch at your desk almost every day. :-D

[daviddd]

AWESOME! One of the best memory stick covers ever!

[cool!]

I just thought: If the original USB had a led, make sure it is on the bottom. Great instructable! He He isn't it funny that the instructable spell checker does not recognize instructable?!

[Derin]

lemme try Instructables ya it says change or ignore and it also bulks up FF3

[cool!]

Yeah, I guess it is FF's spell checker, not Instructable's!

[Derin]

FF spellchecker plus the ibles spellchek

[Derin]

nice instructable but please reduce the amount of the sentence "Project: Enter the USB was created by Kurtis Kronk for TheTechLounge.com. You can see the original article published online here." to one.*talks with robot* The robot is saying the same thing.

[mrmoneybagss]

the first two pictures on step 5 are scary!!!

[TTLKurtis]

Safety first, my man. Safety first.

[mrmoneybagss]

well it still looks scary

[Derin]

its better than a crap load of bandaids

[mrmoneybagss]

still scary

[Derin]

lol

[cool!]

For a picture of mine go to My slideshow.
The last picture shows it.

[cool!]

I used hot glue! It worked really well, and actually is much clearer (and easier) than the E6000 adhesive. You pile on the hot glue, and then press it down against a wetted plate- something smooth. Then trim off the excess glue with a Exacto knife.

[nkk07]

put enter on one side and backspace on the other if your backspace dosent have BACKSPACE written on it!ill find a cheapo keyboard some day.

[taco_guy93]

u know what this needs? another key on the bottom! i think the tab would look cool on the bottom.

[omega7856]

dude....UR CAMERA IS AWESOME!...lol....wat kind is it?...and yea dude that lookd really good.....i think if u find sumthng that could cover up the bottom...it would help so if water splashes around it or sumthn....but yea it still lookd really good

[pmac93]

your fingerless bike gloves provide great protection from the dremel :P

[TTLKurtis]

I certainly thought so. :-D

[Cracknel]

why don't you use another key for the other side? :D

[galenorama]

You could take two laptop keys, which would be thinner, and then put one on the top and one on the bottom.

[TTLKurtis]

That could be cool, but part of the reason I chose to keep it as just a single key was to keep the size down. If you bulk it up too much, you'll block the adjacent USB port. :)

[Derin]

same with graphic cards,if you bulk it too much the adjacent PCI port will not be usable anymore

[vspider]

I've made it vithout any instruments, besides a paper-cutting blade =)))
Also you can use a thermo-paste like 'KPT-8' for filling, which costs in ex-ussr 1$ per kilogremm =)))

[GunnerRecall]

I had recently made a pez pal usb drive. it's basically taking place of the actual dispenser. I have the little u3 sandisk retractable thing so the plug actualy hides away into my penguin pez pal :)

[TTLKurtis]

Sounds cool - would love to see photos.

[DELETED_yoghurtsniffer]

(removed by author or community request)

[TTLKurtis]

I don't think you'll need the airflow, honestly. There are lots of USB drives out there with no heat dissipation to speak of (corsair flash voyager for example, which is a great usb drive). I'm sure drilling a hole for a lanyard won't hurt anything.

[munchman]

For the airflow, buy a usb drive that doesn't have air vents. It will be designed to run cooler and not need air.

[TTLKurtis]

This is true, though I don't recall ever seeing any with air vents actually. Different types of memory do run cooler than others though.

[HAL 9000]

Well, as for drilling out the corner i think the epoxy will be stronger than the actual key, and as long as its a small hole it shouldn't be a problem. Nice instructable, good pics, im going to have to do this with mine, although mine will be plugging into a PC...

[TTLKurtis]

Yeah, actually mine plugs into a PC too. The iBook was just prettier for the photos. :)

[HAL 9000]

yeah, macs do usually have more visual appeal, in general. Either way, this is a cool idea!

[bikerguy7]

I tried it with a shift key and it work really well. I ended up using a soldering iron to gut the insides of the key. To fill the back I used 2-part epoxy and it filled in quite well, providing a cool clear case. Recently I also made one using 3 keys (1, 2, 3) and it turned out better than I hoped. It took almost an hour to finish but the final product is sweet. I just need another Flash Drive 2 put in it. lol. Thanks again for the idea and instruction.

[TTLKurtis]

That shift key looks slick, and well done on the 1,2,3 as well! =) Glad you enjoyed my instructable.

[Bl4cK_kNiF3]

for some reason my windows vista says device not recognized, but im not sure if it works on an XP computer. I used silicon glue, but i dont think that makes a difference.. any help?

[TTLKurtis]

Did it work on that Vista machine without problems before?

