From the MAKE Flickr pool
Alan from Hacked Gadgets has a clever way of repurposing a video cassette tape. This is a pretty good project, and he has a nice cave setup, too. His video shows what the project does, and he does a decent job explaining the reasons and theory behind the build.
This project turns a old VHS Tape into a USB storage drive. It looks like a normal VHS cassette tape except for the USB cable that sticks out of the shell. All of the project guts are hiding in the areas around the clear windows so that when you have a quick look at the front of the tape all seems normal. When plugged into a computer the VHS Tape Storage Drive will act as a normal USB drive except when the drive is accessed the tape reel will turn and the windows will light up. This will keep at least one of my VHS tapes out of the landfill.
In his Flickr set, you can see lots of the details and steps.
After you have converted your VCR into a cat feeder like John Park or James Larsson in MAKE, Volume 03, you might have a few extra tapes on your hands, so this is just one of the zillions of ideas we will need for all those surplus video cassettes.
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