STEM Box Circuitmess : Chatter

STEM Box 5 by CircuitMess: Chatting private and secure messaging

Chatter is a free, private and secure text messaging device. It is offered in pairs, because sending text messages is much more fun if someone is able to answer you. Originally CircuitMess wanted to make a walkie-talkie but realized that nowadays nobody talks on the phone and that texting with emojis and GIFs rule the world! Unlike your regular phone, this device doesn't need a network or SIM card to work as it creates its own wireless network and communicates with the other Chatter devices you have paired it with.

It uses low-power "LoRa" wide area network technology to send text messages, emojis, memes and GIFs. The chatter uses a set of publicly available frequencies that are allocated for use cases like this.

Messages you send to other Chatter devices are encrypted and do not pass through an Internet Service Provider, allowing you to share as many secrets as you like with your friends. This device does not replace your regular phone and has the range of an average walkie-talkie, about 1 to 7 km depending on the surroundings (concrete buildings and basements are usually not a good place to get good range with this device) but it can be useful in some situations.

The main purpose of the Chatter is to educate and show people that you can communicate for free and at a distance without using large companies and the internet.

What you can do :

• Send free text messages to your friends
• Load custom emojis and memes to the device
• Code a jumping dinosaur game for your Chatter 
• Play the preloaded snake game on it

What you're about to learn:

• How to assemble your own private texting machine 
• What privacy means in 2020 and how you can communicate digitally without using the internet
• How the LoRa works
• How the Chatter encrypts/decrypts messages and associates with other Chatters
• How to code and load custom applications on your Chatter