HowTo: Homer USB Drive
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It seems that these days everyone has the handy little gadget that we have all grown to know and love- USB storage devices. However, the appearance of the USB leaves much to be desired: grey, ugly, and plasticky, they aren’t easy on the eyes, to say the least. But not anymore. Imagine a USB drive that you can display proudly on your desk or cubicle; a USB drive that is so undeniably cool, that it actually overshadows your own personal lack of said cool. Imagine the Homer Simpson USB drive. To make this incredibly easy project I used a cheap 128MB USB drive, a green LED and 1K resistor (for effect), a USB extender cable, and the piece de’resistance - a Homer Simpson salt shaker that I got for Christmas last year.
The first thing I did was to take the USB drive apart for two reasons. I needed to get rid of all the extra space the plastic casing took up, and I needed access to the circuit board so that I could apply my green LED. Above, you can see the dissasembly of the drive. It only required a small flat head screw driver to pry the blue pastic apart.
Here, you can see a close up of the circuit board. The four connections on the left side of the board coming from the USB connector is where I made my extra connections. With a multimeter I observed that the top connection is ground and the bottom was +5V coming from the USB line of the computer. So, to add my extra LED, I soldered a 1K resistor in series with the LED between the +5 and ground connections (when doing this I made sure that I connected the LED the right way. All LEDs are polarized and if you connect them the wrong way nothing/bad things may happen).
After the LED and resistor were soldered to the board, I needed some way to protect the circuitry once it was inside the hard ceramic salt shaker. For this, I decided to use hot glue. (I know, sounds weird right? But after I thought about it it made sense) The hot glue is non-conductive so the circuitry will be ok, and it would hold the circuit board in place so that it wouldn’t slide around in Homer’s head. However, this process was sticky, hot and ugly (sorry but i didn’t snap any pictures of this).
While the hot glue was drying, I did a little work on Homer. I needed the hole in the bottom of the shaker to be wider to fit the board in, so I used my dremel tool. I also, made a little indention on the side of the bottom so the wire would be able to fit comfortably under his head when he was on my desk.
Once everything was ready, I stuck the USB inside and hotglued it in place. Its not much to look at from the bottom, but who’s going to look at it from the bottom anyway? What’s the matter with you, nosey? I bet you look in other people’s medicine cabinets when their not looking.
Once the device is plugged in it glows bright red for a few seconds until the computer can recognize it (this was a function of the original USB device but it still looks cool). After it is recognized by the computer, the bright red LED turns off and you can see the soft green light from my added LED.
Above is the final product. Not much different from the original in appearance except for the green light coming out the salt holes. Just imagine the amount of data you can now store in that previously void melon. And look how much happier he is!
After I finished, I plugged him up. Now, with a thing of beauty like this, you can’t just have the default drive name apply, so I renamed the storage drive. Incidently, the drive letter that was already associated with my USB device was J - which is perfect (any true “Simpsons” fan should know why).
There you have it - the very first Homer Simpson USB storage device. However, the process used here is applicable to probably many USB devices. You certainly don’t have to have homer salt shaker to add flare to your portable storage devices. You can cram those things anywhere and infact, I encourage it. If you have any unique or creative USB drives, send me a link - I’d love to post it.
Cool mod!
Little trick for you. If you happen to have an .ico file with homer’s head, you can have explorer display the icon next to your drive.
Just create a file named autorun.inf in the root of your thumbdrive. The content should be like this:
[autorun]
icon=homer.ico
That’s all you need. My thumbdrive has this icon:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/phlogiston/61711431/
awesome idea, thanks
Awesome, nice job plus o the irony Homer J:
im thinking of doing something similar i just need to go shopping for some plush dolls maybe a linux penguin to do this , thanks for the idea
I suppose that isn’t exactly so portable now. Irregardless thats a cool mod!
Drill a couple of holes in his eyes so the LED lights show through.
