This project was ignited by my desire to own a Tricorder as seen in Star Trek TNG, Voyager and Deep Space Nine.

I will be doing my own take of the Tricorder that is fitting to my sense of style and design [and unfortunately, limited to my technical expertise as well].

I am aware that this project will require me to have some know-how in micro-controller programming and Resin casting, both of which I have absolutely zero knowledge on at the beginning of the project.

As Captain Janeway says...“Do It !”

Just drawing some ideas, thinking about how the top external interface should look like and how the Tricorder should stand.

I am also thinking about placing the battery compartment in the lower part of the Tricorder just so that I’ll have more space for the electronics on top.

This is important to me as I will be using conventional sized electronic components instead of Surface Mounted Components.

Spend sometime drawing out the “line angles” of my Tricorder.

Logically, I should have carried out this step in the computer as the computer is GREAT at drawing straight lines.

However it’s my personal opinion that with my intention to create the perfect Tricorder “figure”, my mind and hand will derive my Tricorder’s final aesthetic combinations that the computer could not, or even if it could come close, there will still be no “heart” in it.

It’s been a long day today...my eyes barely open as I sat in the train that is bringing me home.

Forced myself to draw something along this Tricorder project before I totally doze off, hoping that in the mist of my inability to think, my brain might just be direct enough to show me what I really want.

This is not the final design, as a matter of fact; I am not going to even begin the inner details until I am absolutely certain about the overall shape and proportion [the relative part to every other part of the Tricorder].

I don’t want to think about battery size, I don’t want to think about circuit board spaces, I don’t want to think about a lot of things right now.
All I care about is the overall aesthetic ratio/proportion of my Tricorder; everything else can kiss my ass until I got the shape that I instinctively like.

[P.S: Now that I think back on this phase, I think this is a complete lie.
I am very aware that I only have so much space to play with thickness wise.]

Right at the very beginning, I wanted my Tricorder to be able to stand upright.
The logic is simple, too simple:
Let’s face it, because I will be using conventional electronic components, I don’t really have much room to play with when it comes to “slimness”.
This automatically translates to the fact that my Tricorder’s thickness will probably match those from the Star Trek 1984’s era TNG show.

So...what’s the fucking point of all those thickness if it can’t even stand upright ?
Hence I proceed to make sure it will stand upright and that the bottom slate should be around 160 degree from close position when opened.
The resulting Dimple from these two intentions lead to a gap right at the bottom intersection that just so happen to allow the hinge to settle in nicely, perfect !

I am also getting increasingly angry at myself when I am planning the panel design of the Tricorder, I am suppose to incorporate only LEDs, but my mind keeps on thinking in terms of actual screens.
I guess in all aspect, blinking LEDs are pretty 1990’s sci-fi era just like blinking bulbs are in the 1970’s.
In today’s world, blinkies like these are simple too “loud” to be fashionable, everything is going discreet and small.

But the contradiction is, the reason I like the Star Trek TNG~Voyager Tricorder is because it IS so fucking loud and obnoxious, it’s like it’s screaming “LOOK AT ME!!! LOOK AT ME!!!”
Ha ha ha

With the general shape and plane angles in place, I proceed to model the simplified structure in 3D to get it ready for the next step: actual size prototyping test.

I’ve extrapolated the folding planes from the rudimentary 3D model and created a number of basic paper mock up of the device in various sizes to help me gauge the eventual size of this device.

It’s nice to know that they indeed stand upright as I have intended.

As small as I want this device to be, I must reach a compromise between the spaces that the conventional batteries/electronic components requires and how comfortable I am holding it.

Arh, some things look good on the drawing board but sucks in real life.

Three problems surfaced as soon as I start “playing” with the mock ups:

• The bottom slate is too angled for my hand to “press the buttons” comfortably.
• The top angled panel is too steep for my eyes using the main screen as the base viewing angle.
• The current height of the main screen is a dumb idea because I have failed to take the size of conventional hinges into consideration.

I proceed to create another mock up with the required modifications in place.
The top slanted panel now seems more agreeable angle wise to the main view screen.

However, it seems I have brought the other two modifications too far.
The Main view screen is now too lengthy, combined with the bottom slate that expands relative to it and we now have a really ugly/long looking Tricorder.