[DELETED_yoghurtsniffer]

(removed by author or community request)

[TTLKurtis]

Nice work! =)

[DELETED_dannydutton]

(removed by author or community request)

[TTLKurtis]

Thanks, glad you liked it. You're right about the belly, though. :-D

[PKM]

Have you considered white spray paint? Whiteout/tippex? A flat piece of white keyboard plastic?

[shooby]

In relation to the overheating issue, I think I would probably use the industrial strength glue to attach a correctly fitted, thin copper plate to the chip on the underside of the drive. It has a huge surface area, so the copper would probably be able to help get rid of a lot of the heat produced. I've been experimenting with this a little. A good way to test whether or not you'll have problems, is by using the electric tape method for a case. Try it, and if after a while the tape gets sticky, starts to slip, or feels excessively soft, then you may have a heating problem upon casing the drive in epoxy.

[TTLKurtis]

I've been using this drive pretty regularly since I posted this and I can say I have had absolutely no overheating issues. Obviously, results may vary with different hardware and/or modding techniques, but at least in my case heat has not been an issue at all.

[lordwilliam]

works very well with your apple mac blends in do you know of any easier and simplier usb case projects becase busbi's brake easily

[TTLKurtis]

One thing you can do that's super simple is just wrap a bunch of electrical tape around a USB drive. I've done this to one, as seen here (scroll down):

http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/11300/

[Bright Shadow]

I just realized that was an 'enter' key XD

[Sirdizarm]

Man... How nice isn't this!!

[DIY Dave]

Could I use super glue instead of the E6000?

[TTLKurtis]

I don't really know how WELL it would work, but it is certainly feasible. I think it should do the job.

[hondagofast]

I have a 128Mb drive that the case broke off of, so I made a case out of some scrap plastic and a lot of water proof duct tape from ace hardware.

[DIY Dave]

cool

[xboxteen01]

cool

[chuckr44]

I'm not sure I would use epoxy as a filler on my USB drive. I got one of those super thin drives, 1gb, the size of a piece of Trident gum. It heats up pretty hot once connected, in just 2 minutes. I would think my USB drive coated in epoxy would bake itself and die.

[Murdok]

What else will work besides epoxy? Hot glue, super glue?

[TTLKurtis]

What I used was actually industrial strength adhesive, not epoxy, but epoxy would work, super glue would probably work, hot glue might work. You can use whatever you want, really. You could use GLAD Cling Wrap if you were so determined. :-D

[PetervG]

I just spent like 20 min trying to get it out of this stupid case.
http://www.pendriveworld.com/images/product/de256mb_Big.gif

I got it out nice and clean. (The case is torn apart)
So, is it okay if I use a hot glue gun instead?

[ll.13]

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=MEL-FD2048JDL

Mine: that came out of the case easily, but it's been out of it's case for around 6 odd months. now it's got a nice new home.

[TTLKurtis]

I'd love to see this 'nice new home' if you don't mind sharing. :)

[ll.13]

http://www.instructables.com/forum/TQI4LDQF4TLKW1M/?comments=all#CE3JHY1F4ULV2O9

I used a number pad enter as it fitted best and then Araldited it in.

[PetervG]

USB's!

[TTLKurtis]

Have fun! :-D

[TTLKurtis]

Yeah, sometimes it's tough to get them out of their cases. Which speaks well of the manufacturer, heh. You -could- use a hot glue gun, but I don't think it will be as effective as epoxy or something like the E6000 I used. But if that's all you've got and you don't feel like getting that stuff, you could try it. If it doesn't work out, you could probably take the hot glue back out pretty easily.

[galenorama]

My brother and I made a USB key drive with hot glue, and it worked really, really well. We attached the drive and then squirted a bunch of glue in, then we took a smooth metal sheet and wet it with a sponge. We pushed the Key with glue down hard to get a smooth finish. The water stopped the glue form sticking. After it dried, we sprayed on some clear coat to get a nice finish. It looks BEAUTIFUL.

[rocker9455]

i used bostik all purpose glue (it ruined it) Shame im only 13 and i get barley any pocket money 'there goes my money'

[PetervG]

Now, do you fill the space underneath the USB itself? Or does it lye flat enough that you just need it on the top?

[TTLKurtis]

You fill it underneath a bit as well so it will sit flat and the plug will be level with the rest of the key.

[ColumbusGEEK]

I've been using that 2 part epoxy on everything lately. It;s the stuff people use to seal quarters and stuff onto bar countertops. I bet that would have been perfect for this as It dries clear and self leveling.

[HamO]

Excellent!!

[ll.13]

nice. Lego didn't work for me.

[mrbob1000]

yay! msa reaperator! cool instructable... i would have sanded off enter and printed somthing like OMFG T3H HAXX!!!!11!1!! but its your call