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I'm designing a Thumb Drive

  • Thread starter www.interfacebus.com
  • Start date
Who manufacturers or sells USB style shells for thumb drives. I've
been looking around but can't find anything.

I'll fab the USB interface and Flash memory on a CCA, but I need a
case to put it in. Who make thos cases? A Plastic or Metal case would
be ok. The more links I get the better. This message was cross-
posted......

http://www.interfacebus.com/http://interfacebus.blogspot.com/http://www.serialphy.com/


Like these?

http://www.gadgetspy.co.uk/wp-content/photos/usb_thumb_drive.JPG
http://www.dialog05.com/objects/03.html
 
L

linnix

Jan 1, 1970
0
Who manufacturers or sells USB style shells for thumb drives. I've
been looking around but can't find anything.

I'll fab the USB interface and Flash memory on a CCA, but I need a
case to put it in. Who make thos cases? A Plastic or Metal case would
be ok. The more links I get the better. This message was cross-
posted......

http://www.interfacebus.com/http://interfacebus.blogspot.com/http://www.serialphy.com/

Lots of factories will build them to your specifications. Are you
ready to order 10K?
 
W

www.interfacebus.com

Jan 1, 1970
0
Lots of factories will build them to your specifications.  Are you
ready to order 10K?

Just a plastic case .......
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
www.interfacebus.com said:
I realize that, but I don't want 10,000. Once they make they mode they
can pass them to any vendor to resell ~ who does that.

They will not eat the mold costs, they have to amortize through that one
job. If you need smaller quantities you best bet might be to scope out
Asian suppliers via Globalsources or one of those mega sites. See if you
can live with an existing design. If not you'll have to cough up the
money for the molds.
 
J

J.A. Legris

Jan 1, 1970
0
Who manufacturers or sells USB style shells for thumb drives. I've
been looking around but can't find anything.

I'll fab the USB interface and Flash memory on a CCA, but I need a
case to put it in. Who make thos cases? A Plastic or Metal case would
be ok. The more links I get the better. This message was cross-
posted......

http://www.interfacebus.com/http://interfacebus.blogspot.com/http://www.serialphy.com/

For small quantities, say under 1000 pieces, wouldn't it be cheaper
just to buy the thumb drives from a distributor?
 
W

www.interfacebus.com

Jan 1, 1970
0
For small quantities, say under 1000 pieces, wouldn't it be cheaper
just to buy the thumb drives from a distributor?

Maybe, but once they make the mold they could also sell the finsihed
product to any one. I have a listing of companies that have completed
the mold and advertise the completed product [not USB]:

http://www.interfacebus.com/plastic_mould_manufacturer.html

I want a USB case. Some companys makes 10,000 a day and sells them. I
want a link that has already done the work and now sells a blank case
~ there most be one out there..................

http://www.interfacebus.com/
 
W

www.interfacebus.com

Jan 1, 1970
0
www.interfacebus.comwrote:


They will not eat the mold costs, they have to amortize through that one
job. If you need smaller quantities you best bet might be to scope out
Asian suppliers via Globalsources or one of those mega sites. See if you
can live with an existing design. If not you'll have to cough up the
money for the molds.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I already know this, provide a site that has a USB case. What site has
a design that I can use ~ that is what I'm asking for
 
S

Scott

Jan 1, 1970
0
www.interfacebus.com said:
Who manufacturers or sells USB style shells for thumb drives. I've
been looking around but can't find anything.

I'll fab the USB interface and Flash memory on a CCA, but I need a
case to put it in. Who make thos cases? A Plastic or Metal case would
be ok. The more links I get the better. This message was cross-
posted......


http://www.interfacebus.com/
http://interfacebus.blogspot.com/
http://www.serialphy.com/

Try this:
http://www.newageenclosures.com
 
C

ChairmanOfTheBored

Jan 1, 1970
0
Who manufacturers or sells USB style shells for thumb drives. I've
been looking around but can't find anything.

I'll fab the USB interface and Flash memory on a CCA, but I need a
case to put it in. Who make thos cases? A Plastic or Metal case would
be ok. The more links I get the better. This message was cross-
posted......


You're never going to beat the leaders of the industry at this game.

http://www.corsairmemory.com/products/survivor.aspx

http://www.corsairmemory.com/products/voyager.aspx

26MB/s write, 34MB/s read.

Good luck... you'll need it.

The tooling alone for such a venture will cost you $10k easily.

You want "oem" style shells? Hahaha good luck selling the end product
as a competing device.
 
R

Robbo

Jan 1, 1970
0
www.interfacebus.com said:
Who manufacturers or sells USB style shells for thumb drives. I've
been looking around but can't find anything.

I'll fab the USB interface and Flash memory on a CCA, but I need a
case to put it in. Who make thos cases? A Plastic or Metal case would
be ok. The more links I get the better. This message was cross-
posted......


http://www.interfacebus.com/
http://interfacebus.blogspot.com/
http://www.serialphy.com/


Maybe looks at small volume low temp / low pressure plastic encapsulation.
Local machine shop could make a simple aluminum mold for low vol.
 
