Good Morning all,

I'm looking to make a device called "phantom Link" http://www.phantomlink.com/diy.aspx, which uses a PIC12F683 chip, and code is provided in asm...

Now I'm new to programming PIC's and to be honest, not likely to be doing it much any time soon, however i would like to build three of the phantom links...

So I'm after a cheap but working USB PIC programmer to load up the code three times onto three chips.

Having looked around online etc, I'm seeing many stories of clones which do not work, or programmers that are not compatible etc, so would someone be able to suggest to me a suitable programmer and software i can use to move the code to the PIC.

Alternatively is anyone willing to program them for me (given the code is already written and should be able to be just put on and sent in the post!) for a small fee? I am in the Wembley area in London - uk. I can provide the chips or if you have them, i can buy them off you for a reasonable price.

 

This guy sells the PCB but not the PIC? I'd ask him anyway if he can do some.

Several firms (Digikey for one) will program the chips they sell you. MicrochipDirect (Microchip's sales arm) will also do this. If I read their page correctly the cost per piece to program isn't much but the set up fees run about 50 GBP.

I couldn't do it as I don't have socketed programmer so I'd have to build on first and would have to charge too much ;-)

 

I had a look and by some strange coincidence I've got three of them. For £10 I can program them and send them first class tomorrow.

 

ErnieM: I have already emailed to ask! haven't got a reply as yet, but as he was in the states, didn't expect an answer soon. The PCB i think he had to get a couple done where ever he had them made from hence has a few spares!

Markd77 - Thanks for the offer - will most likely take you up on that- not sure if i can pm you - so not sure how best to contact - do you want me to drop you a mail or you to mail me?

 

It looks like you haven't got private messaging turned on, it's somewhere in the customising profile page. After it's on you should be able to message me by clicking my name above the post (if you don't turn it on you can probably send messages, but won't be able to receive replies).

 

Markd77: sorry to ask a silly question but are the chips you got the ones with ones that have long legs to go through the pcb or the ones that are soldered to pads? im after the ones with legs!

 

Cant seem to send either - I'm assuming there is a min number of posts I have to make before its enabled to stop people spamming?

 

Yes, these are the ones with legs, the same as at the top right of the pictures on the website.
Something seems to have changed so now I have the option to email you, so let me know if you are interested. There's no rush so you could wait until you get the PCBs if you want.

 

@Mark try to see if you can send an E-Mail to Bob, via AAC. Then you can do the rest of the deal by mail

 

Markd77 - happy to go ahead - Ive just ordered the WIFly devices at £30 each so another £10 isn't going to hurt!

 

Mark - payment on way!

 

Recieved, thankyou. I'll put them in the post tomorrow.

 

I've programmed them, but I noticed this section in the code:
There's nothing in the code that can change the stored data once I've programmed the chips, although I can reprogram them before I send them.

ORG 0x2100 ;EEPROM Storage 
 
    DATA 0x01 ;Device ID 
    DATA 0x02 
    DATA 0x03 
    DATA 0x04 
    DATA 0x05 
    DATA 0x06 
     
    DATA 0x01 ;Device-specific key 
    DATA 0x02 
    DATA 0x03 
    DATA 0x04 
    DATA 0x05 
 
    DATA 0x01 ;Master encryption key 
    DATA 0x02 
    DATA 0x03 
    DATA 0x04 
    DATA 0x05 
    DATA 0x06 
    DATA 0x07 
    DATA 0x08 
    DATA 0x09 
    DATA 0x0A 
    DATA 0x0B

I'm not sure if this needs changing for three devices to work together, you might have to do a bit of reading or maybe get some clues from running the configuration software (I don't use Windows so I can't easily run it). I couldn't see anything obvious.

 

Hi guys! I'm the developer of this device. I just noticed an influx of traffic to my website from this forum and figured I'd see what was going on.

You are correct that in order to properly process data from different devices, you will need to have a unique device ID for each. The configuration utility doesn't really care, but the decryption code will.

You will first run the message through the decryption code using the master encryption key. This will provide you with the device's unique ID and an encrypted payload. You can then use the device's unique ID to look up the device-specific key and decrypt the payload to retrieve the timestamped sensor data. I'm hoping to have a more detailed example of this process posted on the website sometime soon.

 

Well, How about that!
Nice of you to respond so quickly and generously. This is what this website is all about...
helping each other out with common interests.

 

Mark- in light of tm's info, and assuming you haven't posted them yet, can you change the numbers? Sounds silly but ideally if you could change them to :15,16 and 106, that would make my life a lot easier!!! (fill with 0's as needed!!!)

 

I'm still not 100% clear, will it work with the first six bytes for each device as:
"000015"
"000016"
"000106"
and the rest unchanged?

 

This looks that the scaled down version of two countries launching parts of a space station to be assembled out there.

Good that Mark catched that before burning the chips.

Usually there is no return. Good luck!

 

Hi markd77,

The changes are fine as you have done them!

Thanks for taking a look and making the changes! Feel free to send second class if desired, pcbs won't be here for a couple of days so in no rush!!!

 

For UncleBob's particular application, having unique device IDs is preferred. Using shared encryption keys among home-built DIY devices is fine, too.

Just to clarify things, the open-source DIY plans I provide assume you have your own webserver and will handle the incoming traffic yourself. The decryption code I provide will help you unravel the incoming encrypted data. From that point on, you'll need to build the processes to log it and/or email it, etc. I will be providing some additional help with that and posting information to the DIY page as time permits. I also may be opening up my services for the DIYers, too, but I will likely need some controls in place to track the unique devices (the server has to know what to do with the incoming data. e.g. which user account to post that specific device's data to). Likely this will be controlled through the destination URL that is programmed into the RN-XV Wi-Fi module....maybe an additional query field or two to indicate that the device is home-built and a username. If I implement it this way, UncleBob will be fine with his current microcontroller EEPROM.

Also, to explain the method to my madness regarding the encryption keys, this is primarily there for my commercial customers. Those devices post data to the webserver that I host, which requires a bit more security (obviously). So within those device, there is a master key that I control, and each device is assigned a unique ID along with a unique encryption key. The insures that even if someone cracks the master key, they still cannot access other device's data.

Overkill, yes! But it was fun trying to get an interleaved XTEA algorithm running on a 12F683.