Next generation key with hardware buttons?

jerabaul29 · February 23, 2020, 5:38pm

Hi,

First, very nice company and product, and great that you are truly open source Got 3 of your keys, initially the aim was only to do some testing, now moving more towards using in real life, very happy.

A few comments / questions:

Do you plan on releasing some upgraded keys in the future?
Could future keys be waterproof? For example I also bought a couple of OnlyKeys, I overall like yours better because truly open source and from Germany vs. US, but the OnlyKeys has the big advantage of looking more waterproof since the whole electronics is coated in some transparent epoxy that looks quite robust (I opened your keys, and it does not seem that the electronics and PCB are protected in any way). That would be a small thing to add that would make a big difference to me. Also, this would make it (even if only little) a bit harder to actually temper with the electronics.
Could some future key include some hardware buttons like the OnlyKey? That would be great, so that I do not need to type my pin on a computer I may or may not trust fully.

Cheers,

JR

szszszsz · February 24, 2020, 2:37pm

Hi @jerabaul29!

I am glad you like it!
Regarding the questions:

We are working on the next hardware release with a touch button, and perhaps more performance.
Our cases allows to be waterdrop-proof. AFAIK we do not have plans connected with the epoxy at the moment, but that’s a nice suggestion.
I think we might have discussed this already, and concluded this is out of our threat model. Could you elaborate @jan?

You can read more on our 2020 roadmap.

jerabaul29 · February 24, 2020, 8:13pm

Ok, thank you for your detailed answer. I understand for the points 1 and 3. I read too fast your point 2 at first and mistakenly read ‘waterproof’ instead of ‘waterdrop-proof’. I agree that waterdrop proof is nice, but probably waterproof could be even better, and also the OnlyKey way of implementing it also protects against dust and probably helps against shocks / vibrations. Does not look like too much work looking at the OnlyKey, probably at least some factories must have some standardized way to produce it: