Building a ChatterBox
Assembly of the ChatterBox prototype involves soldering 5 components to a ChatterBox PCB board (which conveniently has all the locations labeled), soldering on a reset and power button, plugging in a battery, and dropping all that into a 3D-printed case.
I have linked the latest parts list, but please don’t buy the parts just yet, thinking it is ready to run, because I have not yet released the source code, and am still working out a plan.
Paying full retail price for parts that make up the latest prototype would run about $120, assuming you already have tools and a 3D printer. I would like to get it cheaper, but right now I am prioritizing the software side of things.
Custom PCB
In order to make assembly of the ChatterBox as simple as possible, I am finalizing a custom PCB that allows easy soldering of off-the-shelf components that can be easily acquired. The latest iteration of the PCB and schematic is shown below. You may notice a placeholder for WiFi module, but that is for possible future use, and not currently required.
Assembling the ChatterBox
The current version of the 3D printable ChatterBox case is hosted at OnShape. This will be getting quite a bit thinner with the latest version of the prototype board, which I am currently waiting on.
Images below show assembly of a ChatterBox, without the nice custom PCB. As you can see, it is somewhat involved. With the new PCB, the board has instructions printed on it, and soldering/assembly takes somewhere around 15-20 minutes and is vastly simplified. I don’t yet have images of that, but they will be coming fairly soon.
