Up for a challenge, this maker upscaled an SD card 25 times, added HDD storage, then entered it into a Big Vs Small contest.

If you have been following DIYODE for some time, you will know we love to supersize things. One of our favourites was our Giant LED lamp from Issue 27.

When young Aarav sent us details on his giant SD card, we had to find out more. Read on to learn more about how he upscaled the design using Tinkercad, challenges he needed to overcome, and how the project now serves as a decorative storage device.

We love to see things supersized, Aarav. What motivated you to make your giant SD card?

I was randomly scrolling through the list of contests at Instructables and then I found something cool.

There was this amazing contest called the "Big vs Small Challenge" where we had to either upscale a small object or vice versa.

This caught my attention and I started working on it. I started looking for small objects around me (I was particularly interested in upscaling something small because I had been working on many small-sized projects lately). Fortunately enough, I found an SD card lying on my table, which led to this project.

We read that you’ve upscaled it by 25 times?

I upscaled the length and breadth of the SD Card by exactly 5 times which means that the area of the front face was upscaled by 25 times and that is what matters in my case because when you look at the giant SD card, the front face is what you will look at. I did not consider the volume or the depth/height of the SD card in determining the scale factor because these are almost redundant here.

It’s an impressive size. What are the dimensions overall?

I’m quite excited about the dimensions. It measures 165mm in length, 120mm in breadth and 40mm in height/depth. It is practically 25 times larger than an ordinary SD card.

It’s clever that you have installed a 512GB Seagate HDD into it to make it functional. We assume a reader with a different HDD size will need to modify accordingly. Any advice on doing this?

Yes, a different HDD size will surely have to be modified accordingly. There is a very simple way through which anyone can go about doing this in almost no time. You can just take my complete design as one single solid figure.

Then you can add a space inside the design, as big as your HDD.

Then you can just slice the giant SD card into two pieces so you get one base and one lid. That's all you'll have to do. I would suggest using Tinkercad (www.tinkercad.com) for this as that would make the whole process easier.

Let’s talk more about the design. How did you go about making the 3D model realistic?

Well, with this project, my main aim was to upscale the project while making it look as realistic as possible. I tried my best to replicate every single detail as much as possible.

The first thing that I did was get a custom-designed sticker for the front panel of the SD card (I gave it custom branding though). This gave a huge boost to the realisticity of the project. Then, I also considered the thin gold connection slots at the back of an SD card.

In my design. I added some yellow paper strips in these slots which again contributed to making the huge SD card look very realistic.

Were there any design challenges you needed to overcome?

Yes, there were a few design challenges I needed to overcome. Firstly, the provision of an opening for the USB port of the HDD was a little complicated as I had made the walls of the SD card too thick.

I needed to do some major design changes to add the port opening. Accommodating the HDD in the giant SD card was also a small challenge along the way.

Do you know how much filament was used to make it?

Yes, this project required around 200 grams of filament. I got it printed by IAmRapid (www.iamrapid.com). They printed it in a fabulous quality in blue PLA filament and sent it to me.

Should readers consider adding ventilation if they plan to run the hard drive for long periods?

Yes, that's a great thought. If the hard drive is used for longer periods, it will surely generate heat. I did not consider this as I would never be running into this issue because I only use it occasionally. But yeah, if someone has extensive usage, they can go about adding enough ventilation on the back of the giant SD card very easily, while causing no harm to the beauty of the SD card on the front.

Have you had any feedback with your contest submission?

Yes, the winners of the contest were declared recently and fortunately I was one of them. I won a $50 gift card in the contest and I was quite satisfied as the project has fulfilled its main purpose. There were some really amazing entries who were declared as winners. As always the quality of content on Instructables and also the competition was mesmerizing. Feels good to be among the winners.

Congratulations. If our readers want to make one for themselves, do you have the 3D print files available?

Yes, sure. I have always loved and promoted open-source technologies and I myself give all necessary files needed for replicating or building my projects. You can get the 3D design files (.stl) for this project on my Instructable (https://bit.ly/3iCYzYi) or on Thingiverse (https://bit.ly/3x82pwC) too.

Thanks Aarav. We look forward to seeing your next build.