Ron K. Jeffries wrote: > I would purchase a couple of password safes if they can be used in a > low-tech way.
Great ! :) > >> Small password safe where I store my (many) passwords by initially > entering them with it's USABLE keyboard & where I can see what I type on > the display. I think the idea of integrating a keyboard is pretty much dead. But that wouldn't preclude you from either "dialing" passwords or -phrases, connecting an(y) external USB keyboard, or, if you trust your PC enough, using that one to add things. > I only absolutely need two data fields but a few others"would be nice." I think that should be user-configurable as well. Have as many fields as you like, with content that's either just for display, for display+sending, for sending only, etc. The default could be service name + account name + password. Adding other things would require more typing. > But the master passphrase for LastPass also must be remembered, securely. A small piece of paper, stored in a safe ? :) > Recharging with a microUSB would be convenient. Naw, no rechargeable batteries. They just make things - starting with shipping - more complicated, and die far too quickly, after which you're likely to have a messy replacement. (Unless it's a really really common cell phone battery, which then would be far too large for this sort of device. First physically, and then in terms of capacity, nowadays often exceeding 5000 mWh. So you'd basically charge it once in its life, and most of the power drain would come from aging.) > I (sometimes) use a little "burner" phone, Why do I have to think of "Breaking Bad" ? :-) > Make the Werner password safe about the size of a smallish candy bar phone. See http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/pwsafe/shape.pdf > I hereby place my order for the first two Werner Password safes off the > line, right now. Kewl, thanks ! But let's not count our chickens before they hatch. First step, have a complete and coherent design. Still a few things missing. I'll also need a basic layout to see if I can make things fit. Next step, making one or two prototypes. Then, writing basic drivers and finding all the gremlins. Next, more PCBA prototypes, as needed. Then, maybe repeat the same with the RF board. Plan B: extend the atusb firmware and postpone making an advanced atusb. Then, make a prototype case. Nothing fancy, two shells held together by friction, like this critter: http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/ledtoy/tmp/1209-lt-push.jpg CNC-milled transparent acrylic, so the display can be read through it, and one can see the electronics and spot suspicious changes. May not look pretty to the eyes of non-geeks, though. Like this one (the same thing as above): http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/ledtoy/tmp/1209-menu-transp2.jpg Per unit cost of such cases is high. This is the material I needed to make 3-4 acceptable cases of the above device: http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/ledtoy/tmp/acrylic-in.jpg (The difficulty was in getting the thickness right - the top part has a very thin section above the components. Making it thinner breaks it, making it thicker makes the (thicker) part over the capacitive button too thick. My mill has relatively large absolute tolerances along the Z axis. I may also have to retool for the password safe because my endmills can't go very deep, and this one may have relatively tall sidewalls.) Then, write enough software to make it do something useful. If other people want to join the party, that would be a moment to make some more prototypes. Then, make a video and see if the whole thing can be crowd-funded. > I assume it will use a microSD card. Yup. > i would like a utility that can backup > the microSD to a second microSD, no other computer involved. Hmm, this would mean copying the data of the uSD to MCU memory, then swapping the uSD, and copying it back. As long as you're willing to swap uSDs an unlimited number of times, no problem :) If you don't want to swap them, the data size would be limited by the maximum memory size one could allocate for this. This may not be a lot, depending on the MCU chosen. Maybe as little as 50 kB. Not sure yet how big a typical account record would be. It would not only include the actual data but also some salts (random numbers), etc. But since everything is encrypted anyway and can be easily checksummed, a copy using a PC should be no problem: 1) attach the password safe to PC, allow USB storage access in read-only mode, copy your uSD to the PC. You'd do this for backups anyway. If you already have an up to date backup, skip step 1 and use that. 2) ask password safe to checksum the uSD. It will display a long number, which you can safely ignore. 3) attach uSD reader or use password safe as follows: a) remove old uSD b) insert new uSD c) ask system to initialize it d) ask system to allow read-write USB storage access 4) copy data over from PC 5) ask password safe to checksum the uSD again. It will display a long number and tell you whether it's the same it saw before. > I do NOT > expect the device to have two microSD slots (too expensive). I'd say cheap but big :-) I initially thought of having two slots, just for the scenario you mentioned, but they would eat up a lot of PCB space and also drive up the pin count. - Werner _______________________________________________ Qi Hardware Discussion List Mail to list (members only): [email protected] Subscribe or Unsubscribe: http://lists.en.qi-hardware.com/mailman/listinfo/discussion
