How To Make A USB Cable Flash Drive

You open your bag in silence and pull out your laptop and grab a USB cable and people look to you surprised  and say " What does he think hi€™s going to do with that USB cable?!!" You plug it in your laptop and continue on with your work.

If you are bored and would like to change the appearance of your flash drive, let me show you how I improved the look of mine!

This instructable was inspired by: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2008/how-to-make-a-sawed-off-usb-key/ .

Step 1: Tools And Materials

Materials:

Old USB cable
A small flash drive / a small SD card and a small SD Card Reader you can find it here
(in my case i didn't find a small flash drive that could fit in my usb cable so i used a small SD card and a small SD card reader)
Tools:
Pliers
Cutter
Tape 

Comments

[BlackJack4200]

Nice, that is a great idea

[rameezkoya007]

awsome work

[rameezkoya007]

awsome work

[poofrabbit]

Hey congratulations on being a finalist in the hack it contest! Good luck to you!

[Mahmoud Alaa]

thanks, i appreciate that

[Gabse]

You have to solder some electronic parts at the end of the cable! That looks cool!

[Mahmoud Alaa]

i will try later

[mlakhwani]

this is mine... i used my old 8 GB Toshiba Flash Drive...n xcept using black tape i used FeviQuick...

[Mahmoud Alaa]

wow look cool man , thank you for posting this picture

[mlakhwani]

thank you for this amazing idea

[Mahmoud Alaa]

you are welcome :D

[FirstSpear]

Whoah there. At the end there is a picture of a USB drive cable and you say,

"Now we will cut the wire to make it shorter, then strip the wires as shown and bend it. That is all there is to it! See how easy that was? Thanks for viewing my Instructable and have a nice day! "

One at a time.

"Now we will cut the wire to make it shorter." Wire singular, and why do we need to make it shorter?

"...then strip the wires as shown and bend it." Wires plural, but "bend it" singular. Exactly what are you referring to? What do we cut and what do we bend? If we cut wires we must connect them subsequently, or there will be no electrical connection. Your diagram leaves us with bare wires which are unconnected.

Clearly I must have missed something. Rather than me try to work out what, can you examine your instructions, and try to figure our where you went wrong? See, I can only read what is written, you do the describing. Your job.

"that's all there is....." Clearly not.

Being nice.

[FirstSpear]

Mahmoud, I apologise, I did indeed miss the point. I assumed we were making something practical - though not sure what, as distinct from making something practical with a practical joke attached. Now makes sense. I also did not take any notice of your name and location, and was unaware that English was not your first language - this has made me aware that I must take greater note of the poster, rather than just studying the post. All mistakes my own, and despite the first post from frozenice, I'm glad you posted here as I would never have found the original. AND you clearly stated that it was not your original idea, and gave credit to the original.
Good fun, must produce a few puzzled frowns. Don't let the negatives put you off, including my sloppy first.

[pmann1]

Clearly, FirstSpear, you HAVE missed something!
The entire point of this Instructable....

[clgonsal]

I think you missed the point behind this Instructable. The idea is to have a USB drive that looks like the end of a USB cable that has been torn off. That is, it's supposed to look like something that's broken, yet it still functions. The wires aren't supposed to connect to anything -- they're the part that looks broken. They're really just decorative.

As for the bit about wire alternating between singular and plural, this seems to be because Mahmoud was sometimes using "wire" when he meant "cable". (A wire is a single conductor, a cable may contain one or more wires.) It's a pretty common colloquialism to say "wire" when one means "cable", though I agree that seeing "wire" and "wires" used together in the same like that is a bit weird.

[Mahmoud Alaa]

ok you don't get it , the last step is like decorate your own flash drive if you want make this step make it if you don't it doesn't matter ,there is not a connection between the wires .

[jplee3]

Great job on this! What brand is the "small SD card reader" that you have? I've briefly looked for something like this but can't seem to find much out there.

[Mahmoud Alaa]

thanks and here it is on ebay here <this is what i used 

[TrailH4x]

Love it. Consider a light brushing of epoxy or heat melt of surfaces previously cut to re-secure the covering around the "new" USB component.

I think my application will include either an abrasion "caused" separation point or the result of a heat overload "melting" of the cable with visible short of underlying wiring.

I am leaning toward the Shock and Awe factor whether than the mere WTF factor on this one...

[c911darkwolf]

A interesting twist would be to put a little clip on light (low volt single led) on the end of this wire and solder it to the usb card with wires from the other end. That way you can tell people it's a plug in light and they won't suspect the hidden USB Drive.

[Mahmoud Alaa]

wonderful idea

[Honda Enoch]

This would be great to use in a "wireless technology" class.

Tell them you have devised a way to make the information jump from the ends of the wires.

LOL

[Mahmoud Alaa]

LOL

[Just_a_Guy]

I might forget it's a flashdrive and accidentally throw it out. Would make for some cool spy gear though.

[shazni]

This is cool :-) you definitely have my Vote!5*

[Mahmoud Alaa]

Wow! thanks man

[mr fat]

excellent work mate, I love it I think that it would freak a lot of people out seeing wires hanging out of a USB cable.

[Mahmoud Alaa]

thanks

[hurten]

You could use a piece of large diameter black heatshrink tubing instead of electrical tape.

[whitejaxon]

that wouldn't quite work the heat shrink wouldn't shape as well as the electrical tape it has too much plastic behind it as the electrical tape has easily moldable plastic and can be done in one to two layers
sorry hurten

[whitejaxon]

sorry next thought it depends on if its like a 1 mm or 10 mm heat shrink
so it depends on how thick you use it

[Mahmoud Alaa]

yes you are right whitejaxon that's whtat i want to say

[Mahmoud Alaa]

yes you are right whitejaxon that's whtat i want to say

[NinjaMama]

Nice job. Will make my friends crazy...lol. Thank you for sharing, Mahmoud.

[Mahmoud Alaa]

you are welcome

[n1qaw]

I have done something very similar to this hack. One real difference was that I used heat shrink tubing over the original cable shroud. The beauty of the heat shrink is that it will shrink down and show the detail of the underlying design.

[redsunmtm]

two things i think:
the tape getting hot will become really anoying ... use better those hot retractable tubes !
then why not puting some steampunk object at the end :) lique a pendulum or don't know... a parabol ;P (it is for hacking wifi , hu...)

[rgarcia6]

better use heat shrink tube (the large one that fits the usb connector) instead of electrical tape, electrical tape become sticky and peel of easily

[Mahmoud Alaa]

oh yeah , but it is hard to get in my country

[amtkumarray]

Greate Job!!! http://www.katanecomputers.com