crowd-supply-the-skull-submission.txt

Lead Link: https://www.crowdsupply.com/admin/lead/1598

Project Name: The Skull
Creator Name: Uri Shaked
Company Name: CodeMagic
Creator Email: uri@codemagic.co.il
Location: Ramat Gan
Country: il
Team:
Working on it on my own :-)

Project Name: The Skull

Project Description:
A decorative skull PCB that also doubles as a multi-step Capture-The-Flag
riddle. When you touch the back of its head, the LED-powered eyes light up. You
have to figure out a way to extract a secret string embedded in the firmware
through the skull's eyes.

Prototype Status:
I have a working prototype and can send a unit to CrowdSupply. The hardware is
ready, and a basic version of the firmware is already functional. The CTF
riddles still needs some work (I have a very rough prototype and began testing
with some friends).

Manufacturing Plan:
I got quotes from several PCB+PCBA fab houses in China, and plan to manufacture
at least 50 units.

Openness:
The board schematic will be open, and the entire firmware will be open. People
will need to get them in order to solve the CTF riddles.

Supporting Material:
Latest prototype - front, back, and short video:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/AqMC1GhUnwVey6b5A
Testing the CTF riddle on an early prototype: (link omitted)

Main Components:
The MCU will be ATtiny45, and it will be powered by a CR2032 battery. All the
other parts are very common (passives, 5mm red LEDs, metal battery holder).

History:
My first CTF riddle, also based on the ATtiny chips, was launched back in
November 2019: https://hackaday.com/2019/11/07/tiny-sao-tough-ctf-challenge/
I started working on this riddle shortly after, and had the first hardware
prototype in December. I spent the next few months thinking about the CTF
riddle and tinkering with different ideas. I then moved on to the 2nd hardware
prototype on June. Now I'm working on finalizing the riddles.

Launch Date:
2020-09-14

Delivery Date:
2020-11-15

Community:
About 5,300 followers on my personal Twitter account + 1800 followers on the
Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/wokwi). Haven't reached out to them
(except for a single teaser tweet mentioned above).

Competition:
The product doubles as a decorative PCB (there are quite a few of them on
Tindie), and as a hardware CTF riddle.
CTFs are very common in the information security industry, and there are also
some specific hardware products that target this market, e.g.:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14379


Price:
23

Campaign Goal:
Sell at least 50 units (but hopefully even some more!)

Funding Allocation:
I'm not sure about the exact shipping/fulfillment process works with crowd
supply and the associated costs.
The approx. manufacturing costs, according to the quotes I got, are as follows:
50 units, including shipping to Israel: 300-400$ (depending on the fab house).
100 units, including shipping to Israel: 400-600$.

How can we help?:
Working out a marketing plan together, learning from your experience on
crowd-sourcing projects (this is my first one), and also figuring out logistics
:-)

Additional Details:
I currently have three different riddles planned for this board, with an
increasing difficulty. The first stage should be solvable by anyone with a
mobile phone, and the next stages may require some more sophisticated hardware
(e.g. an Arduino Uno or a second skull board), I'm still working out the
details. I may also add a 4th riddle to the firmware, perhaps as a stretch
goal?
Let's talk!

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