C

ChairmanOfTheBored

Jan 1, 1970
0
Maybe looks at small volume low temp / low pressure plastic encapsulation.
Local machine shop could make a simple aluminum mold for low vol.

Yeah? For what process? A plastic injection mold ain't easy or cheap
to tool.

It ain't like making rubber worms, dude.
 
M

Martin Brown

Jan 1, 1970
0
  You're never going to beat the leaders of the industry at this game.

http://www.corsairmemory.com/products/survivor.aspx

http://www.corsairmemory.com/products/voyager.aspx

  26MB/s write, 34MB/s read.

  Good luck...  you'll need it.

I previously asked this question on comp.system.ibm.pc.storage and got
zero answers, but since this newsgroup contains a large number of
computer savvy folk with the right sort of kit and an inclination to
test things as opposed to believing the manufacturers marketting hype.
Here is a repost:

I wonder if anyone can point me at reliable benchmarks of measured
flash memory performance?

Or recommendations based on first hand experience with the larger
drives. 8GB, 16GB.

I found the following URL with some older drives in the 1-2GB range
tested with h2benchw 3.6, but AFAICT there is very little else out
there with real measured performance figures. I am interested in
buying the largest USB flash drive I can get consistent with still
getting around 20MB/s data rate for read and the lowest possible
random access seek time. I don't care much about the write time as I
only expect to write the data once. Cheaper is obviously better. (and
I am hoping it will be a lot quieter and cooler than a 10k rpm
spindle)

The benchmarks that I have found are summarised on Toms Hardware
page:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/data-transfer-on-the-run,review-1305-10.html

All of the drives reviewed there are too small for the data I need to
store. My bog standard no-name 1GB manages 12MB/s read rate and that
is too slow for what I want to do. It is also much too small. The seek
time is also important as I expect the vast majority of accesses to be
uncorrelated and random.

I was considering the Corsair 8GB or 16GB basic blue units, but I was
a bit alarmed at the apparently slow ~30ms random access time shown
for their smaller drives cf others like Kingston, Crucial and Memina
in at around <1ms. I have also seen a couple of user reviews where
people said the 16GB unit was much slower than the 8GB - but they may
have been mistaken since others seem not to have a problem.

This isn't for Vista so I don't care at all if the drive is readyboost
compatible or not.

Thanks for any suggestions or enlightenment. I don't like buyng a pig
in poke.

Anyone care to benchmark their thumb drive(s) with hbenchw 3.6 for
read write MB/s and seek time in ms ?

Cheap ones give something like 11 5 1 (read write seek). Really
bad junk ones 4 4 2.

Regards,
Martin Brown
 
R

Robbo

Jan 1, 1970
0
ChairmanOfTheBored said:
Yeah? For what process? A plastic injection mold ain't easy or cheap
to tool.

It ain't like making rubber worms, dude.


Rubber worms maybe not, machining all those wrinkles would be a PITA.
An article I saw in a recent trade magazine was interesting even if not
fully suited to the OP's needs.

It's a little different to the standard injection molding setup:

http://www.tarapath.com.au/products.cfm?CID=2271

The article had more encapsulation examples than shown at the link above.
 
J

J.A. Legris

Jan 1, 1970
0
For small quantities, say under 1000 pieces, wouldn't it be cheaper
just to buy the thumb drives from a distributor?

Maybe, but once they make the mold they could also sell the finsihed
product to any one. I have a listing of companies that have completed
the mold and advertise the completed product [not USB]:

http://www.interfacebus.com/plastic_mould_manufacturer.html

I want a USB case. Some companys makes 10,000 a day and sells them. I
want a link that has already done the work and now sells a blank case
~ there most be one out there..................

http://www.interfacebus.com/

I meant the whole thumb drive, not just the case. The market is
already saturated. You can probably buy the whole thing at retail for
less than your parts cost alone.
 
E

Ecnerwal

Jan 1, 1970
0
For low volume or a one off:

Scavenge a case from a small-capacity unit. Lots of 8M, 16M 32M, 64M,
128M, 256M units that were sold and/or given away as convention freebies
floating around doing nothing much these days.

Chop off a chunk of a butane lighter (empty, pick up on side of road)
and use hot glue, silicone or epoxy to mount/encapsulate.

Use hot glue straight up to encapsulate, perhaps pulling a mold from one
you like the shape of with RTV silicone or plaster - or just get
artistic in your application of heat to achieve the shape you want with
no mold at all. Cut a pair of sides from a wooden tongue depressor and
make a hot-glue ice-cream sandwich around the board, as one approach.

Following a typical commercial design - Buy suitable metal tubing
(round) and squish to (oval) - then all you need is end plugs - again,
epoxy, silicone or hot glue should work in low volumes.
 
L

linnix

Jan 1, 1970
0
I realize that, but I don't want 10,000. Once they make they mode they
can pass them to any vendor to resell ~ who does that.

I don't know about other shacky manufacturers, but our manufacturers
are explicitly prohibited from doing so. Otherwise, how am I going to
explain to my next customer:

Buddy, don't worry about it. We will make them for you, sell them for
you and pocket the money for you. Just hand over the tooling costs.
 
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