USB insides?

glaw89

glaw89

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hey guys!

does anyone know where I can buy the insides of a USB stick (basically no casing at all)? mini ones would be perfect. I have looked but no idea what or where to search.

Thanks
 
Dare I ask why you want one without a case?

As has been said you could always just buy a normal one and pull the casing off.
 
glaw89 said:
cheap ones with the casing pulled off i presumed would cost more.
ploddles - i want to make my own casing :) xx
Click to expand...

Cool. You should show us once you have it sorted.
 
glaw89 said:
cheap ones with the casing pulled off i presumed would cost more.
ploddles - i want to make my own casing :) xx
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the opposite is true!

It's about economies of scale and cheap completed USB sticks with cases will be churned out by the boatload (literally) from china. The plastic casing is likely to on.y represent a small fraction of the overall manufacturing cost. I would guess that buying just the electronics, you would have to be putting in a huge order to make it viable.

As others have said, perhaps sourcing cheap completed ones would be easier.
 
MarcM said:
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the opposite is true!

It's about economies of scale and cheap completed USB sticks with cases will be churned out by the boatload (literally) from china. The plastic casing is likely to on.y represent a small fraction of the overall manufacturing cost. I would guess that buying just the electronics, you would have to be putting in a huge order to make it viable.

As others have said, perhaps sourcing cheap completed ones would be easier.
Click to expand...

:plusone:
 
I have some experience of trying to do this through work.

If this is for a one-off, remove the casing yourself.

If you are intending to design a case for mass production, you may find it easier to have a USB memory stick manufacturer in China make an injection mould to your design and assemble batches for you using "your" case. There is significant cost in doing this though, as injection moulding tools are very expensive (think five figures in $US) to manufacture, even in China. At least if you want a decent tool. Once the tool is made the cases can be banged out for next to nothing.

Our experience with Chinese USB device manufacturers is that while they may be persuaded to supply the devices bare, they will not guarantee them at all in this case as packing is much more difficult and damage in transit consequently more likely.
 
Cracking the case of a usb drive is easy enough, I bought a cheap one from ebuyer when I put mine into a lego brick a couple of years ago.
 
thank-you mods for moving & for the replies. what i want to do is not just a one-off but not enough to get it manufactured for me. when i say i want to make my own casing its pretty much putting it into something and glueing it up - its nothing technical but will look awesome.

its going to work out at around £9.00 per 4GB drive for me to buy completed and do myself - is that a reasonable cost for a 4GB drive?
 
It depends if they are just for yourself or you intend to sell them.

If you intend to sell them then you need to make a profit so it will be more than £9. So would there be a market for them bearing in mind that on mymemory.co.uk at the moment you can get 2 @ 16GB drives for £12 on their current promo.
 
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Ploddles said:
It depends if they are just for yourself or you intend to sell them.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be selling them, I would be giving them. Its for my clients but I am not so sure on spending £9 per drive before even a pretty box & ribbon etc .. I was doing discs at the cost of something this £7 all in posted so bit of a difference.
 
As a freebie, probably a little too much at £9+ a pop, unless you are making hundreds in profits from each client that you give one to.
 
glaw89 said:
thank-you mods for moving & for the replies. what i want to do is not just a one-off but not enough to get it manufactured for me. when i say i want to make my own casing its pretty much putting it into something and glueing it up - its nothing technical but will look awesome.

its going to work out at around £9.00 per 4GB drive for me to buy completed and do myself - is that a reasonable cost for a 4GB drive?
Click to expand...

How much are you getting the drives for?? there are plenty of 4gb out there for the £4 mark or less , to name a few:

http://www.mymemory.co.uk/USB-Flash...B-Flash-Drive--Includes-SecureAccess-Software

http://www.mymemory.co.uk/USB-Flash-Drives/Duracell/Duracell-4GB-Capless-USB-Flash-Drive


£3.50 from amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Cru...NSPK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1346366827&sr=8-4
http://www.7dayshop.com/transcend-j...es&queryFromSuggest=true&userInput=USB+&sl=sl
 
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the above is well and good but then i need to dismantle them and put them into a new 'casing' to get them how i want them which adds on the cost. I don't want to stick with discs as i feel their time is limited and want to offer USB's as its not only easier for me but easier for my clients. Guess its back to the drawing board or having to bite the bullet at £9 per one :(
 
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