{"id":750,"date":"2025-05-03T14:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfisqlu.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/?page_id=750"},"modified":"2025-06-30T17:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T15:07:08","slug":"replica-project","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/sfisqlu.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/enigma\/replica-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Replica Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Presentation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Enigma machines are a fascinating piece of engineering and history, unfortunately they are extremely expensive and remain inaccessible for most people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, the idea to build a replica was born\u2014the beginning of a difficult and very long endeavor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal is to make the replica as historically accurate as possible, so shortcuts taken by other projects to avoid the worst difficulties\u2014PCBs in rotors, microswitches for key switches\u2014will not be taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The plans<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Fortunately, a school in Germany has run a replica construction project. Having gained access to a 1943 Enigma I owned by the Bundeswehr Museum of German Defense Technology in Koblenz, they were able to take measurements and made blueprints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They went (at least) as far as building a mechanically functional replica but there were no updates after this stage, nor published pictures of the completed machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were kind enough to share their blueprints (see References<\/a>); those were the indispensible starting point for the replica build project, and without them the project would have faced a lot more guessing, trial and error, and could not be as accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Examples of Enigma blueprints – Hochschule Ravensburg-Weingarten<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The blueprints are not complete (for example, the electrical circuit is missing entirely except for the contact pins), so the following elements have to be designed from scratch, with informations from other sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n