First Mod: Portable Hard Drive inside Atari Driving Paddle

[OprahDust]

Hello, my name is OprahDust. I am a high school student, so I have a lot of time on my hands.

So tonight was getting a little bit boring, so I went into my basement and found a box of my Dad's old Atari 2800 stuff, so I thought to myself, what if I made one of the controllers into a flash drive?

So I took my 1gb mini-drive, opened it up, and took a look inside, and saw that what i always thought to be a flash drive was actually a very small 1gb hard drive.

So then I took apart the controller (it was a Driving Paddle by the way), and removed its insides, slapped the insides of the hard drive in it, sticking the USB cable out of where the original cable came out, and sealing it all up.

Unfortunately, I couldnt find my hot glue gun or duct tape, so i had to use some hockey tape and school glue to seal it up temporarily...

Stand By For Pictures...


Side View



Top View


Inside View

I apologize for my low quality pictures, as I cant find my digital camera anywhere and I have to use my crappy little webcam.

[Mageslayer]

Next project you should find some crazy way to hook up an iPod Shuffle so you have the buttons fast forward/rewind and the knob adjust the volume. That's probably near impossible, but seeing that controller just gives me that idea. Oh and one more thing, I hope you asked for permission to chop up your dad's Atari controller....

[Retromaster]

Sheer amazement!!...................
Sh-.....sheer......amazement............I've been building circuit boards for years and I still can't figure out how to do something like that!
Impressed beyond comprehension. Good work.
Decapitated - gannon

[OprahDust]

Sheer amazement!!...................
Sh-.....sheer......amazement............I've been building circuit boards for years and I still can't figure out how to do something like that!
Impressed beyond comprehension. Good work.
Decapitated - gannon

well actually, all i really did was open up the paddle using a philips screwdriver and took out all the insides, opened up my flash drive, and stuck the drive in there, set the usb cable out of it, glued the button and wheel back on, and screwed it all back together

total time of about 2 hours with most of that time being spent on trying to take apart the drive and controller

[A_Username]

Hello, my name is OprahDust. I am a high school student, so I have a lot of time on my hands.

So tonight was getting a little bit boring, so I went into my basement and found a box of my Dad's old Atari 2800 stuff, so I thought to myself, what if I made one of the controllers into a flash drive?

So I took my 1gb mini-drive, opened it up, and took a look inside, and saw that what i always thought to be a flash drive was actually a very small 1gb hard drive.

So then I took apart the controller (it was a Driving Paddle by the way), and removed its insides, slapped the insides of the hard drive in it, sticking the USB cable out of where the original cable came out, and sealing it all up.

Unfortunately, I couldnt find my hot glue gun or duct tape, so i had to use some hockey tape and school glue to seal it up temporarily...

Stand By For Pictures...


Side View



Top View


Inside View

I apologize for my low quality pictures, as I cant find my digital camera anywhere and I have to use my crappy little webcam.

Pretty Good, what a good way to start out here on benheck, doing something that almost nobody on the forums has ever thought of doing.

-Derek

[OprahDust]

Hello, my name is OprahDust. I am a high school student, so I have a lot of time on my hands.

So tonight was getting a little bit boring, so I went into my basement and found a box of my Dad's old Atari 2800 stuff, so I thought to myself, what if I made one of the controllers into a flash drive?

So I took my 1gb mini-drive, opened it up, and took a look inside, and saw that what i always thought to be a flash drive was actually a very small 1gb hard drive.

So then I took apart the controller (it was a Driving Paddle by the way), and removed its insides, slapped the insides of the hard drive in it, sticking the USB cable out of where the original cable came out, and sealing it all up.

Unfortunately, I couldnt find my hot glue gun or duct tape, so i had to use some hockey tape and school glue to seal it up temporarily...

Stand By For Pictures...


Side View



Top View


Inside View

I apologize for my low quality pictures, as I cant find my digital camera anywhere and I have to use my crappy little webcam.

Pretty Good, what a good way to start out here on benheck, doing something that almost nobody on the forums has ever thought of doing.

-Derek

I cant help but feel that that was sarcasm?

[SpongeBuell]

can't speak for A_Username, but I really do think that's a great way to start off at a place like this, with a little originality

[Turbo Tax 1.0]

Hello, my name is OprahDust. I am a high school student, so I have a lot of time on my hands.

So tonight was getting a little bit boring, so I went into my basement and found a box of my Dad's old Atari 2800 stuff, so I thought to myself, what if I made one of the controllers into a flash drive?

So I took my 1gb mini-drive, opened it up, and took a look inside, and saw that what i always thought to be a flash drive was actually a very small 1gb hard drive.

So then I took apart the controller (it was a Driving Paddle by the way), and removed its insides, slapped the insides of the hard drive in it, sticking the USB cable out of where the original cable came out, and sealing it all up.

Unfortunately, I couldnt find my hot glue gun or duct tape, so i had to use some hockey tape and school glue to seal it up temporarily...

Stand By For Pictures...


Side View



Top View


Inside View

I apologize for my low quality pictures, as I cant find my digital camera anywhere and I have to use my crappy little webcam.

Pretty Good, what a good way to start out here on benheck, doing something that almost nobody on the forums has ever thought of doing.

-Derek

I cant help but feel that that was sarcasm?

i don't think it was sarcasm, nice mod

[CronoTriggerfan]

No, I really think they were being sincere when they said that, as am I now; it's a very cool, original mod. Very out of the ordinary, in a good way of course. While a lot of stuff here is quite amazing, seldom is it something that's never been done before. Welcome to the forums!

CTFan

[OprahDust]

well thanks for your input guys, for my next project i was thinking about building an electric skillet into a ps3, but i then realized that doing so would be a waste of $600... so im going to try a bit smaller and do something with the ipod instead

[scottz29]

don't you mean a waste of an electric skillet? oh wait, a ps3 IS an electric skillet!

[gamemasterAS]

Nice, Make one into a USB charger next.

[vb_master]

Atari 2800

It's Atari 2600 :p

[gamemasterAS]

Atari 2800

It's Atari 2600 :p

I thought that there was just another random Atari I didn't know about.

[Sparkfist]

Atari 2800

It's Atari 2600 :p

I thought that there was just another random Atari I didn't know about.

Would you believe that the Atari 2800 is the name used when the 2600 went to Japan?

Also I really like that mod, it'd be cool to put a multi-card reader in one, or just a CF adapter (use more CF then other flash-ram). I just have one question, where'd you get the cable with the stress reliever? Cause that make your mod look professional.