Creating a Second Factor Authentication Token
In May, we decided to figure out the world of online security and try to build our own second-factor authentication token. I started learning anything and everything I thought could help me in this quest, and thus, decided to look into what’s already on the market. I decided to look on Amazon, and document the …
Overview: For surface mount soldering you can use a variety of tools. Anything from a heat gun to an oven will work. Many people invest in their own reflow ovens (yes, you CAN buy an already set up reflow oven!) or a new toaster oven. What did we do? We bought a $5 used toaster …
PCB Stencils- what are they? When trying to apply solder paste to a printed circuit board for surface mount soldering, a PCB stencil can be very useful. A stencil is a flat sheet with pads cut out to match your pcb design. This allows you to build boards faster, better, and more easily. Most PCB …
Both yesterday and today marked the most exciting days of my co-op so far- I finally got to put my U2F tokens together! After figuring out the reflow oven (a set-up walk through will be in another blog post), and building a stencil, it was finally time to put everything together. First, I watched …
Today I worked on the blog, helped rearrange the office, opened up all our beautiful PCBs (https://blog.redkeyu2f.com/2018/07/05/u2f-token-building-the-pcbs-arrive/), and started learning about reflow ovens. Now that all our parts are here, we have to learn how to properly use our toaster oven to solder our boards. Apparently there’s quite a bit of technique to this- good …
Today our package from http://dirtypcbs.com/store/pcbs arrived! We ordered a +/- 10 protopack of a design we knew should work, as well as a protopack that I had updated the Gerber files on and resubmitted. We had NO idea if these would turn out at all, but they look perfect. Here’s the package the 22 PCBs came in …
We first stumbled across KiCad when looking to modify PCB components before sending the boards in for manufacturing. We learned that to modify the PCB, we had to modify the Gerber files, and to do that, you should use KiCad. This was a bit of a snag in our plan as none of use knew …
Today I spent the whole day doing hands-on work. I took all the parts I’d harvested from hours of desoldering, and learned how to identify and test all of them with a multimeter. Before I actually got started, I got to watch my boss test them and he gave me tips on what to look …
Today I sat and learned a whole bunch from my employers. We talked about different jobs, how other employers act, money, and a whole lot of other stuff. Then, I set off to try and clear the fog that learning about electronic components had put on my brain. Just watching videos wasn’t working, so luckily …
We found all the parts needed to build a simple U2F security token thanks to Github. Here’s the link: https://github.com/conorpp/u2f-zero/wiki/Parts-List Basically there are 8 components per token. All should be surface mount parts. Here’s what you need: PART MANUFACTURER PART NUMBER PRICE PER WHERE TO FIND Microcontroller EFM8UB11F16G-C-QSOP24 $1.38 https://www.digikey.com/ Secure Element (Authentication chip) ATECC508A-SSHDA-B $0.75 …