HOW TO MAKE A USB DATA CABLE FLASH DRIVE

It’s no secret that there are a lot of strange USB devices out there, particularly flash drives. Not a comprehensive list, but we’ve sure seen Lego, twigs, action figures, bowling balls, sushi, anatomical parts, transparent drives, erasers, cassette tapes and on and on and on. Despite all that, the picture above is a little surprising– because yes, it’s a working USB flash drive. Here, we give the step by step walk through of how to make your own. This is a kingmax 1 GB USB flash drive, one of the smaller varieties out there. I got it on ebay for about and there seem to be plenty more available. Above, you can see it in between my fingers and in my computer for scale. The gold pads are just printed pads on a tiny circuit board. The plastic cover is attached only weakly, by a bit of silicone adhesive, and peels off fairly easily to expose the bare printed circuit board of the flash drive. Not too much to it, really. Next we need a victim USB cable. I started with this new .50 USB “AB” cable. Looking at the end that we’ll be cutting up, you might notice a neat injection molding seam that runs around the edge. Using a sharp hobby knife, cut neatly along that seam. Cutting there actually provides some camouflage for you: Since we expect there to be a seam there, it’s very hard to notice an additional cut as well. If you really want your seams to be invisible, you might want to use a black USB cable. Cut deeply enough that you actually cut through to the metal shell …