Last summer the Croatian company CircuitMess started a Kickstarter initiative to finance the STEM box. The subscription box is a series of handicraft projects for the playful teaching of the basics of new technology. The assembly should be possible for children from the age of eleven (with a little support), but is also aimed at adults. Makers should already be familiar with the retro game console Nibble (initially started as Makerbuino) and the DIY mobile phone Ringo.

The delivery of the first project was planned for November, but was delayed due to the corona pandemic. Therefore, the first box was only in front of us shortly before Christmas – Spencer, a language assistant. Similar to Siri or Alexa, Spencer should enable voice-controlled information retrieval, but currently only in English. It is based on an ESP 32 – microcontroller and has a microphone and loudspeaker for voice functions as well via a 144 pixel large LED matrix display.

Assistant with arms Spencer’s exterior consists of an acrylic glass housing, which is supplemented by small plastic arms and legs. There is space on the top for a large red button to activate speech recognition. The items arrived well sorted and marked in a cardboard box. The address of the online manual and where further tips and information can be found in the enclosed information booklet.

STEM Box: Spencer (6 pictures) At the start of the STEM -Box subscriptions are available in addition to the Spencer-Box and basic tools.

For the supporters of the Kickstarter campaign, the first STEM box comes with a tool set consisting of a soldering iron and holder, solder, desoldering pump, screwdriver, USB power supply for the soldering iron, flat nose pliers and wire cutters. Things that every maker has in their basic equipment, but provides newcomers with everything they need for assembly.

The Make editorial team tries out a lot more than can fit in the bimonthly magazine. That is why we publish further test reports on our website in loose succession.

The quality of the tools is totally ready to start Sufficient, only the small soldering iron with 10 – Watt USB power supply had trouble to get the solder joints really warm. In particular, the two ground connections of the electrolytic capacitors could hardly be soldered with it. It’s good that Spencer only has to make 16 solder points.

Unfortunately, the soldering pads are standard-sized. For a beginner’s project they would have liked to have been a little bigger.