I present to your attention another color music, or rather it would be a volume level indicator, since it is a column of LEDs that turn on one after another depending on the output signal of the audio amplifier. For these purposes, I used the UAA180 microcircuit; you can also take the K1003PP1 and A277D, these are all complete analogues of each other and turn on in exactly the same way. Each of these chips is a driver for 12 LEDs. In addition to the fact that it can be used as a color music device, this microcircuit can also be used as an elementary voltmeter with a measurement threshold of 6V. But I still decided to collect color music.
And so I decided to use the case hard drive for these purposes. To begin with, you actually need to disassemble HDD and remove from it what we don’t need

Next you need to take the LEDs and solder them into a ring, I used super bright LEDs with a 3V power supply. You can use almost any that you can find.
We solder and place them in place of the disk itself

After all the LEDs are soldered and laid, I advise you to fill them with hot glue or, in extreme cases, regular glue.

Now you need the control chip itself, which is also quite easy to assemble, and so here is the driver circuit itself.

Everything is simple here, this is how contacts are counted on UAA180

After this, we solder the LEDs to the circuit using wires

We connect and check and everything should work the first time. To check, you can connect 5 volts to the input and rotate the potentiometer to see how the microcircuit reacts to changes in the input voltage.
We connect the output from your audio amplifier to the input of the microcircuit and everything will work fine.

Hi all! Actually the idea is not new. They say the Internet is full of such records, I haven’t seen it yet, the idea appeared on its own. I had the urge to, you know, urgently sharpen a knife and a screwdriver... But “OH GOD!” The sandpaper is in the garage, but at work there isn’t even a file... Well, we are “sysadmins”, simple people, and I went into the “bins of the Motherland” and took out... An old hard drive from a PC...

We take scissors, screwdrivers, sandpaper, our HDD and double-sided tape

Everything we need.

Unscrew the bolts. The 7th bolt is always hidden under the sticker.

……………………………………………………………….

Let's open it. and everything is so beautifully packaged there. glitters.

We unscrew the head drive and the head movement lever, magnets for experiments, the rest can be scrapped.

Unscrew the disk mounting cover and remove the washer above the disk, as well as the disk itself

Place the disc on the sandpaper, trace the contours and cut out

These are the bagels you get)

We glue double-sided tape onto our disk (you can also add glue to it, but it will be easier to replace the sandpaper with tape)

……………………………………………………………………………………

SPARK))))
Well, about the operation of this device.

It is better to use fine sandpaper; the engine is rather weak for coarse ones. But I had enough for sharpening everything I needed, even a lot. Bye everyone!

Don't rush to throw it away hard disks, left over after a computer upgrade or hard drives that have failed - you can always find a new use for them. For example, make a mirror, a clock, a safe for storing cash, network storage and other useful things.

The purposes for which old hard drives can be used depend on whether they are in working order or not. It is curious that a functioning hard drive has many fewer uses than a non-functioning one.

Portable storage

If the hard drive is in working condition, it can be turned into a portable drive. To do this, just buy an external hard drive container and place the hard drive in it. Depending on the size of the drive, a power adapter may be required, for example if the drive is 3.5" while 2.5" drives usually do not require an adapter.

Home cloud server

If you already have an external drive and don't need another, you can use a working hard drive to create your own network-attached drive so you can access the data on the drive from any device connected to your Wi-Fi networks. If you are not ready to spend extra money, you can build your own network storage device based on a Raspberry Pi single-board computer.

How to use non-working hard drives

A faulty hard drive cannot be used for data storage, but its physical components may have other uses. Before starting work, you will need to disassemble it into “spare parts”. The process is demonstrated in the video below.

Magnetic knife bar

Hard disks contain large neodymium magnets that can be used to create a magnetic knife holder. All you need is a strip, magnets, glue and a set of common tools.

Mirror

Optical disks located in the hard drive can serve as an excellent mirror. The discs must be removed very carefully to avoid chips and scratches. They can then be placed in the office, used as a signal or pocket mirror.

