General

Hi,

I have signed the IoT Design Manifesto – if you are into IoT. You should too.

Here is the link Sign The Manifesto.

These are the highlights of it:

1. We do not belive the hype!
2. We design useful things!
3. We aim for the win-win-win!
4. We keep everyone and everything secure!
5. We build and promote a culture of privacy!
6. We are deliberate of what data we collect!
7. We make the parties associated with an IoT product Explicit!
8. We empower users to be masters of their own domain!
9. We design things for their lifetime!
10. In the End We Are Human beings!

 

During the past weeks i’ve worked on getting the FOTA upgrades work on the 2MB boards by Olimex.

The wonderful esp-link project by Thorsten von Eicken was a great example of  two things:

1. How to concatenate the espfs filesystem image with the firmware images.
2. How to properly write a new image to the flash.

It was a nice example to start with.

So after a lot of fiddling with  Makefiles, cgi routines and esptool  – i’ve finally got the OTA working.

Engineering Internet Of Things Secure network  for our upcoming IoT service.

Goals:

• Security
• Redundancy
• End to End Security
• Secure Firmware Upgrades

Threats:

• DoS Attacks
• DDoS Attacks
• DNS spoofing /don’t even think of DynDNS/
• Sniffing
• man in the middle

Security:

• Using a VPN -> takes the problem away and requires extra settup. Not user friendly. The only pro is that it can use an existing infrastructure if present. A Big NO
• SSL -> expired certificates , heavy overhead, often exploited. Closed source library, may already be hacked. NO
• AES all the Way. A big YES
• DoS/DDoS prevention – redundant MQTT brokers, with dns/firmware fallback

So Why AES?

Which goes where – when using a bootloader for FOTA.

The files:

• master_device_key.bin –  Obtained from Espressif Cloud
• esp_init_data_default.bin – Stores default RF parameter values
• boot.bin – bootloader
• user1.bin and user2.bin – user firmware
• blank.bin – blank settings , flash to get default parameters

1. 512KB

• master_device_key.bin 0x3E000
• esp_init_data_default.bin 0x7C000
• blank.bin 0x7E000
• boot.bin 0x00000
• user1.bin 0x01000
• user2.bin 0x41000

2. 1024KB Flash

• master_device_key.bin 0x3E000
• esp_init_data_default.bin 0xFC000
• blank.bin 0xFE000
• boot.bin 0x00000
• user1.bin 0x01000
• user2.bin 0x81000

3. 2048KB Flash

• master_device_key.bin 0x3E000
• esp_init_data_default.bin 0x1FC000
• blank.bin 0x1FE000
• boot.bin 0x00000
• user1.bin 0x01000
• user2.bin 0x81000

4. 4096KB Flash

• master_device_key.bin 0x3E000
• esp_init_data_default.bin 0x3FC000
• blank.bin 0x3FE000
• boot.bin 0x00000
• user1.bin 0x01000
• user2.bin 0x81000

 

I’ve got a new tool at the LAB!

The Box: 

 

 

The Tool:  

 

Having an oscilloscope is just priceless. You may need it rarely but there are times when you are just lost blind  without it. The video lists all you should now about it and a bit more

If you are considering to get one and you are in EU. I can recommend Silcon.cz – you will get a nice service there.

In case you’ve missed it! Kicad is going to get some really nice features!

The esp8266 chip is made by Espressif Systems.

ESP8266 is a highly integrated chip designed for the needs of a new connected world. It offers a complete and self-contained Wi-Fi networking solution, allowing it to either host the application or to offload all Wi-Fi networking functions from another application processor.

The chip have both certifications FCC and CE. You can sell your products to the mass market.

Here you will read about the latest research and development at the lab.

I follow the latest trends in technology with bias to the Open Software and Hardware.

Current focus is on the Internet Of Things hype.

Why call it a hype?

A lot of people were doing it for the past decades – just like anything that gets conquered by the internet.

So now is time to connect it.

What to connect:

• Your Door Bell
• Your presence at every room
• Your fridge
• Your car
• Your house
• Your appliances
• Your …. dog ?