The bottom slate is now too wide opened; I feel that my fingers are about to slide right off the bottom slate during simulations.

On the very same day, I proceed to modify the ratio again and I am now very pleased with the overall proportion.

With the final proportion in place, I proceed to, once again, create multiple copies of the Tricorder in the now perfect ratio but in different sizes to find out which felt right in my hand [yes again...].
I do have my crazy good friend Khairul with me helping me out with the size testing when we were in Macdonald, he wasn’t shown here because hell, someone have to be taking the photos of this self obsessed whore ;p

Right at the very beginning [if you look at the very first sketch that started this project], I wanted the bottom slate to hold the battery to free the main box for my light pimping pleasure. But now it seems, reality is setting in, now I know why the original creator of the Tricorder set the size of the Tricorder as such.

If I were to take into account the thickness of the eventual device [the paper’s thickness is not a good representation] along with the understanding that the final device will be round off at the edges, there is just no room for these batteries.

I tried playing with the batteries arrangements for the bottom slate...fail.

If I were to put the AAA batteries on the top box, there will be no space for the screen.

A 9V type batteries would do nicely, but with all the lights I will be putting in...I mean I have no idea how many lights I will be putting in yet, but if I may postulate, this 9V battery will probably die in a few minutes, absolutely impractical.

I absolutely refuse to enlarge the size of my Tricorder, I absolutely wouldn’t do it. I think this project is stuck for now...

Trying not to increase the depth of the Tricorder directly [one of my German friends saw this mock up and ask: “Is this a brick ?”...], I aim to increase the length of the Tricorder just enough to indirectly affect the thickness of the Tricorder, again, more mock ups.

You might be asking how does increasing the length affect the thickness, this is possible due of the slope angle of the bottom slate.

It works; the battery could now be place into the bottom slate with the thickness of the final material taken into account.

I also take this opportunity to get ready for some hinge testing.

As I look back at this device throughout the day more and more, I slowly developed a kind of annoyance yet again with its length...it’s long...too long...looks like the length aesthetics doesn’t appeals my inner mind, arh...the curse of compromising desire with reality...

Eventually, I came to the acceptance/compromise/surrender that I should make the Tricorder bigger, just a little bit; this will allow the batteries to fit in and still retain the original aesthetics that I’ve desired for this device.

The Playmate Tricorder has provided me with the insight as to how to handle the hinges, holes were cut into the two parts to accommodate the hinges.

This knowledge is incorporated into the new mock up.

One would notice the holes accommodating the hinges might look unnecessary big on the back side, please understand that unlike paper, the final material have enough thickness to upset the closing mechanism if not accounted for.

With the battery compartment space problem fixed, original ratio aesthetics retained as much as possible without sacrificing much in the area of general largeness of the device and with the hinges now snugly in place, I can say that I am now happy again.

And now with the most important technical issues out of the way, time to go back to imagination land! Back to the drawing board !
Onward with more designs to built up this BABY !
Fun Fun Fun !

I never imagined I would ever find these babies again.
These LEDs are amazing; the lights from these LEDs are distributed very evenly across the entire rectangular panel.
Under normal conditions, you wouldn’t see “dots” or anything that might hint where the main light sources are; this is LED lighting at its best.

I love rectangular LED lights; I don’t much care for the common LED point lights, it’s a pity they are rare now.

The original TR-580 Tricorder VII uses these LEDs for its Alpha Beta Delta Gamma light displays.
It was later replaced by three surface mount LEDS with a diffuser in future versions of the Tricorder just to recreate [unsuccessfully] this amazing effect.

These LEDs are [supposedly] no longer in production.
I wasn’t even looking for this when I visit the shop that I have never visit before, it’s one of those shops that is so old and messed up you just know there is a lot of hidden treasures inside.

The shop owner told me his shop was 30 years old and contains many components that no longer exist [excuse the paradox].

On the 18 of March 2011, I finally owned my first “real” Tricorder, I remember crying and adoring it like a baby.
I laugh at how silly it is that this Tricorder could mean so much to me that it would drive me to peruse it for 11 years and counting.
I cry because it really means a lot to me and to have it in my hands is as spiritual to me as anything could possibly be.

