Printing labels for very small production runs of rapidly evolving hardware

We are developing a small hardware device that consists of ESP32 development boards (~$50), 3D printed cases (~$3?), padded electronics cubes from Amazon (~$15), and a very light touch manual. Everything is rapidly evolving but since we want to track each device, we need to put a label on it with its MAC address and another identifier. And, if we’re going to go this far we might as well put a logo on there as well.

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ptouch-print

Command line utility to send text and graphics to some of the Brother P-Touch label printers. I started with this MacOS fork: https://github.com/DavidPhillipOster/ptouch-print-macOS

This runs nicely on OSX but the various sites he references for the original source and documentation have vanished. This site offered the necessary instructions for using it effectively: https://github.com/HenrikBengtsson/brother-ptouch-label-printer-on-linux

To combine a logo and text you need to make them both into PNG files and then print them both with a bit of padding between them. This also allows you to print multiple labels by stringing PNGs together.

From a workflow perspective this actually works quite well. Unfortunately the resolution of the label maker is rather poor.

It would be easy to write some Python to read the values from a CSV file and create all the labels I need in one pass.

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Dymo LabelManager 420p

This is a handheld label maker with a alphabetical rather than QWERTY keyboard. Since I’ll rarely be typing on it, the keyboard isn’t an issue.

I’m driving this with Dymo’s “Dymo Connect” software. It has very simple layout capabilities for text, barcodes, QR codes, and images. For my purposes, I put a logo and three lines of text into the layout, hit print, and received a decent label.

I’ve not investigated to see if I could drive this from a spreadsheet to partial automate the process. For low production volumes I am OK with copy/pasting the information for each label.

Still rather pixelated but a bit crisper than the Brother. This is what you get with 180 dpi.

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blabel

https://github.com/Edinburgh-Genome-Foundry/blabel

This was the first recommendation for something that might meet my requirements. Command line driven, written in Python, can ingest CSVs to produce multiple labels, basic layout capabilities via HTML and CSS style sheet.

It was a bit clunky to get working and I think we found a CSS layout problem but we eventually got it to reliably produce PDF files. But, what do I print these small PDFs to? I think I’d need yet another label printer, one that took PDFs.

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Present and Future

Ultimately, we need a higher resolution printer that can print to pre-cut waterproof (thermal printed plastic). But for the moment, the Dymo is good enough.

Other Options

I tried or thought about a few other things:

1. 3D printing the logo and identifiers directly on the case
   • This would be hard for just in time assembly
   • The available space is on the side of the case. We need to print the case lying on the top so the sides would be vertical. Printing fine text one layer at a time gets pretty ugly.
2. Various forms of printing to sheets of labels
   • I’m building 1-5 devices at a time. Populating the template and taking into account already used labels on the sheet was a bit annoying.
   • Waterproof (plastic?) labels in sheet form were not easy to find

A Crowd Sourced Non-Fiction Reading List

I read a -lot- of fiction, and was feeling guilty about it. “I should be expanding my awareness of the world!”. (Rather than taking care of my mental health by reading novels for pleasure that allowed me to escape for hours on end….)

Part of the issue is that my recent efforts at reading non-fiction resulted in quickly losing interest and abandoning the book 25% of the way through. What to do, what to do?

Crowd source it. I’ve a fairly eclectic group of friends and the list below reflects that. I’ll add personal commentary as I finish a book, otherwise it is just title, author, and maybe a quick comment.

Please feel free to suggest additions!

