Shall I release firmware 4.21?

[Jürgen]

As many of you will have seen, firmware 4.21 has been available here as beta version for several months now. (The linked thread starts with the precursor version 4.20;. The download for 4.21 is halfway down and an updated manual towards the end of the thread.) 

But there has been that stubborn glitch which a couple of users have encountered but I have never been able to reproduce. It can occur when you enable the "screen saver" feature, where the Enigma starts to quietly type and encrypt random letters on its own after a settable idle period:  When you wake up the Enigma touch from this mode by touching a key, sometimes it locks up . It's not a fatal problem -- switching the unit off and back on via the power button will take care of it. But annoying in any case.

I have tried everything I can think of to reproduce the problem: Stared at the code; made a test version which goes into screen saver mode after just 5 seconds and interactively tried the sleep & wake up cycle many times; added test code which wakes up the Enigma at various specific times (relative to the automatic rotor movements) which I thought might be critical. No dice; I can't even get the error to occur, and hence have had no way of fixing it.  

After a few months without progress, I'm wondering what to do with the firmware. What do you all think would be the right course of action?

1. Keep waiting for a revelation and a bug fix.
2. Disable the screen saver feature and release 4.22 without it.
3. Release 4.21 including the glitch and a cautionary note.

Many thanks for your thoughts!

Jürgen

[drew.baker]

I would release it with the screen saver still there, but disabled by default, Add a cautionary note if they choose to enable it themselves.  I've never been able to reproduce it on purpose either myself. I'm beginning to suspect that's it's on of those odd key missreads due to the limitation of the keyboard polling. Maybe it's not the keypress but some weird resulting scancode.  

I've had 4.21 running (with screen saver disabled) for like 45+ days at this point with my museum controller attached without a single issue, seams very stable to me.

[Ronald Wells]

 2nd drew's take, release it, but disabled by default.

[Ronald Wells]

I guess i wasn't very clear.  Option #3 but adding for it to be disabled by default.

[AltairArchaeology]

I think Option #3 is a good choice. Give the cautionary note, and let the user decide. 

On Monday, May 11, 2026 at 3:04:14 PM UTC-4 Jürgen wrote:

[Gilles Kohl]

I was under the impression that the screen saver is active by default after flashing 4.21 and would also vote for option 3, but disabled by default.

[Jürgen]

Thank you all! That's a clear vote. :-)  I will get 4.21 ready for release with the screen saver included, but disabled by default. Will look into incorporating some of the ideas in the recent feedback thread too -- allow physical connections to co-exist with the virtual plugboard; find a way to allow 4- or 5-letter groups in keyboard mode too. 

And I just noticed that the manual needs a bit of work too; the section cross-references got messed up in various places. May and June will be rather busy for me though with work and travel, so please bear with me for a bit longer. Thanks for the feedback!

[drew.baker]

Dunno if this is welcomed data or not but figured I'd drop it here.  I got my first lockup while on display in my office.  Interesting it was NOT coming out of the screen saver.

Details:

Model: Enigma Box/Case

Firmware 4.21

Uptime: ~51 days (was uptime on raspberry pi controlling encoding/decoding)

I have the enigma attached to a Kiosk Display/Tablet that cycles through the encoded messages and trivia etc.  If the Enigma disconnected or reboots the display goes into an standby screen.  My cat jumped up on the enigma and the enigma locked up and was no longer responsive. It caught my eye because the display tablet went into standby mode.  Keys on the Enigma were non-responsive.  Power cycling solved the problem as expected.  I DO have the screen saver disabled. Maybe the bug isn't in the screen savor, in the keyboard input routine, getting triggered. at a very specific point in the encoding/decoding or display update.  Which just happens to be significantly more likely when the device is actively running other functions/routines when in an automated mode. 

Maybe we should build a box filled with Enigma's and cats. See if they can reproduce it more reliably. It ran for 51+ days 24/7. 

[Jürgen]

Hi Drew,

Thank you for the report! Do you remember what the rotor display showed when the Enigma touch locked up? Was it the "FW 421" info by any chance, or the regular rotor letters? I am wondering whether maybe your cat put the Enigma touch into diagnostic mode (by touching the "Model" button for 5 seconds), which can indeed only be left by power cycling.

Regards, Jürgen