Having an actual Tricorder greatly motivates me to create one myself again as I now hold in my hand an actual reference.

I started working on the electronics that would emulate the flashes that I see in the actual Tricorder.

I started learning how to program Microcontrollers 7 months 15 days ago on my own because of my desire re-create the Tricorder.

By using Microcontroller as opposed to the usual 555/4017 integrated circuit combinations, I am able to reduce the number of components used in the Tricorder by up to 50% leaving more space for the battery and my hopeless wiring skill.

It’s no secret that I love the color Blue, so much so that when I make my first Papier-mâché “Tricorder” when I was 15 years old with a simple 4017 decade counter chip in it, it was filled with Blue LEDs. Though the Blue light cause quite a strain to my eyes, the memory of the eye strain and headaches disappears with the destruction of that Tricorder. What is left is a nice warm fuzzy memory of my very first Tricorder with nice Blue flashing lights.

Now that I am experimenting with my own new microcontroller based circuit design for the Tricorder, Blue LEDs is once again my first chance, I didn’t have to even think about it, I am even planning to build it once again based completely on Blue LEDs.

BAD IDEA

The flashing Blue LEDs makes me so nauseous, I felt so uncomfortable and sick, suddenly I was reminded as to how similar this feeling was when I was playing with my first Papier-mâché Tricorder 11 years ago.

Wanting to find out why this is the case, I searched around the web in search of people with similar experience to mine and I came across this article. Now everything makes sense.

This is so sad, I love Blue LEDs, but I cannot stand how sick it makes me feel when I look at it for even a few minutes, what am I to do.

Even after my new found abilities in microcontroller programming have reduced the amount of components I need for the Tricorder, I am still left with at least three separate microchips to program.

The two main problems I had earlier on that leads to the need for three chips are due to output terminal count limitations and the need for three unique timers of different intervals/cycles.

It occurs to me today to stop thinking too “physically” and use basic Math to handle the internal subdivisions to achieve the “feel” of three unique timers.
A little rethinking of my programming was required but the result was super impressive to me.

It was impressive not because it can be done; it was impressive because now I have just consolidated the entire Tricorder circuit into a single chip one third the size of my tiny Asian small finger leaving an ENTIRE SPACE of pure emptiness for everything else!

Even after my foreseeable wiring mess, there will still be space.
Gosh, my mind is running wild now.
I suppose I will either be adding features to make it actually useful or I would just design a slimmer Tricorder case.

But if I were to add in more features, I would have to learn how to program those new special chips, arh I hate learning!!! I just want to play!

Wishing for a Full Screen Tricorder experience, I went ahead and get the cheapest Color LCD I could get from eBay.

I didn’t think.
I just thought, no matter how complicated it is, I should be able to handle it.

To quote Ex-President Bush, I “misunderestimated” myself, haaaaaaaaaaaaaa

After holding on to the LCD for two months with an expression that is akin to a caveman looking at a watch, it’s time that I admit that my IQ of probably 70 is pretty useless in this department.

The truth is, this 40 pin Color LCD scares the SHIT out of me.

I don’t even know how to BEGIN to connect this to my PIC Chip, I even spend 8 hours learning this new microcontroller board called Arduino [I was surprise how easy it is to get started with Arduino, I understand its code quite easily because it’s like the C programming language] in the hope of making this an easier job but no, even Arduino can't save me from my genetic intellectual inferiority.
ARH! I HATE BEING STUPID! Or Should I say I hate realizing that I am Stupid.
Maybe I should do what all stupid people do when things doesn’t go right, play the blaming game because as long as the finger is not pointed towards me, I don't have to change. Ha ha ha

Before this project, I have no knowledge of Electronics, 3D Fabrication and Microcontroller.

This project is really a lot of things at once to me.

I don’t know what to do now...

Ok, I am going to make a decision here.
I am going to accept the fact that I simply do not have the brain juice to program a full screen color LCD.
I am now going to put my feet on the ground again and start as every beginner in electronic should, I will begin by using character based LCDs.

Yes, my 24th century tricorder’s screen will have no color, I should kill myself right now...

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