Firmware Ideas, Thoughts?

[drew.baker]

Received my 2 pack last week.  Looks Beautiful. Always had a soft spot for the Enigma. In 2014 an intern at the NSA booth let me open up the one they had on display and poke around.  At least till his boss saw and nearly crapped his pants. 

I was curious if the firmware could have a "DEMO" mode.  HOLD down D or something when powering on.

Store a file with a list of messages.  Then cycle through the characters lighting up and rotating rotors at 1 second intervals.  Giving a nice background effect to look at.

Possibly also a USB to USB link, allowing for communication between two units.  Maybe a mod for a radio module or bt?

Love it. Great work.   

--

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]

Hi Drew,

Many thanks for the kind feedback, and I am glad you are enjoying your Enigma touch!

I like the "demo mode" idea. In fact we started discussions about a "museum mode" for interactive, non-supervised use in an exhibition -- and besides some restrictions in changing the machine configuration, it should probably also get an "attract mode" which it auto-activates after a certain inactivity period. So why not allow the attract mode to be activated b right away via a special keypress? I will put that on the to-do list!

A direct Enigma-to-Enigma connection via USB is unfortunately not feasible because the STM32F373 microcontroller can only act as a USB device, not as a USB host -- and you always need one device and one host to establish a USB connection. But I am currently working on an upgraded firmware which makes the Enigma/PC connection bi-directional, so you can send text from a terminal window on the PC and receive the enciphered text back. (There will also be a "crypto keyboard" mode where the Enigma appears as a keyboard rather than a serial device. That lets you type encrypted text directly into any application on the PC.)

There is also the provision for an "expansion port" on the Enigma touch; a fast serial connection. That port is loosely earmarked for an ESP32 which would give the Enigma touch Bluetooth and/or WiFi capability, including the possibility to connect two units point-to-point. We have not really thought the user interface for this through, and I am a bit torn whether it is desirable functionality: The real Enigma was not a transceiver, and the typing in the text and reading the result off the lamp field is pretty central to its user experience. So, would a direct connection between two machines feel "right"?

Best regards,

Jürgen

[Jeff Spears]

I have not made USB work yet. FreeBSD is great--but somethings take time.

All the old war pictures show at least two people around the Enigma machine: One runs the machine and the other writes down the results. So far I have a hard time 'enlisting' anybody to copy the results. It's hard having so many letters flying through my brain. So I am thinking let the computer be the second person--the one writing down the results. 

It has always been an offline crypto device. However, it may be fun to type some text on the keyboard, send it to the Enigma and watch (and hear) it crunch and then see the results on the screen. It can always be used as an offline crypto device just by unplugging the USB.

Thank you CEDS, Jose, Juergen, Oscar and everybody else--this thing is really great! I ordered it last Monday and it arrived Thursday!

If I were smart enough, I would program my PIDP-10/ITS to run BOMBE. :-)

ok...Jeff

[drew.baker]

I agree if using as a traditional Enigma it wouldn't "feel" right. BUT I'm not a traditional person. :D

I am assuming that the pads on the left side of the PCB GND, +5, RX, TX is the expansion port you are referencing.  I havn't tossed it on a scope yet to see if it's active.  Is it currently being utilized? Any data being read/output to it now?

I wrote a POC ESP32-S3 that plugs into the USB-C connector,  It connects to my home assistant smarthome and I can send strings to it over the USB Serial, to display and receive input from the Enigma.  For Poops and Giggles I setup a fun challenge mode where it generate a random math problem "two plus two" and if you respons back with the correct answer "four"  it will unlock my office door.  Silly use but fun.  Ultimately i would like to not have to use the USB-C Connector for this.

hows is the firmware museum mode progressing?

[Jürgen]

Hi Drew,

I am assuming that the pads on the left side of the PCB GND, +5, RX, TX is the expansion port you are referencing.  I havn't tossed it on a scope yet to see if it's active.  Is it currently being utilized? Any data being read/output to it now?

Yes, that's the expansion option. A "raw" voltage supply (+5V when USB power is available, unregulated batter voltage otherwise) which can be switched by the STM32, such that a connected ESP32 does not necessarily always draw power. Plus an asynchronous serial connection at 3.3V logic levels. 

So far the firmware does not transmit anything, and does not even turn on the power I think. I have not thought much at all about the protocol one would want to use -- am not even sure whether it should be a Bluetooth or WiFi connection? In either case, the biggest challenge I see is how to set up a connection -- Bluetooth pairing, or entering WiFi credentials and selecting a counterpart. (In the local Wifi? Or some remote server which is always reachable and serves as a message relay? Should the Enigma be an email client maybe?) 

Any thoughts or preferences how that Enigma-to-Enigma, or Enigma-to-server communication should work?

    

hows is the firmware museum mode progressing?

 

Not much has happened yet, but for a change the bottleneck is not on my side. :-)  We have not really discussed the requirements. I will gently nudge the museum folks, who seem to have more pressing priorities at the moment. 

Cheers,

Jürgen