Books I’ve Read and Recommend

• Guns, Germs, and Steel – Jared Diamond
  • I read this years ago and was captivated. It read like a world and time-spanning novel. It was a great and memorable read.
  • There are discussions about the validity of his approach which may be worth reading. Here is one – https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/wd6jt/what_do_you_think_of_guns_germs_and_steel/
• Devil in the White City – Eric Larson
  • “Bringing Chicago circa 1893 to vivid life, Erik Larson’s spellbinding bestseller intertwines the true tale of two men–the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World’s Fair, striving to secure America?s place in the world; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.”
  • It lives up to the quote on the inside flap. Go read it.
• A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson
  • I read this in my … 30s, I think … after spending a few years living in New England. His books are -fun- and captivating and educational.
• In a Sunburned Country – Bill Bryson
• The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice – Trevor Corson
  • I read this shortly after finding really good sushi in San Francisco. It tells two stories – the story of sushi’s history and the story of sushi in America. A good read for foodies, and for sushi lovers.
• The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean – Trevor Corson
  • A wonderful dive (get it?) into what the title says. A well researched story about something we think we know, but really do not.
• Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”: Adventures of a Curious Character – Richard P. Feynman , Ralph Leighton , et al.
  • I read this many years ago and remember it fondly, though I do not recall any details of why. Go discover “why” for yourself.
• Any Given Tuesday – Lis Smith
  • She is a Dartmouth graduate, though was there after I left. She is also a political operative of the first order. Her character could have appeared on West Wing and fit right in with the passionate characters who believe in sacrificing much for “Democracy”. A great read.
• The Objective in War – Capt. B.H. Liddell Hart
  • I downloaded this paper just to find the context for the quote: “The object in war is a better state of peace.” I stayed because it was a very interesting read, and one still (or perhaps more) relevant now than when it was written in 1952. Among other things, it carefully de-mythologizes Cluasewitz (the author of “On War”) but it also covers the differences between political objectives and military objectives, military vs civilian (or infrastructure) targets, and why you might not want total victory. It is a short and quite readable paper, very much worth the time.
• Enough – Cassidy Hutchinson.
  • I’m listening to this as an audiobook. This is a superb first hand account of how our government functions from a first person view just before and then during the Trump administration. Cassidy comes off as incredibly capable, driven, and idealistic all while neatly avoiding even a hint of egotism. Very worth reading.
• Danziger’s Travels – Nick Danziger
  • I read this many years ago and it may have inspired me to read more “adventure travel” books, and to do some of it myself. Beautifully written by a guy who “… With minimal equipment and disguised as an itinerant Muslim, he hitch-hiked and walked through southern Turkey, and the Iran of the Ayatollahs, entering Afghanistan illegally in the wake of a convoy of Chinese weapons and then spent months dodging Russian helicopter gunships with the rebel guerillas. He was the first foreigner to cross from Pakistan into the closed western province of China since the revolution on 1949.”
• The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia – Peter Hopkirk
  • A must read for anyone interested in what is going on in Central Asia and parts of the Middle East. To quote a review: “The Great Game between Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia was fought across desolate terrain from the Caucasus to China, over the lonely passes of the Parmirs and Karakorams, in the blazing Kerman and Helmund deserts, and through the caravan towns of the old Silk Road—both powers scrambling to control access to the riches of India and the East. When play first began, the frontiers of Russia and British India lay 2000 miles apart; by the end, this distance had shrunk to twenty miles at some points. Now, in the vacuum left by the disintegration of the Soviet Union, there is once again talk of Russian soldiers “dipping their toes in the Indian Ocean.”

