This project was inspired by a wonderful family trip to Bletchley Park, the historic site of Britain's World War Two codebreakers. It's an awesome place for families, with hands-on exhibits and lots to explore. I definitely recommend planning a visit!
This repository documents my project of building an Enigma-E, an electronic replica of the famous Enigma cipher machine, from a kit purchased from Crypto Museum.
The Enigma-E kit was a fantastic project that I undertook with my two children, aged 8 and 6. It was a great learning experience for all of us, and they even got to practice their soldering skills on many of the components!
My daughter Freya, 6, soldering the Enigma-E
After successfully assembling the Enigma-E, I designed and built a custom wooden enclosure for it. I used 300x300x3mm basswood sheets for the construction, and after cutting, I glued the sheets together to achieve 9mm thick walls. This gives the box a really satisfying, solid feel. For the hardware, I used 65 x 15mm brass furniture hinges and a 60 x 40mm brass buckle lock. If you're making this box, be sure to check that your hardware measurements work with the design before cutting, so you don't waste a load of wood! I also engraved some imagery and a reminder of what the jumper pins do on the base of the box. This repository primarily serves as a place to share the design files (e.g., .svg) for laser cutting a similar wooden box.
I have several exciting enhancements planned for this project, leveraging the Enigma-E's serial interface:
- Microcontroller Integration: I plan to use a microcontroller, such as an ESP32, ESP8266, or Arduino, to communicate with the Enigma-E.
- Human Interface Device (HID) Emulation: The microcontroller will be programmed to emulate a USB or Bluetooth HID. This will allow the Enigma-E to function as a unique keyboard or input device for a computer.
- Web Interface: I am also considering developing a web interface, potentially hosted on the microcontroller, to allow for remote interaction or configuration of the Enigma-E.
- Bombe: I'd love to use a pair this with a Bombe maybe an online one to demonstrate using a crib to reverse-engineer the Enigma settings.
- base-side-filler.svg - small filler that sits inside the base of the box to keep the front panel from pressing against the front of the box
- base-side.svg - side of the base of the box
- base-bottom.svg - bottom of the base of the box
- base-front-no-holes.svg - front of the base of the box without the holes for the hardware, this is the inside, so you'll just want one of these
- base-front.svg - front of the base of the box with the holes for the hardware, you'll want 2 of these
- base-back.svg - back of the base of the box
- lid-sides.svg - side of the lid of the box, layout is 3 layers of the sides including two with holes to mount the plug board (Steckerbrett) patch cables
- lid-top.svg - top of the lid of the box
- lid-back.svg - back of the lid of the box
- enigma_logo_bw.svg - clean path svg of the Enigma logo (black and white) that was good for engraving with
- box.snaplzr - Snapmaker Luban project file
- photos - Directory containing photos of the finished Enigma-E and case
If you build a similar project or have suggestions, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request!