VHS Tape Storage Drive

Step 4 Open the Thumb Drive and fine the LED Drive Circuit

You will need to crack the case of your USB thumb drive open. This Kingston drive was very easy to open. When one side was free the other side almost fell open. When the drive electronics are exposed you will have to hunt down the LED. In small devices like this it will be surface mount so it may be a bit hard to spot. Look for a clear device but if you still cant spot it just plug it in and locate it that way. Once you find the LED you will need to trace out where it is being controlled from. The traces are equally tiny, so you may want to use a magnifier loupe to make things easier. Have a look at the picture of my Fluke multimeter lead tip in beside the LED. It was hard to meter traces with it since the point seemed to be as fine as my thumb but eventually I got things traced out. Turns out that the R3 is the current limiting resistor for the LED.