Lego USB Stick

Step 3 Securing the stick

I stuck an offcut of one of the bricks at the bottom of the case as I found this made the stick sit at the right height. I then packed the whole thing full of clear silicone to made it stronger and reduce any movement from the stick.

Clear silicone was important as it still allows light to shine through.

Comments

[physicsguybri]

By encasing the electronics in RTV and th elike you have pretty much secured its heat death. There is a reason why air gaps and open volumes are designed into electronic enclosures.  Memory sticks do get hot and need to vent. Sorry for the buzz-kill folks but thems the facts.  It would be less problematic to have secured it at the corners in some fashion so that ALL of the electronics (IC especially) were still open to the air.

[chardlz13]

I made mine with a hole in the front larger than the USB and encased it using friction alone and just a little glue on the sides to keep it from shifting. Hasn't crashed yet and it's been about 4 or so months with constant use

[tuskawilla]

This is what I was fearing in doing this, a lot of tutorials have encased the pcb in glue or whatever, I figure this would kill it with either conductance of some sort or heat death.

otherwise, I love the Lego idea. as I wear my usb on a lanyard, probably be nice to have a hole at the back end for a loop to attach to a key chain or whatever.

[the fat hobbit]

there are actually legos that are translucent and surprisingly they coma in a wide array of colors can this work with megablcoks?

[ieightu]

what do you think?

[Valeil]

nope, probably not.

[Tauman]

Does anyone know if using E6000 would work? Because me and a friend want to test it out.

[sweetpea7]

I don't have scilicon. Could I use a hot glue gun instead?

[Chromatica]

that would be fine just make sure the glue isn't to hot or it will melt some of the plastic

[tapiocapudding]

Why didn't you just make the notch deeper so that the PCB sits lower in the case and then re-attach the bottom of the original brick?

[Kasm279]

the brick has fin-like things in it, so there would be no bottom ;)

[u_opo]

so I know that zoozie just asked this kinda, but I wanted to make sure that it is right. The silicone wont mess up the current?

[wax54]

no it is pretty rubbery and plastic so no conduction

[wax54]

Will hot glue work I don't know were to find clear silicone.

[lamech08]

you can find silicon at any hardware store in the plumbing section.

[kiwiowl]

Yes hot glue sould work but heat and electronics don't always go together so be careful. Silicone on the other hand is cheap and available at all hardware suppliers. It's the sort of rubbery stuff they use to seal around bathroom units etc. Get friendly with silicone and you'll find many more uses for this stuff - and it comes in many more colours than hot glue.

[wax54]

where do i find silicone

[Craig1]

hardware store

[wax54]

up or down which one will i see

[jam906]

I used a glue gun, it worked fine.

[Impendingdoom]

How did the light shine through? Legos arent translucent.

[Capt. Fat]

Ding Dong

[cornflaker]

Put a piece of paper between you and a light, last time I checked paper isn't translucent either :P

[darkbro999]

actually, some of the newer ones that they have come out with are translucent, well, to a point. not exactly "clear" persay but they will let some light through.

[fwjs28]

WOW! that sounded smart!

[zoozie]

hey, i have a question. i dont know much about computers and when i stuck mty flash into that and was about to glue it it looked like there were andawful lot of parts that could get messed up by regualr craft glue or "Krazy Glue" i dont know and cant get and *clear silicone" whatever that is and since im making a practice one w/ a broken flash im gonna go ahead and glue it. hopefully this will be answered tomorow. thx for the help in advance -zoozie

[Derin]

no conductance=no problem

[Derin]

and clear silicone is also called silicone caulk

[Jamnog]

try an aquatics shop clear silicone glue is used for repairing fish tanks.

[powerfool]

The LED is on the other side that is not visible now, right??

[ianhampton]

No, I think its actually that side just after the blank space where a second memory module could be on the pcb. It's one of those strange leds that they use on phone keypads that sit quite flush to the circuit board.

[ianhampton]

The plastic was thinned slightly when it was polished. However lego is only thin so the bright LEDs that are on memory sticks shine through OK. Might not work as well with darker coloured legos though.