Re: [PLUG] Read only USB drive

[Philip Rushik <prushik@gmail.com>]

>>>
>>> I'm looking for an in-hardware method to make a USB drive read-only.
>>> Either with a built in switch, or, via a small, inexpensive, USB
>>> 'sleeve' sitting  between the drive and the USB port.
>>>

USB uses the same 2 pins for read and write, so any tool that goes in
between the USB drive and the computer machine needs to have some
annoying smarts in it, which will probably make it fragile and/or
expensive.

However, what I would do is take a USB drive (start with a cheap one),
and open it up. Take a look at the USB chip on that guy, and look up a
datasheet [1] for it. Those chips often have lots of unused features,
and one I know is common is a read-only pin (see the example link at
the bottom of the page, pin 35), I would bet most if not all chips
have that, its just not connected to anything.
It wouldn't be the easiest soldering job, but its just 1 pin so it
should be too hard for anybody that has some kind of skill.
I'm actually going to give this a try and get back to yall.


[1] - http://www.st.com/content/ccc/resource/technical/document/datasheet/ba/3d/5d/02/43/8b/41/c2/CD00055081.pdf/files/CD00055081.pdf/jcr:content/translations/en.CD00055081.pdf
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