Best Steampunk Tech Gadgets – USB Flash Drive and USB Hub

For fans of steampunk technology and gadgets, this duo of USB Flash Drive and 4-port USB hub will make your laptop or office really standout. These are hand-crafted and individually assembled, making each one a unique piece of steampunk art. Beautiful and stylish, these are also fully functional.

Steampunk USB Flash Drive

The Handmade 16GB USB 3.0 ORANGE Pentode Radio Tube USB Flash Drive (Amazon – $55.00) is created by first deconstructing a standard  16 GB Sandisk Flash Drive. The artists at Slavatech then carefully rebuild the device using old radio tubes and oxidized, cold-rolled copper. What is really interesting about this steampunk USB drive is that the radio tube is still functional, which is what gives it that electric glow. The Slavatech team has bought up a stock-pile of 1980’s era radio tubes from Russian manufacturers, which give these Flash drives an additional flair and uniqueness.

Even though these look very retro, the Sandisk base electronics inside means that you still get password protection and available cloud storage back-up. You can also get these in a variety of colors (blue, orange, green, purple, red or white) and storage capacity (8, 16, 32, 64, or 128 GB).

Please check out these articles if you are looking for more traditional / low cost USB Flash Drives or are more concerned with data security / encryption.

Steampunk USB 4-Port Hub

If a steampunk USB drive isn’t enough, you can also get a Handmade Blue Triode Radio Vacuum Tube Hi-speed 4 Ports USB 3.0 HUB (Amazon $49.00). This steampunk 4-port USB hub made with similar types of 1980’s era radio tubes. The Slavatech team starts with off-the-shelf electronics, and puts them into their hand-crafted wood and metal box. The finished look is pure Industrial/Steampunk, but the functionality is state of the art in this modified Hi-Speed 4 port USB 3.0 hub.

With this on your desk, you can extend your high speed connections, allowing you to connect to a variety of USB devices including scanners, printers, digital cameras, camcorders, speakers, mice, keyboards, Flash drives, MP3 players, etc. This hub is fully backwards compatible for USB specification 1.1 and 2.0, while supporting High-Speed (5Gbps), Full-Speed (480Mbps) and Low-Speed (12Mbps) USB device profiles. As with most hubs, it has easy installation with no device drivers necessary. It supplies USB bus power (when the power adaptor connected) with Per-Port Over-Current detection and protection, or is self-powered from your device (e.g., laptop) with automatic switching between self-powered and bus-powered mode. The 4 downstream  ports are rated up to USB 3.0 (A-Type) as is the 1 upstream port.

As with the Flash Drive, these in a variety of electric tube colors (blue, orange, green, purple, red or white).

Steampunk Creative Book

For the enthusiast who likes to build as well as buy steampunk / industrial exotica, we’d recommend this paperback to get you going:

Steampunk Gear, Gadgets, and Gizmos: A Maker’s Guide to Creating Modern Artifacts (Electronics) ( Amazon – $14.13).

In this tome, you will learn from Lord Featherstone as he distills his wealth of hard-learned skills, describes how to use the readily available tools of the modern mad scientist, and expounds on the art and philosophy of scavenging unique components and raw materials. The perfect companion for the hobbyist and advanced machinist alike, this inventive volume will guide you through the creation of your very own infernal devices.

Get steamed with these provocative projects:

• Aetheric ray deflector solid brass goggles
• Calibrated indicator gauges
• Ferromagnetic self-scribing automated encyclopedia (or, the Steampunk book drive)
• High voltage electro-static cannon (or, the lamp gun)
• Tesla-pod chrono-static insulating field generator (or, the mobile device enclosure)
• Altitude mask with integrated respiratory augmentation
• Armoured pith helmet
• Mark I superior replacement arm with integrated Gatling gun attachment

Visit the companion website to the book for videos, images, and more bonus content!