Wind chimes

From optical disks You can create not only mirrors, but also other cute little things, for example, wind chimes. To make them you will need the actual optical discs, the hard drive case, a metal fastening ring and a cord with which the structural elements will be connected.

Secret safe

Creative uses can be found not only for the components of the hard drive, but also for its case, for example, using it as a safe for storing money. It's quite easy to make - just remove all the components from the case and screw the cover to one of the upper corners of the case using a bolt. As a result, you will have a rotating container where you can put money.

In this publication, we will look at what can be made using an unnecessary old hard drive.

Neodymium magnets in a computer

First you need to unscrew several screws that secure the housing parts. Under the cover we see a neodymium magnet. IN hard drives very powerful magnets are used that are capable of lifting 1300 times their own weight.

All modern drives always have two magnetic head block limiters and, accordingly, 2 neodymium magnets. To remove the 2nd magnet, you need to unscrew another screw and remove it together with the holder or first unscrew the block of magnetic heads and then pry it off with a screwdriver.

The uses of neodymium magnets are almost limitless. For clamps and fasteners, toys and entertainment, cleaning engine and transmission oil, searching for treasures and lost iron objects under water, making engines and generators, restoring the magnetic properties of other magnets and much, much more.

Mini sandpaper made from a hard drive

To do this, you first need to transfer the disk sizes to sandpaper, this can be conveniently done using a compass. You should use fine-grain sandpaper so as not to overload the engine. So, cut out the outer diameter with scissors and the inner diameter with a stationery knife.

Glue the sandpaper where possible using glue. But in order not to wait for a long time for the glue to dry and so that you can easily change the sandpaper, you can use double-sided tape.

The emery is already ready. We connect it to the connector from computer unit food and use it. Despite its small dimensions, this sanding machine is quite powerful. Its power is enough to sharpen screwdrivers, pencils, chisels and carving knives.

How to eliminate PC noise

Often old computer cases make a lot of noise. One of the reasons for this problem is the direct mounting of the hard drive to the PC case. When reading information, the disk develops enormous speeds and, accordingly, a slight vibration appears, which is transmitted to the entire computer case. A small manufacturing defect, poor soldering or a screw not tightened completely in the case lid will always remind you of this.

To fix this problem we just need to cut 4 rubber strips. This could be old bicycle tubes, deflated children's balls, or a piece of silicone car mat. We screw the ribbons to the hard drive and attach it to a new place just below the DVD-ROM or even instead.

Overall, an excellent result is obtained, since all vibrations are absorbed by the rubber bands. This device can also be called an anti-shock. If you accidentally kick your PC, it will have no effect on the hard drive.

Introduction.
Most laptop owners sooner or later face the problem of running out of space. As a rule, laptops with screen sizes up to 15 inches inclusive do not have a free second slot for a 2.5-inch device. Therefore, owners are forced to think about either replacing the laptop itself or replacing its hard drive. After replacing the hard drive, there is always an old drive left, which can easily be turned into external USB storage device for carrying data.
Naturally, you can purchase a mobile 2.5-inch hard drive and turn it into an external drive. Fortunately, the cost of external drives allows this. For example, at the time of writing, for a 250 GB mobile hard drive they are asking $40, and for a 500 GB device from WD they are asking only $45.
We decide on the type of hard drive.
To be fair, it should be noted that an ordinary desktop 3.5-inch hard drive can also be turned into an external drive - you just can’t call it mobile. If you have an unused 2.5 or 3.5 inch hard drive, then first of all you need to decide on the type of its interface.
Today on the market there are the following types of interface: IDE (ATA) and various SATA options. As a rule, all SATA interfaces are backward compatible with each other, and we will not dwell on their variations. The situation is completely different between IDE and SATA interfaces, which are absolutely incompatible with each other and have different connectors.

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The figure shows two hard drives with different interfaces. Hard drives have a mobile format of 2.5 inches. On the left is a hard drive with a SATA interface, on the right is a hard drive with an IDE interface.

