Introducing ChatterBox: Secure Off-Grid Mesh Communicator

ChatterBox is a secure off-grid communication device that uses mesh delivery and requires no cell, internet, or any other service. During a complete grid outage or cyberattack, these portable devices will allow you to remain in secure communication with people near you.
For more information, visit: chatters.io

[@ruiztulio]

I find this project very intresting, specially for hiking, lots of people with a device and maybe a "repeater" in more dense areas or with too much obstacles can be a live saving thing. Great project!

[@mattcalhoun61]

If you had 2 people or 2 groups of people hiking that needed to separate, you could drop a ChatterBox in a good location, and if each group has their own ChatterBox, the dropped one automatically becomes essentially a caching repeater when the two parties are too far from one another. If both parties are within reach of the dropped ChatterBox, it will instantly forward between the two parties. If one party is completely out of reach, the dropped one will cache messages until the out-of-reach party gets back in range, and then forward at that time (and send confirmation of deliver to the sender).
Also, this is probably over-engineered on my part, but, if a stranger came and picked up that dropped device and looked at it (even if they were tech-savvy and hooked it up to a laptop), they would still not be able to read any messages between the two hiking parties. It would continue to be a caching repeater, unbeknownst to the stranger. That is because of the strength of asymmetric encryption baked into the protocol.

[@vashonn]

Are this product for sale ?

[@sahilbhonsle780]

Is this project open source?

[@mattcalhoun61]

It is currently not open source. Ideally it will end up so, but a few legal questions need to be worked through first, and I'd like v1 of the code to be fully completed/stabilized first.

[@sahilbhonsle780]

@@mattcalhoun61 will keep an eye on it then. I've been looking forward to building something like this for a while now.

[@dzxtricks]

So this only works when bunch of people bought this? And immediately flop/collapse the moment people just didnt use this anymore?

[@dzxtricks]

I can see how important something like this is on trails, big construction projects, "underground" activities... But I wanna know from the creator what the actual purpose of the device is/was?

[@mattcalhoun61]

@@dzxtricks The purpose is to allow you to securely and privately communicate with people and equipment in an environment where either "normal" cell/WiFi communication is not an option, or where you simply don't want to use that option. That could be a hiking scenario like you pointed out. It could also be communication between people and equipment in your area during a cell/internet/grid outage. Those are the two main scenarios that come to mind. My main driver was the second. We do have walkie-talkies, ham radios, etc. But those do not allow asynchronous communication or meshing and mostly don't support encryption, digital signatures, etc. Additionally, people nowadays often prefer to communicate via text, which lends itself very well to all those things I just mentioned.

[@dzxtricks]

@@mattcalhoun61 Ah, but are you sure you don't want to create signal boosters device? I mean sure it now sounds like a cellphone tower but at least it's increasing in range. In scenario like Antarctica research expeditions, we can't keep people nicely spaced out to make communication possible, so a huge powerful portable beacon can really help

[@mattcalhoun61]

@@dzxtricks a strong high signal could be a great base station, with more portable devices then being able to get fairly far away, and also helping to push the reach of the base station a little farther. Also if a group of people are together a ways from the base station, it's likely their messages will not even utilize the base station. That pretty much describes the cluster I have running. One base station at my house (not boosted, but great antenna), one on a car, and a few for people to carry around in their pockets. Between all that, we pretty good connectivity in our situation.

[@mattcalhoun61]

@@dzxtricks a couple of other things I think maybe aren't clear, each ChatterBox automatically becomes a repeater/router if meshing is requested. It doesn't just repeat though, it targets one or two devices in range that can push the message closer to where it's going, not just blind repeating. Also , each ChatterBox caches packets for up to 24 hours (or more if configured), so it can do much later deliveries when connectivity is intermittent. All that goes for each ChatterBox, because there aren't different versions for different functions, they all do everything.

[@vashonn]

Are this product for sale ?

[@mattcalhoun61]

@@vashonn I will be making the beta version of the firmware available for Lilygo T-Deck and T-Beam supreme within the next few weeks. At that time, I'll update the website to point to places where you can buy those. The beta version of the firmware will be free. I'll also post a video to this channel with details