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/
Comment by Fabian — November 9, 2005 @
awesome idea, thanks
Comment by Administrator — November 9, 2005 @
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
Comment by FR34K — November 10, 2005 @
I suppose that isn’t exactly so portable now. Irregardless thats a cool mod!
Comment by ai42 — November 10, 2005 @
Drill a couple of holes in his eyes so the LED lights show through.
Comment by Otto — November 10, 2005 @
[…] 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… […]
Pingback by Nothing to see here » Homer USB Drive — November 10, 2005 @
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.
Comment by thewebguy — November 10, 2005 @
A salt shaker is much more useful.
Comment by Allan — November 10, 2005 @
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!
Comment by Otto — November 10, 2005 @
i *love* the HOMER (J:).. good work.
Comment by peabody — November 10, 2005 @
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.
Comment by Nerd Joshowitz — November 10, 2005 @
The only problem with the hot glue may be circuit ventilation.
Nerd J is jealous!
Comment by ctron — November 10, 2005 @
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.
Comment by Sish — November 10, 2005 @
yes, its a gr8 idea. can try on other toys as well…now thts creativity … good job again
Comment by sanky — November 11, 2005 @
awsome idea, am going to have to try that one out, now just need to find a homer head
Comment by mike — November 11, 2005 @
[…] 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. […]
Pingback by USBmods » Blog Archive » Homer USB Drive — November 12, 2005 @
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
Comment by Brutus — November 12, 2005 @
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.
Comment by Cemuni — November 15, 2005 @
I love it! If only it was a salt shaker and flash drive!
Comment by Gnat — November 16, 2005 @
[…] 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 […]
Pingback by USB Homer — November 22, 2005 @
LOLz. cool, very cool. I give it a 10
Comment by ROLLIE — December 3, 2005 @
[…] 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. […]
Pingback by zerosign.net » Zerosign on USAToday — December 7, 2005 @
COOL! Reason # 299
Things to do with a Dead CAT!
Thanks so very much!
Comment by thinkingofyou tedious thinker — December 7, 2005 @
That is an excellent mod. Time to hit a few Goodwill stores for Christmas presents for my geek friends. Thanks for the inspiration!
Comment by Mark — December 7, 2005 @
yeah pretty sure thats the most awesomely crazyest GREATEST IDEA EVER!!
Comment by Justin — December 8, 2005 @
Mmm…Seedy Rom.
Comment by Ben — December 11, 2005 @
The Homer USB Drive has a link from http://aimtoday.aol.com
Comment by kristin — December 11, 2005 @
LOL, kristin. Thanks for pointing it out. Homer’s been all over the mainstream this week
Comment by leadingzero — December 11, 2005 @
“I will *now* be known as Homer JAY Simpson”
Comment by erik — December 15, 2005 @
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Pingback by Brutusweb » Homer Simpson Mod — March 9, 2006 @
Haha, I’m actually gonna do something like that with a B-Daman XD
Comment by Grave — June 7, 2006 @
[…] Homer Simpson instructions […]
Pingback by USB Flash Drive Freak » Personalize your Flash Drive! — July 17, 2006 @
[…] “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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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”
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