Dongle Design
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When writing software I usually give
out a small series of evaluation copies, but in one instance the very first
tester put the underprotected sofware right into his online shareware collection.
I personally don't like dongles at all and I doubt that thay can be very
useful in the long run. However, they can save a prototype from early cracks
and distribution.
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I decided to develop a dongle that would be connected
to the parallel port, that contained a realtime clock and parts of the program
code and client information.
These dongle contain NVRAM, a tiny controller, a real-time clock and a
clock battery.
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Later versions of this dongle use a PCB as a base
and are much faster to assemble. They also feature a loop-through, so other
devices (more dongles) can be connected to to the other end.
The finished dongle fits into a regualr case which would be filled with
resin.
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Dongle Design (c) Matthias Melcher
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Patchwork