Very neat and useful idea, needs some polishing
For p@ss™ Mark II Password Generator/Recall Key Fob
Just received mine and love the way it looks!
I know the idea is to keep things simple and easy to manufacture, but there are a few things i think would come a long way to make this a better product.
1) For one, the edges are WAY too sharp for a pocket(able) item and will likely chew threw my pants pocket in a few months. It chewed holes in the ziplock bag and the envelope it was packed in. The cut in the envelope was big enough for the p@ss to squeeze out, given enough wiggling and motion - luckily, it didn't. I *strongly* suggest filleting those sharp corners.
2) I realize the objective was to make the rings turn as easily and smoothly as possible, but that had two downsides - the rings are loose enough now they rattle quite a bit, and it's easy to knock the rings out of alignment while using it, which reduces usability (especially if you're not reading the row immediately below the current, but more than a few rows before or after). Please make them a bit less loose. Perhaps adding o-rings to the rings themselves (on the inside), and greasing the shaft would be a solution? That should keep things nice and smooth, while still giving some friction and completely dampening the rattle.
3) Clicks! Please clicks! I know it's a problem at this scale (of the item itself and manufacture), but if there's any simple way of implementing clicks instead of smooth motion, it'd make for one heck of an upgrade. Obviously, on something bigger, it'd be easy to do this with a ratchet and a ball with a spring, but for something this size, that wouldn't quite work. Perhaps a ratchet with a leaf spring?
Thanks a lot for making this and the quick service!
Regards,
Ante
PS: Do you have a newsletter / mailing list of some kind? I'd love to be able to get alerted to any new developments/versions.
Response from >:) Russtopia Labs >:) | Sept. 2, 2016
Hi, thanks so much for the comments! Yes, indeed I do wish the edges were a bit more rounded. I didn't machine them myself, having just designed it and getting a shop to do the small run for me -- but I wish I had stressed to them more that those 'wings' needed more rounding. Thankfully, I've had mine in my pocket for almost a year now and haven't developed any holes yet :) If you're willing to lose the anodzing on the edges some careful dremel work could round them to your satisfaction...
As for the ring snugness, again that was a compromise.. even with specifying slightly looser tolerances (the mkI had many units with stuck rings that I had to use a stretcher on), I still have some that don't spin freely, again requiring some manual stretching during assembly. You're not the first to ask for some kind of detents or clicking and on the next version I'll certainly look into it, though I expect it'll increase manufacturing costs quite a bit.
I don't have a mailing system set up, but I was planning actually on doing an update email to all previous orders, as I have refined the instructions a bit; increasing the recommended default minimum password lengths generated when choosing a personal dial-in rule as well as urging people to further obscure their rule usage, in response to some peoples' observations from using the device (since it's extremely important that users choose a *good* rule to use with it, otherwise passwords may still have too much predictability or be of insufficient length.)
Thank you very much for the suggestions, and if I do a 'next' version I'll definitely try to address all of your points. I hope it's useful to you as is, even without all of these possible improvements! :)
