Biking is great exercise, but don’t let a healthy body be the only reward for this activity, power up your gadgets. Here is a USB tutorial which incorporates a two port USB hub and switching regulator to generate a 5v charge to any USB device.
There are so many small electronics that can be powered or charged from a USB connection it only makes since that people might want to do this while riding a bike.
The hack isn’t too complicated, but it is a weekend project and will require some soldering skills. The two fundamental components are a Rectifier which changes AC current into DC current and a Voltage Regulator which is a switching regulator to control the amount of volts going to the charged devices.
To get all the details visit the DIY project here.
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I’ve seen some USB holders at Staples and Office Max for over $20 dollars and that’s just for a fancy pouch to place your USB sticks while on-the-go. What about a DIY duct tape USB holder? You get the satisfaction of making it yourself, save yourself some cash and a hint of coolness to your storage devices.
Granted the duct tape approach is more in tune with kids, but lets give this a quick review.
In four simple steps you can do this exact project.
Step 1 – Grab some materials, that being a ruler, knife, duct tape, thumb drives and creativity.
Step 2 – Make the back plane duct tape which is very similar to making a duct tape wallet.
Step 3 – Add the pockets. In the picture you can see the USBs are parallel with each other, I would recommend staggering them so the thickness is reduced when folding.
Step 4 – Put the finishing touches on there with some clean lines of duct tape, patterns and custom designs.
For the full tutorial and loads more pictures visit Instructables.
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Happy 4th of July for 2010 from GetUSB.info. Here is a great image of a USB drive branded with the US flag. Did you know why we celebrate the 4th of July? I’m sure you do, but for a friendly reminder, read this:
Most people in the US celebrate the 4th of July, but do you know why the holiday is so important to our country? Imagine how you would feel if someone older than you kept telling you what to do all of the time and kept taking more and more of your allowance. That is how the colonists felt in the years leading up to 1776. Great Britain kept trying to make the colonists follow more rules and pay higher taxes. People started getting mad and began making plans to be able to make their own rules. They no longer wanted Great Britain to be able to tell them what to do, so they decided to tell Great Britain that they were becoming an independent country. (To be independent means to take care of yourself, making your own rules and providing for your own needs.)
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I came across this very interesting USB hack from TechOat the other day. The concept of this modification is taking the key of a power box in your computer and turning that into the physical on/off switch for USB communication.
The premise is disassembling the wires of the USB cable and port and weaving that into the circuit of a locking switch on your PC. I think this illustration shows it best:
What I particularly like about this USB hack, is the physical requirement to have the key in order to work the USB port. This type of security [more fun then practical] for USB devices in general is much better than a Truecrypt type solution as that only protects the device, not the system.
So what you need includes:
Small USB thumb drive
USB extension cable or USB socket and plug with cable
Locking switch DPST
Plastic box
The rest is just elbow grease to get it working, for the specific details and tutorial, jump here.
Here at GetUSB.info we love the USB steampunk drive. We’ve reported on at least a dozen of them over the past couple years and I’m sure we’ve missed three times that many. Today we are tipping you off to a great tutorial on how to USB steampunk your own flash drive.
Instructables has a very detailed, 9 page tutorial on how to steampunk your own gear. It gives you a list of material, a detailed process, good and creative guidelines along with plenty of pictures and resources.
It’s my goal to actually do this over the July 4th weekend [2010] and post my result. Lets hope for the best!
To give you an idea of the scope of project considering the following list of materials and tools. If it fits into your abilities, then give it a shot!
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Biking is great exercise, but don’t let a healthy body be the only reward for this activity, power up your gadgets. Here is a USB tutorial which incorporates a two port USB hub and switching regulator to generate a 5v charge to any USB device.
There are so many small electronics that can be powered or charged from a USB connection it only makes since that people might want to do this while riding a bike.
The hack isn’t too complicated, but it is a weekend project and will require some soldering skills. The two fundamental components are a Rectifier which changes AC current into DC current and a Voltage Regulator which is a switching regulator to control the amount of volts going to the charged devices.
To get all the details visit the DIY project here.
Continue Reading
