Boxed Enigma

[Ronald Wells]

I'm very interested in getting a box for the Enigma touch so I reached out to ask about it and wanted to start a thread here with the info I have so far, and with the hope that it can be updated by Jurgen, Oscar and Jose as progress is made!

[Ronald Wells]

Awesome response I got from Jurgen!

Dear Ronald,

Thank you for ordering an Enigma touch! This is Jürgen, the designer of the replica. Oscar or José might chime in, but let me briefly update you on the "box" situation.

I have designed a wooden box in the meantime, and we are waiting for a couple of samples. There are still a few open ends regarding the details (lock, carrying handle etc.), and we are keen to confirm the manufacturing quality and surface finish. So things are moving in the right direction, but it will probably be at least a couple of months until we have a "boxed Enigma" ready. 

In the meantime, if you have any questions or suggestions regarding your new Enigma touch, please feel free to email me. Or join the new Google Group, https://groups.google.com/g/enigma-touch -- still a bit quiet at the moment, but it should be a good place to discuss all things Enigma.

Best regards,

Jürgen

[drew.baker]

Ohh I'll be following this.  

--

Drew Baker (aka. Dotel)    
R1(III,20),R2(IV,6),R3(I,10),PB1(VF),PB2(PQ)
OMIQK IGBRM AYGEK YKDYN T
[I would love to change the world, but they won't give me the source code]
[The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.....and GRUE'S]

[jue...@e-basteln.de]

R1(III,20),R2(IV,6),R3(I,10),PB1(VF),PB2(PQ)
OMIQK IGBRM AYGEK YKDYN T

Reflector B, Rings 1 1 1  :-)

[drew.baker]

That has been my email signature since about 2004, Encoded it on a real Enigma that was on display in the NSA booth at the 2004 RSA conference in San Francisco.  An intern running the booth was not aware he wasn't supposed to let me touch the Enigma on display.   Had a bunch of people ask what it ment, but I never told anybody more than "It's a code" or "It's a puzzle".  But in 2016 somebody figured it out and wrote back.  I  just looked back at my email and that person (not surprising) was OSCAR.  He responded back when I wrote him to get on the wait list for the first PiDP/8 kit. 

[jue...@e-basteln.de]

In this particular group, the context is a bit easier to figure out. But it will certainly have given people something to chew on when you use it as your general email signature!

[Ronald Wells]

Love it:
YRJGN HMRZL UDYUS AN

[Ronald Wells]

I'm curious if the plan is to offer the boxed version with the board already separated?  I'm not super excited about trying to cut the patch board part of the pcb.  Initially I thought the pcb was per-scored or something to make separating the patch board would be super easy.

[Jürgen]

Yes, the folks at CEDS were not too excited either at the prospect of cutting up circuit boards as part of their small series production... I have prepared a slightly modified version of the PCB, where the plugboard is already separate and the USB jack is on the main front panel, in the upper right. (Roughly where the power jack was on the original Enigma too.)

We will keep the dimensions of the box compatible with the single-board version, so in principle you can cut your existing PCB. But unless you have access to proper PCB shears, it's a tedious operation and carries some risk of damaging the already populated circuit board.

I had originally hoped to make the boards pre-scored on top -- but learned early on that you can only get scoring from both sides. And the bottom side has the traces connecting the plugboard, of course, so that was not an option.

[Ronald Wells]

That's good news!   Looking forward to getting a boxed version!