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Do-It-Yourself Electronic Enigma Machine

Posted by timothy on from the beats-pig-latin dept.

Radio Shack Robot writes "The Enigma-E is a DIY Building Kit that enables you to build your own electronic variant of the famous Enigma coding machine that was used by the German army during WWII. It works just like a real Enigma and is compatible with an M3 and M4 Enigma as well as the standard Service Machines. A message encrypted on, say, a real Enigma M4 can be read on the Enigma-E and vice versa."

6 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. What's the point? by PacoTaco · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you're not going to do the real thing, why not just make a software replica?

    1. Re:What's the point? by eclectro · · Score: 5, Interesting


      Steve Ciarcia of Circuit Cellar fame once said "Soldering iron is my favorite computer language."

      Well, it's mine too. For those who don't know who Steve is, there was this magazine on the newstands that was really cool to read and it was called "Byte". Steve ranked up there with the Woz for hardware crafting.

      I remember back in the day when you would go to the store and it was the only computer magazine there.

      If you like crafting hardware, you can have a lot of fun by finding a library (most likely university) that has the back issues shelved somewhere.

      Yes, I'm older than most of you here.

      --
      Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
  2. Original Messages by The+Snowman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder if there is anywhere to get original Nazi Enigma messages to decode.

    --
    24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
  3. Electronic Version? Why not just use software by pajor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Who would want an electronic version of the Enigma machine? You could just code one up in python or even write a bash script. If I was gonna build an enigma, it better have all the gears and knobs that an original one did.

    Maybe I don't understand WWII fandom, but I understand geekfandom, and if you're going to build something that used to be a gear device, I don't wanna emulate it on my dreamcast.

    Now what would be cool is to build the vacuum tube based machine the allies used to crack various codes...

    --
    Gnuyen
  4. Re:Enigma worked by looking like nonsense by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The thing is, a 1000 rotor system of used for binary usage would result in a key that's 256,000 bytes long, and each message would reqire 1000 bytes of information as to where to start each wheel.

    Then again, what better way to remind people that longer keys equals more power?

  5. Level of difficulty by cancerward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In case any of you think that the Enigma was "broken" by the boffins of Bletchley Park, and with Gillogly's ciphertext-only attack, became "ancient history", there are some ciphertexts from WW2 produced with the 4-rotor machine which have never been broken. (People have been so foolish as to say "Enigma is a joke to crack for my desktop"...)