Slashdot Mirror
Replacing the Housing on Your Flash Drive?
TheFarmerInTheDell asks: "I managed to wash my USB flash drive this past weekend (note to self: check your pockets better before doing laundry) and to my surprise, it still works. The problem is that the clothes dryer managed to beat up the plastic housing, and it no longer holds the innards in place as it should. Trying to plug the drive into a USB port is a difficult proposition since the whole mechanism slides into the plastic housing, instead of sliding into the USB port. Rather than using a super glue or an epoxy solution to hold the electronics in place, I was thinking that a custom body would be a cool way to go. I can cast it in resin and have whatever shape I want for the drive, but I am not sure that it will be a good thing to do. Has anyone done anything like this, and if so were there any problems? Are there any issues about not having an air space to help dissipate the heat that the chip generates? Aside from the obvious concerns about allowing the drive to fit into the USB port of a computer, is there any reason that the drive cannot be housed in any shape that I want?"
the casing on one of my flash/thumb/pen/whatever drives was just stupidly big for no good reason, so I took it off. To protect it I just got some clear 5 minute epoxy and layered it on there and just kept turning the the drive while it cured.
You can also put a lanyard hole in a dead space on the board or epoxy something in there and hang it on your keychange. It's working quite well for me.
In Bob we trust.
1. Set a sheet of wax paper on a table.
2. Spray the wax paper with some PAM (cooking spray, not authentication).
3. Squirt epoxy gel (preferably clear) onto the wax paper into a rough thumbdrive shape.
4. Lightly press thumbdrive into liquid epoxy EXCEPT FOR THE USB PORT!!! KEEP USB PORT FREE OF EPOXY!!!
5. Squirt a little epoxy over the thumbdrive EXCEPT FOR THE USB PORT!!!
6. Let it all set. Make SURE you did NOT pour so much epoxy that it gets on the USB port. Watch it periodically to make sure epoxy STAYS AWAY FROM USB.
7. Smile. Bonus points if you can get your old cap to work with it. Extra bonus if you make a new cap out of epoxy. Triple bonus if your new cap doesn't weld itself to the new body.
8. ?????
9. Profit!!!
Man, now I want to do this if/when my thumbdrive's casing dies.
The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
If you're worried about getting epoxy over parts where it might get in the way of plugging in, then just mask off the plug part..
Just mask off the plug itself with masking tape, then wrap that in putty. If you don't like the idea of getting putty on the end of the epoxy, then get a piece of stiff plastic and cut a hole the size of the plug, and slide that up the plug, then continue as above. When you're done, you can usually just peel the plastic off the epoxy. If in doubt, add a thin layer of petroleum jelly (Vaseline) to the plastic.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
I love all of the ideas and suggestions - especially the lego and hardwood solutions. If I could get my wife to understand what a flash drive is, maybe SHE could do something with it...or maybe I should just find a girlfriend who can do it for me!
I did get a new drive the day after I found the old one in the dryer, and after a week or so the old one is still working so I guess that the corrosion is not happening very fast (if at all). I will post before / during / after pics as I get the old one rehoused - and it looks like I might have to make a trip to my local hobby store to find some interesting ways to dress up the drive.
Thanks for all of the help!