The As Yet Unread Reading List

• Sapiens – Jared Diamond
• Collapse – Jared Diamond
• 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus – Charles C. Mann
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants – Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Gathering Moss – Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Redeployment – Phil Klay. Short stories on the military. “Incredible” 
• Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation – Kristin Kobes Du Mez
• Preparing for War – Bradley Onishi
• How Civil War Starts – Barbara F. Walter
• Zero Fail – Carrol Lenning
• Inside Delta Force – Eric Haney
• The Federalist Papers
• Palenstine – Jimmy Carter
• Red Notice – Bill Browder
• Freezing Order: Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath – Bill Browder
• The Red Hotel – The Red Hotel: Moscow 1941, the Metropol Hotel, and the Untold Story of Stalin’s Propaganda War – Alan Philps
• Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation – Joseph J. Ellis
• Preventable – Andy Slavitt
• The Breach – Denver Riggleman
• Blowback – Miles Taylor
• Enough – Cassidy Hutchinson
• Shattered Sword – The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway – Jonathan Parshall, Anthony Tully, et al.
• Moon Lander – Tom Kelly
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI – David Grann
• Innovators – Walter Isaacson
• Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History – Sidney W. Mintz
• The Prize – Daniel Yergin
• Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World – Mark Kurlansky
• Salt: A World History – Mark Kurlansky
• The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance – Henry Petroski
• 52 Loaves: One Man’s Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust – William Alexander
• The River and the Gauntlet – S.L.A. Marshall
• The Wordy Shipmates – Sarah Vowell
• Unfamiliar Fishes – Sarah Vowell
• Lafayette in the Somewhat United States – Sarah Vowell
• Assassination Vacation – Sarah Vowell
• The Church of Baseball – Ron Shelton
• Reading the Glass: A Captain’s View of Weather, Water, and Life on Ships – Elliot Rappaport
• Wilding – Isabella Tree
• The Wager – David Grann
• Guardians of the Trees: A Journey of Hope Through Healing the Planet: A Memoir – M.D. Webb, Kinari
• Fire Weather – John Vaillant
• The Pyrocene: How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next – Stephen J. Pyne
• Anything by John McPhee – (Start with The Founding Fish)
• Anything by Thomas Sowell
• The Aviators – Winston Groom
• Isaac’s Storm – Erik Larson
• Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania – Erik Larson
• The Good Soldier Schweik – Jaroslav Hašek (Possible source for Catch 22)
• The Edge of the Plain- How Borders Make and Break Our World – James Crawford
• A Hawk in the Woods – Carrie Laban (Deeply creepy)
• Endurance. The Ernest Shackleton Story. (Fabulous tale of will to succeed and commitment as a leader.)
• Twilight of Democracy – Anne Applebaum (Not very well written but at only 95 pages, worth reading)
• Add these – https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2023/11/how-technology-building-plane-engineering-works-books/675905/?utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20231111&lctg=6050e71e4953a53f14887553&utm_term=The%20Atlantic%20Daily

How to succeed as a startup

Book, in Firefly, once said “Out here, people struggled to get by with the most basic technologies; a ship would bring you work, a gun would help you keep it. A captain’s goal was simple: find a crew, find a job, keep flying.”

The startup version is:

“As a startup, people struggle to get by with the most basic resources; an idea will bring you attention, passion will help you keep it. A founder’s job is simple: build a team, find revenue, survive.”

Guidance to UAV Operators Responding to Florida

[I am the Public Information Officer for National Council on Public Safety UAS. This post is written in that role. We will stand up an official location for future announcements.]

The Director, Emergency Management and Homeland Security Program, FSU, working in conjunction with local, state, and Federal agencies, requests that all volunteer UAS operators respect the following:

Volunteer/humanitarian aid/emergency response operators:

1. Do not self-deploy during response/life-safety, it’s dangerous.
2. Register on volunteerflorida.org.
3. When the State gets to recovery, we will need help. Registered volunteers should report to a Volunteer Reception Center for vetting and assignment.
4. Be prepared to be self sufficient. Do not assume that food, shelter, water, transportation, power, medical support, and fuel will be available to support your activities

Commercial operators:

• All commercial operators working for utilities, insurance companies, etc should comply with their Part 107 restrictions.
• Please coordinate operations through local and state EOCs if flying during response phase.

Official agencies:

• Official agencies should contact the FAA Systems Operations Support Center (SOSC) at 202-267-8276 and request an Emergency COA or SGI. This authorization will permit operations inside any posted TFRs or within controlled airspace.

 

All operators in Florida should utilize Airmap (including registering of flights) for maximum visibility. Emergency Management is using Airmap to help deconflict air operations.

