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nthdimtech / signet-base

Signet firmware and device interface library
https://www.crowdsupply.com/nth-dimension/signet
GNU General Public License v3.0
15 stars 7 forks source link

HC: status? #53

Open smurfix opened 3 years ago

smurfix commented 3 years ago

Frankly I'm dismayed at the lack of progress here. The Signet HC has been sold promising a lot of innovative features, most of which do not yet exist.

I'd like to know what the way forward is going to be.

smurfix commented 3 years ago

NB, my company would be happy to buy one for every employee (400+ at the moment) … but not if the features aren't there.

nthdimtech commented 3 years ago

My appoligies for the stalled progress.

Finding time to work on Signet HC has been difficult since I've had two young kids at home now due to COVID with a non-signet work from home job as well. On one hand I could try to squeeze in work an hour of work here or there but I worry about making mistakes that would affect security if I can't find long periods of time to do focused work.

I'm in the middle of a deal with Mouser to produce a few hundred units but the design needs reworking due the memory chip I previously used became obsolete. I'm testing a revised prototype now which will be followed by a new full scale production run.

If you are really in the market for a number of units then along with my pending mouser deal I can justify taking time off work to get the features most important to you completed.

smurfix commented 3 years ago

Sure. I will talk to our procurement people and contact you privately about a quote.

crass commented 2 years ago

I would love to have a Signet HC device, even if the software features aren't there. I'm a fan that missed out on the first production run. But I did order an HC back in June of 2021 and would love to get my hands on one.

I'm in the middle of a deal with Mouser to produce a few hundred units but the design needs reworking due the memory chip I previously used became obsolete. I'm testing a revised prototype now which will be followed by a new full scale production run.

Am I correct in understanding this means that there will be no further production runs for the Signet HC until the memory chip reworking is done?

If you are really in the market for a number of units then along with my pending mouser deal I can justify taking time off work to get the features most important to you completed.

I'm guessing this never got off the ground and that the COVID lack of time situation hasn't changed? What's your current estimation of the situation? Is the HC dead at this point?

nthdimtech commented 2 years ago

I wouldn't say it's dead but it's on life support. I have not been able to find the main micro-controller and several other parts from the original design for over a year now due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage. The inability to get the micro-controller is a show stopper. The board layout, firmware, and software features were all build around the capabilities of that chip and nobody has stock. There aren't many chips with high speed USB, eMMC memory support, and hardware cryptography and there was only one I found that met my general area and price budget.

I drafted a campaign update to crowd supply describing the problem but they decided to not publish it. I suspect because it didn't have enough of an underlying positive tone and the message amounted to "wait and see". Personally I would completely understand anyone canceling their orders due to the level of uncertainty.

At this point I think the most likely positive outcome is that once parts become easier to come by in general I do a redesign based on what parts are likely to remain well stocked and supported. My time is still limited so I would need to know that once I put effort into making a new design work that I could do more than one production run without needing to change the hardware/software design. If there is a long term foundation for the hardware then I think it would also be easier to find the motivation and time to take on the full set of software features.

crass commented 2 years ago

Thanks for the update and I very much appreciate the candor. I'll keep the order for now as it'll be a good indicator for you in the level of continuing interest and I'll reset my expectations to a few years out (I'm not hopeful that the semiconductor shortage will work itself out anytime soon). Personally, I'm okay not having the software features as long as I have the option to program them myself. Did/do you have to sign an NDA to get documentation on the micro-controller or other hardware? It would be nice if possible to have that documentation in the repo for the next firmware update for others to help hack on it.

nthdimtech commented 2 years ago

Thanks for understanding. The microcontroller is the STM32F733IEK6. It's well documented by STMicrotronics. I don't feel like it would be legitimate open hardware if any NDA's were involved. I don't think I would ever put the microcontroller documentation in the repo because it is split up into so many different files and ST may put up additional documents or corrections on their website.

A few people have been able to rebuild the firmware using the instructions in the readme in this repo. It's possible to reprogram the firwmare over USB using the app with some limitations or electrically if you take it out of the case and wire it to a USB to serial device. From the start I had hoped that people would come up with different ways to use the hardware, the features I implemented and planned were just the things I found most interesting and I had to make some tradeoffs.