Thanks to impressive engineering skills, a “Star Trek: Voyager” fan managed to build an original, foldable Tricorder in real life. Full details for the amazing project were revealed in a YouTube guide, so interested fans can try and replicate this cool toy.
Fans of the “Star Trek” series are probably familiar with its futuristic gadgets and technologies. One of this is definitely the Tricorder, a hand-held device that performs environmental scans, data recording and analysis with a push of a few buttons. This makes it a tad bit cooler than any smartphone in the market.
‘Star Trek: Voyager’ Tricorder Props and Protype
According to Gizmodo, the “Star Trek” franchise initially planned to upgrade their Tricorder after its successful appearance in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” However, to cut their prop expenses, they resolved to use hand-me-downs for the “Star Trek: Voyager.”
One fan felt it was injustice to the series and resolved himself to build a “Voyage Tricorder” in real life. Notably, it took YouTuber Mangy_Dog over a year to finish the first design, a couple more years for the prop upgrade.
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How to Build a ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ Tricorder
Mangy_Dog shared the details of this expensive and incredibly difficult project in three YouTube videos, which is complied to around two hours.
On the first video he discussed the challenges of the hardware, with its custom PCBs and touch-screen displays. He emphasized the lessons he learned in his first design, which was built two years ago.
On the second video, Mangy_Dog explained the custom user interface, animations and extra detail around the prop. He also did the initial test on the battery to see if the systems would work.
And on his last video, the fan described the internal hardware and extensive code that powers the prop. Admittedly, this section of the video is hard to understand for any fan who is not a UI designer.
‘Star Trek’ Tricorder in Real Life
After the long work, Mangy_Dog produced the real life Tricorder with all its touch sensitive buttons, switch modes and secret features. It also has blinking and flashing LEDs which gives off an aura of “scanning something.” This project made a lot of fans happy and envious, which they shared in the video’s comment section.
One fan said “this is insane to me. I’m still trying to figure out how to get three blinky led’s on a strip. You’ve made the Sistine Chapel in a handheld device.”
Another fan with over 40 years of electronic product design experience said “this is the coolest looking thing I’ve ever seen, especially the scans for life signs and the metallurgical scans. Your work is definitely inspirational!”
One commenter added “This is truly impressive. Better than the actual (Star Trek: The Next Generation) props and shows how mastery of the modern maker electronics and 3D printing can literally make any (Star Trek fan) dream come true. Well done!”
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