Other guidance:

• Low flying aircraft will be an issue. 
• Monitor FAA and other resources for new or changing TFRs.
• Follow the eCOA process when working with a sponsoring agency or private sector partner. 
• Be patient with the SOSC as they will get bombarded with requests

 

Defending Against UAVs Operated by Non-State Actors

The author hopes to help the reader understand the potential impact of consumer UAVs in the hands of non-state actors as well as the technical and regulatory challenges present in the United States that we face so that they can make informed decisions about public policy choices, investments, and risk.

Our hypothesis is that Western nations are not prepared to defend civilian populations against the use of small UAVs by non-state actors. This can be proved false by:

• • Identifying counter-UAV technology that can be deployed to effect a “win” against currently available UAVs that meet the UsUAS definition
  • Identifying the regulations that allow the technology to be utilized within the borders of the United States and at sites not covered by “no fly zones”.
  • Demonstrating that the solutions are capable of being deployed at sufficient scale to protect all possible targets, not just major events

The defenders are at a classical asymmetric warfare disadvantage – they need a nearly 100% success rate, and if they can demonstrate that success, even better. This is essentially an impossible victory condition to meet. If the scope is limited to critical infrastructure, and if the rules of engagement are adjusted, the odds increase dramatically for the defenders but are still daunting.

Attackers win if they can conduct a single terror attack using a UsUAS against any civilian target, one of thousands of Friday night high school football games for example.

A successful attack need not injure or kill civilians. It may not even make major headlines. It just needs to demonstrate enough capability to generate sufficient public outcry to slow consumer and commercial UAV sales and deployment. Lawmakers already show a great deal of interest in responding to requests for greater regulation and the industry has demonstrated little effective lobbying power to hold off these regulations. A notable hostile use of a consumer UAV could result in regulation that would have significant impact on the civilian industry predicted to be worth $2 billion by 2020.[1]

Full text of my thesis is available here – David Kovar – GMAP 16 – Thesis

[1] B. I. Intelligence, 2016 Oct. 2, and 092 2, “THE DRONES REPORT: Market Forecasts, Regulatory Barriers, Top Vendors, and Leading Commercial Applications,” Business Insider, accessed February 15, 2017, http://www.businessinsider.com/2016-10-2-uav-or-commercial-drone-market-forecast-2016-9.

 

UAVs, IoT, and Cybersecurity

I presented a talk on UAVs, IoT, and Cybersecurity at the LISA conference in Boston on December 7th, 2016. The abstract for the talk was:

“Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) aka “drones” are all the rage—$500 UAVs are used in professional racing leagues and major corporations are building $100,000 UAVs to deliver packages and Internet connectivity. UAVs are slowly working their way into almost every commercial sector via operations, sales, manufacturing, or design.

sUAS—emphasis on the final “S”—are complex systems. The aerial platform alone often consists of a radio link, an autopilot, a photography sub-system, a GPS, and multiple other sensors. Each one of these components represents a cybersecurity risk unto itself and also when part of the larger system. Add in the ground control stations, the radio controller, and the video downlink system and you have a very complex computing environment running a variety of commercial, closed source, open source, and home brew software.

And yes, there is already malware specifically targeting drones.

During this presentation, we will walk through a typical operational workflow for a UAV, all of the components of a representative system, and through a possible risk assessment model for UAVs. Even if you are not working with UAVs, you should consider that UAVs are an instance of “the Internet of Things”—a collection of sensors and computing devices connected to each other and to the cloud designed to gather, distribute, and analyze data in a semi- or fully-autonomous manner.”

The slides may be found here: https://www.usenix.org/conference/lisa16/conference-program/presentation/kovar

UAV (drone) forensic analysis presentation available on YouTube

Earlier this year, Greg Dominguez and I developed the second UAV (drone) forensic analysis presentation. I presented it at SANS in Austin this summer and that presentation is now available on YouTube.

 

https://t.co/dnrAElYJKi

 

It was “Next Gen” when presented but we’ve moved on. We’re already working on a more comprehensive version for several conferences next year. Stay tuned.

UAV Forensics – version 2

Working with Greg Dominguez and Cindy Murphy, we updated my UAV Forensics presentation from last year to address the Phantom P3, it’s additional data sources, some new tools for analyzing data, and our first pass at JTAG analysis.

