If one unit of a pair seems dead, it is worth ten minutes of checks before you email us.
If it will not turn on at all
Fit fresh alkaline batteries, seated the right way round in the holder. Chatter runs on replaceable batteries rather than a rechargeable one, so a flat or badly seated set looks exactly like a dead unit.
Check the battery connector is seated fully and the right way round against the build-guide photos at circuitmess.com/blogs/resources. If your unit runs on USB but dies the moment you unplug it, that specific case is covered in My Chatter 2.0 only works when it is plugged in over USB. What should I check?.
Check the on-off switch and its plastic cap are assembled as the guide shows, so the cap is actually moving the switch underneath.
If it turns on but buttons do not respond
Take the button caps off and check each one is seated straight — a cap sitting at an angle can hold its button half-pressed or miss it entirely.
Press the small button underneath directly, without the cap. If the button works bare but not with the cap, it is an assembly alignment issue: re-fit the caps against the guide photos.
Restore the firmware from code.circuitmess.com on a desktop computer running Chrome, Edge or Opera, in case software is the reason it is ignoring you.
If a unit is still dead or deaf, email us with your order number, photos of the board with the casing off, which unit it is (both from the same box or bought separately), and a short video of what happens when you press the buttons.
Email that to [email protected]. We look at each case individually, and if a part turns out to be genuinely defective, replacing it costs you nothing — see Do your kits have a warranty?.
If the restore itself will not run — the browser cannot see the device, or it stops part-way — see The firmware restore at code.circuitmess.com fails or cannot find my device.