[…] I thought this was cute. Guy stuck a USB drive into a Homer salt shaker. Simple, but neat nevertheless. I should find an Otto salt shaker… […]
haha this looks freaking great.
now all we have to do is put some white led’s in there and make his eyes glow the typical “cartoon-eye-white” so they are the only light in the dark.
A salt shaker is much more useful.
thewebguy: Wow, great idea! You could use some translucent material (like a ping pong ball material, basically) with a couple of black spots on it. Then a white LED will make the material shine in the dark just like cartoon eyes. Excellent!
i *love* the HOMER (J:).. good work.
yay, you hot glued a perfectly good, portable, usb flash drive into a large ceramic homer simpson head. What a waste of a perfectly good flash drive.
The only problem with the hot glue may be circuit ventilation.
Nerd J is jealous!
Dont let people like joshowizt get you down.
Its a great idea, and well done too. Who cares if its not ultra portable anymore, its still portable and it looks good too.
yes, its a gr8 idea. can try on other toys as well…now thts creativity … good job again
awsome idea, am going to have to try that one out, now just need to find a homer head
[…] A decent little mod, especially for those simpson fans, and opens another avenue for bodies for a mod: Salt Shakers. There are plenty of odd salt shakers out there that might make a good desktop usb drive. […]
Nice idea..
Swap out that 1k resistor for a 330 ohm for a brighter effect. If you have some soldering skills, you can remove the connector and re-solder it at a 90 degree with some small wires to make the connections. Then the connector can stick out the back of Homer and would be a simple unplug from your extender cable, which solves any portability issues
Great New Site and Homer is Da Bomb! If you all like this project, wait til you see a project he is working on now. Check back periodically.
I love it! If only it was a salt shaker and flash drive!
[…] Genius, pure genius. What else can be said about a man who turns a Homer Simpson salt shaker into a USB drive. -ag Leave a Reply […]
LOLz. cool, very cool. I give it a 10
[…] LOL. No, that is not a Photoshopped image! That is the Homer USB project on USAToday.com. Yes, it is my first nod from the mainstream media. And yes, I do find it hilarious. […]
COOL! Reason # 299
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Thanks so very much!
That is an excellent mod. Time to hit a few Goodwill stores for Christmas presents for my geek friends. Thanks for the inspiration!
yeah pretty sure thats the most awesomely crazyest GREATEST IDEA EVER!!
Mmm…Seedy Rom.
The Homer USB Drive has a link from http://aimtoday.aol.com
LOL, kristin. Thanks for pointing it out. Homer’s been all over the mainstream this week
“I will *now* be known as Homer JAY Simpson”
[…] Check it out Here […]
Haha, I’m actually gonna do something like that with a B-Daman XD
[…] Homer Simpson instructions […]
[…] “MMmmmmm…data” Cool write up on the making of the first Homer Simpson USB storage device. 128MB of sweet, geeky goodness.read more | digg story […]
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coool
Cool and cute. Has anyone ever thought of using something really odd, say a dildo. to do this?
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does anyone know how to rename your USB?
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That was awesome. I’m gonna make one now. That was an interesting read.
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Great post. I’ll think about that.
Keep your good work going.
Nice blog, thanks for this information.
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Thanks for that! That’s so cool.
Damn, that’s incredible and creative. Now I want more interesting looking gadgets on my desktop!
Great one here.
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ur effort is good but i’ll never call it a project!a project always has to be something innovative,in your so called PROJECT you’ve just changed the casing of the USB,(SINCE I M STUDYING ELECTRONIC’S ENGINEERING)i m in first year and when i made my first project i made an audio amplifier and no weightage was given to it!therefore it is my sincere advice to do or atleast try to do something new.
but any ways i want to wish you best of luck for your future”PROJECTS”
[…] For another useful USB tutorial on recovering deleted files from USB drives, click here. […]
well this is very useful… (at least for me)
very thanks
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