Greg and I gave the presentation at Techno Security in June and a PDF version is attached here: UAV Forensics -TS16-final distribution

Public Agency Operations and Part 107

After consulting with a UAV lawyer and an FAA representative, I believe that:

• Public Agencies (PAs) still have to operate under a COA
• PAs can also operate non-Public Agency Operations (PAOs) under Part 107.

See pages 61-68 of the Rule for details

If a PA wishes to examine the roof of the court house for hail damage, a Part 107 operator working for the PA can perform the task.

If a PA wishes to conduct a SAR mission, or fly a UAV in support of fire fighting operations, they need a COA or to contract with a 333 exempt operator with the appropriate COA.

 

ASTM Efforts on Small UAS

Quoting from a widely distributed email. I work on one UAS ASTM effort to type Small UAS. Here are their other efforts. Of particular interest is F2908 “Specification for Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM) for a Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS).”

Small UAS Operations

ASTM International Committee F38 on Unmanned Aircraft Systems has recently approved seven new standards that cover all major facets of small unmanned aircraft systems operations, including design, construction, operation and maintenance requirements. 

The following seven new ASTM standards, written for all sUAS that are permitted to operate over a defined area and in airspace defined by a nation’s governing aviation authority, have now been approved by F38: 

       F2908, Specification for Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM) for a Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS). F2908 defines minimum requirements for the aircraft flight manual, which provides guidance to owners, mechanics, pilots, crew members, airports, regulatory officials and aircraft and component manufacturers who perform or provide oversight of sUAS flight operations. 

       F2909, Practice for Maintenance and Continued Airworthiness of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS). F2909 establishes a practice for the maintenance and continued airworthiness of sUAS. Requirements for continued airworthiness, inspections, maintenance and repairs/alterations are included. 

       F2910, Specification for Design and Construction of a Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS). F2910 defines the design, construction and test requirements for sUAS. In addition to general requirements, F2910 covers requirements for structure, propulsion, propellers, fuel and oil systems, cooling, documentation and other key areas. 

       F2911, Practice for Production Acceptance of Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS). F2911 defines production acceptance requirements for sUAS. Requirements covered include several aspects of production, system level production acceptance, quality assurance and documentation. 

       F3002, Specification for Design of the Command and Control System for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS). F3002 provides a consensus standard in support of an application to a nation’s governing aviation authority to operate an sUAS for commercial or public use. The standard focuses on command and control (C2) links, including a diagram of a C2 system and general requirements for C2 system components. 

       F3003, Specification for Quality Assurance of a Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS). F3003 defines quality assurance requirements for design, manufacture and production of small unmanned aircraft systems. Guidance is given to sUAS manufacturers for the development of a quality assurance program. 

       F3005, Specification for Batteries for Use in Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS). F3005 defines requirements for battery cells used in sUAS. Mechanical design and safety, and electrical design battery maintenance are primary battery-related areas that are covered. 

“The introduction of these standards developed by F38 will help to provide a safe and appropriate path for near-term routine sUAS operations in airspace systems of the United States and other countries,” says Theodore Wierzbanowski, chairman F38. 

Committee F38 encourages participation in its standards developing activities. “The user community for these standards is vast,” says Wierzbanowski. “Feedback on what works and what doesn’t during these early stages of sUAS operation is critical.” 

F2908 is under the jurisdiction of F38.03 on Personnel Training, Qualification and Certification, and F2909 was developed by F38.02 on Flight Operations. The other five new standards are under the jurisdiction of F38.01 on Airworthiness. 

To purchase ASTM standards, visit www.astm.org and search by the standard designation, or contact ASTM Customer Relations (phone: 877-909-ASTM; sales@astm.org). 

CONTACT Technical Information: Theodore J. Wierzbanowski • Punta Gorda, Fla. • Phone: 626-429-8864 | ASTM Staff: Stephen Mawn • Phone: 610-832-9726