I've been using an Anatek Pocket Record for the past 34 years. Bought it when I was 14. That's value!
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What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
31–40 of 276 posts
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#32Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#33What was your anti-counterfeiting strategy? That sounds interesting.
I'm using an STSAFE chip - the same IC they use in StarLink terminals. Essentially the digital equivalent of a holographic barcode. I have some other protections too. e.g. Random 128-bit per-device IDs / product-keys. iMessage uses this strategy. Maybe I'll write an article about that.
Please!
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#34Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#35Wow, congrats, I remember reading your HN post. I hope you will continue writing blog posts on your journey, I expect quite a lot of software engineers would be very interested going though a similar journey now that LLMs removed most of the fun of programming. It’s neat to work on something physical for a change
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Almost all commercial devices need a unique ID, private key, etc burned in on the production line. For a big enough production run, you'd likely ship an HSM to the factory
IMO it's better to ship preprogrammed ICs to the factory, so you can do your secure burning in-house.
Depends on where the ICs originally come from. No point shipping your ICs from China -> US, flashing them, shipping them back US -> China for assembly, and then ship them China -> US again to sell
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#37Wow, congrats, I remember reading your HN post. I hope you will continue writing blog posts on your journey, I expect quite a lot of software engineers would be very interested going though a similar journey now that LLMs removed most of the fun of programming. It’s neat to work on something physical for a change
> now that LLMs removed most of the fun of programming
Never understood this, was the "most of the fun of programming" the literal typing for you? For me it was about solving problems and building things, and I get to do that more now than before, and without all the literal typing.
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#38What was your anti-counterfeiting strategy? That sounds interesting.
I'm using an STSAFE chip - the same IC they use in StarLink terminals. Essentially the digital equivalent of a holographic barcode. I have some other protections too. e.g. Random 128-bit per-device IDs / product-keys. iMessage uses this strategy. Maybe I'll write an article about that.
How do you verify the ID? In the software? What if the software is hacked? I'm curious how this can be safe.
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#39I'll be sticking around in the comments so feel free to ask questions. AMA!
Really cool project. As someone from the software side who is just getting into hardware, this is very inspiring!
How did you find customers?
How did you get your hardware design verified?
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#40Wow, congrats, I remember reading your HN post. I hope you will continue writing blog posts on your journey, I expect quite a lot of software engineers would be very interested going though a similar journey now that LLMs removed most of the fun of programming. It’s neat to work on something physical for a change
> now that LLMs removed most of the fun of programming Never understood this, was the "most of the fun of programming" the literal typing for you? For me it was about solving problems and building things, and I get to do that more now than before, and without all the literal typing.
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