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In our hands was a 250 GB hard drive from Western Digital Scorpio Blue series with a SATA interface. This drive has been used for a long time Acer laptop, but its capacity became insufficient, and it was replaced with a more capacious 500 GB solution.

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Despite long-term use, the performance of the hard drive did not cause any complaints, so it was decided to use it as an external mobile drive. To do this, we had to find an external case for it, which is what we did. External case AGESTAR for 2.5 inch mobile hard drive.
Computer hardware stores offer a wide variety of external cases for 2.5-inch hard drives. Their key difference is as follows:
- body material,
- type of external port (interface),
- cost.

As a rule, stores offer various cases with USB interface 2.0, there are significantly fewer cases with an eSATA interface, and even fewer cases with a combination of USB 2.0&eSATA. Several cases with a modern USB 3.0 interface were found on sale, but their cost exceeded the cost of the hard drive itself, so we did not consider them.

Key Difference The difference between USB 2.0 and eSATA interfaces is the data transfer speed. Using the USB 2.0 interface allows for maximum compatibility, since these ports are available on all computers. A significant disadvantage of the USB 2.0 interface is - low speed data transfer, which will not allow you to unlock the full speed potential of your hard drive.

The eSATA port is more promising, but it is not widespread and is found only in expensive versions of motherboards, cases and laptops. The eSATA interface allows you to fully unleash the potential of SATA devices.

The material used can also be very different. In a simple case, it is plastic. In more expensive variations, an aluminum case with a leather cover is included.
The cost of external cases also varies. The cheapest option will cost the user $3, expensive versions will cost more than $100.

Buying a $100 case for a hard drive that costs less than $40 when new and is half the price once it's in use is, to say the least, wasteful. Therefore, for testing we were provided with a case costing a symbolic 3 dollars - AgeStar SUB2P1. Equipment and visual inspection AgeStar SUB2P1.

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We didn't expect any miracles from a device that costs three dollars, both in terms of equipment and in terms of performance. The device comes modestly packaged in a package. The front wall of the device is covered with a cardboard listing the key characteristics of the device. This is support for 2.5 inch mobile hard drives or solid state drives with SATA interface, transmission interface available USB data 2.0 and various color options.
To be fair, it should be noted that our suppliers confirmed that they had not seen any other color for this case other than black.

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After opening the package, we were pleasantly surprised by the fact that the kit included an instruction manual entirely in Russian.

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The case is completely made of plastic. There are paper stickers on the front wall indicating the model, which will be erased in any case, so we recommend immediately removing them from the surface of the device.

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The material used to make the case is soft black plastic, which does not smell of anything and is uniform throughout its structure.

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The covers of the device come off in two different directions, which ensures easy removal and installing the hard drive in an external case.

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The two sides of the outer case are secured using a plastic latch made from the material of the case. Thanks to the recesses on the walls, the lids are securely fixed and spilling any glass of liquid, or leaving the device in the rain, is unlikely to lead to any problems.

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The device is designed for SATA hard drives, which we have repeatedly emphasized. Inside there are controllers with SATA ports for power and data transfer.

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Mini is soldered on the side wall USB port for data transfer and power supply of the hard drive. None additional port There is no storage device to provide power, which may cause some problems for users. With a weak power supply that underestimates the voltage along the 5 volt line, you often have to deal with problems starting the hard drive. Typically, connecting the drive directly to a port on the motherboard rather than on the case system unit, the use of quality USB cable allows you to forget about this problem.

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Sellers of computer components often, as an advantage of this or that external case, talk about the presence of a USB data cable in the kit or offer to purchase it separately if it is not there. We advise our users not to pay attention to this, since a mini-USB-USB cable, as a rule, is available in almost every family and is often supplied with mobile phones. In our case, we successfully used a stale data cable from mobile phone Nokia.

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The next step was to install the hard drive into the case. This is done quite simply - by lightly pressing. The most important thing is to first correctly rotate the hard drive according to the power and SATA data ports located in the case.

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The absence of any protruding elements on the hard drive controller circuit allows you not to worry about its rear surface when transporting and using the device.

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Some users may argue that the plastic case does not provide adequate heat dissipation from the hard drive. Naturally, external cases made of aluminum cope with this task much more effectively. At the same time, we should not forget that mobile hard drives do not have such high power consumption that they suffer from overheating, and in laptops, as a rule, they are not additionally cooled with anything.

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After completing the assembly of the device, the stage of its testing and use begins. The supply of voltage to the device is accompanied by the glow of a blue LED, which also symbolizes the user about the process of data transfer. It should be noted that not everyone will have a smooth start when starting to work with the created external drive. If the hard drive has already been used, has been formatted and partitions have been created on it, you will not have any problems getting started. It works like a regular flash drive using the Plug&Play method. But those users who purchased a new hard drive without formatting and with no partitions will have a problem that will be associated with the absence of a drive letter in the “My Computer” tab.
To do this, you need to create partitions on the hard drive and format it. This can be done through various boot disks, but it’s better not to bother and do it in the Windows operating system itself.

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To do this, you need to go to the "Control Panel" through the "Start" section, then visit the "Administration" section. In this section, select “Computer Management”, where in the “Disk Management” tab you can partition and format the newly connected external drive. After creating partitions and formatting them, you will have access to them through the “My Computer” tab and you will be able to exchange with the drive as with a regular hard drive. Test configuration.
The assembled external drive was tested both on a desktop computer, based on a modern Core processor i7 and no less modern motherboard, and on a laptop Acer Aspire 7730 based on Core 2 Duo processor. It should be noted that the performance level at two various systems turned out to be comparable.

1. Data reading speed was tested in the HD Tach 3.0.4.0 program

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It is pleasant to note that the external drive we assembled shows a much higher level of performance than the WD My Passport Essential external hard drive we previously tested. The maximum data transfer speed was 34.3 Mb/s, and the average latency was about 17.9 ms.

2. Data reading speed in HD Tune 4.5.

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In the second synthetic test, we received data similar to the previous ones, which also turned out to be slightly better than that of the official external hard drive WD My Passport Essential.

3. Write speed of 64 MB files in HD Tune 4.5.

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Testing that is closer to practice is somewhat more valuable, by recording files of 64 MB in size. In this test, we received quite expected results, which were also limited only by the capabilities of the USB 2.0 interface.
Separately, I would like to note that throughout the entire testing, the temperature of the hard drive did not exceed 35 degrees Celsius, while a similar hard drive installed in the laptop had a temperature of about 43 degrees. Therefore, worrying about the operating conditions of the hard drive in this case on the part of users will be unnecessary.

4. Operating room loading speed Windows systems 7.

During practical testing on image loading speed operating system In Windows 7, we received results similar to other external drives with a USB 2.0 interface.

5. Assessing the drive's performance in Windows environment 7.

We tested the performance of the external drive we assembled using the Windows 7 operating system. command line you need to call the command: “winsat disk -drive g -ran -write -count 10”, where “g” is the letter of the drive being tested in the system.

From the test results it is clear that the drive we assembled received a much higher rating than the factory solution WD My Passport Essential. Conclusion.
Based on the materials in this article, it is clear that any mobile hard drive can be turned into a good external drive without any hassle. Especially for testing, we asked for the cheapest external case, costing $3. Three dollars allows you to get an excellent external drive from a mobile hard drive, at least for data storage. Not to mention the fact that the same external case makes it easier to recover data from the hard drive of “dead” laptops.

Despite the fact that many people criticize AgeStar's products for their low quality, after many years of using them I have only a positive impression of them. First of all, it is at an affordable price. Defects occur in all manufacturers, although AgeStar has a slightly higher rate than Thermaltake. But the latter has no analogue to the presented external case for three dollars and with a 6-month warranty. We award AgeStar products with a gold medal of honor for their optimal performance/price ratio.