(This article was first emailed on August 16th, 2023 to fans who had registered an interest in finding out more about our Tricorder.)
Graphically, very little was ever shown on the screen of the tricorder, so with the exception of a couple of screens, everything we have put together to display on this tricorder’s screen is a blend of our imagination and the stylistic cues seen in the various The Original Series’ Enterprise systems and displays.
As the tricorder was an integral component of away-party equipment, we surmised that information about the status of the Enterprise itself would have been certainly amongst one of the most useful things a tricorder user would want to know. After all, a serious piece of tech such as the tricorder should not only be able to let its user know about the status of its own internal systems, but also the larger systems of the most important life-preserving piece of kit protecting every member of the crew from the cold vacuum of space… The Starship Enterprise.
Due to their importance, the status screens are accessed directly from the home screen by jogging the centre button to highlight the STATUS box and clicking it to select that function. Initially, the tricorder presents its own status, reporting battery charge level, chip core temperature, which disc is inserted in position #1, how much audio recording space remains available (for personal logs), if the sensors are all functioning as expected and the current stardate.
Selecting the STATUS from the home screen function initially shows the tricorder status.
Clicking the left hand button (SHIP) shows the Enterprise status screen. Eighty percent of the time no events will be reported as all the ship’s systems ordinarily function as expected.
From the tricorder status screen, clicking the left-hand button will take you to the SHIP status screen. An outline separates the ship into 22 main functional areas that show the user the current operational health of the ship at a glance. While the tricorder status reporting is driven by real world system function, the ship’s system status event reporting is generated dynamically by the tricorder’s software. Obviously, for the majority of the time the ship will be functioning correctly and so most of the time there will be nothing to report. Occasionally however, one of the ship’s critical systems will become degraded and either require time for self-repair or the skills of an Engineering party to fix it.
Using a weighted random event generator, occasionally when the SHIP status is viewed an issue will be reported that will require some time to resolve.
Affected parts of the ship are illuminated and three bar graphics show the state of the most important ship systems, dilithium crystals, shields, and the integrity of its hull. A text box describes the nature of the issue in a brief message of 140 characters or less.
For our Enterprise event status engine, the status fault alerts, the illuminated alert areas, and the supporting text are served up as the result of an event-weighted random-number-generator, where each event (including a null event where everything is working as it should) occurs only a certain percentage of the time. Favourite events from known episodes but also other imagined simple or complex event episodes are gathered together in a database and served up in a dynamic way each time a user accesses the Enterprise status screen. The time taken to fix each fault is also logged in real-time and no new faults will occur until the event described has been cleared down.
LLAP
Chris
Coming next time
Mechanical fit and finish
Fans who register with us will be the first to read our news and the progress of this exciting Tricorder development and, later, where and when to purchase it. You can catch up with the story so far here on this blog, but if you haven’t already done so, why not register your interest in the Tricorder – you’ll then receive a personalised registration certificate and early access to these updates (before we publish them on our website).
I love to be one of the 1st to purchase your product and it would be part of my collection to go with my phaser and communicator. I so excited you guys ROCK!!
Have there been any updates on the release date for the Tri-corder? Also what will the initial cost be in full.
Ditto
I wouldn’t hold my breath, it’s been almost a year since the last update. I’m not convinced that it will ever come to fruition. I’m a huge fan and this peaked my interest, but in the modern world it doesn’t take more than 4 years to bring a product to market.
Not long now. The Adam Savage Tricorder video showed the Tricorder and it looks great
Phil
It’s previously been covered that there will not be a hand scanner included (totally understandable). But I hope that one of the displays will be the medical biobed display. Beyond those involving Edith Keeler, the medical display is one of the very few canonical TOS tricorder displays. As far as I am concerned, it doesn’t need a lot of bells and whistles that would created interface complications; it just needs to display with the readings fluctuating, and maybe the heart/respiration feedback sounds if you want to get fancy.
Agreed!
Not understandable at all!!!! We’d all buy it!!!! In fact we need a hypospray that goes “phssst”! too!
That never even occurred to me, but how cool would a sound-chipped hypospray be? (Maybe with an option for different noises for creatures, registering discomfort after you’ve just injected them!)
No interest lost. Actually all the more excited. Cost and release date???
As I understand it, there has to be some practical use to justify selling these as Not-Replicas.
So, you put a sensor array on the bottom of the scanner. Same type as, say, on the underside of the Apple watch. I guess with the extra space in the scanner body, you could afford cheaper and less compact/sophisticated components. You do what McCoy does: put the scanner on somebody’s arm (okay, McCoy often holds his up in the air, but work with me here!), and the Apple Watch sensor read the bio details, and the scanner sends the health readings to the Tricorder via Bluetooth. Result: actual medical readings from the scanner. (And I guess it’s so crazy, it could be done now easily – whoever thought watching it in 1968 we could have that for real!)
No doubt there will be an uptick in “fan made” sensors and other “innards” once this ships.
And that’s fine by me. The trick “Wand” is pursuing here is “creating functional and useful items which look like and largely behave like classic Trek (or other) props.”
Including a hand scanner would add a lot of cost to this, and provide minimal added functionality, as far as I’m concerned. The vast majorityh of the time we see tricorders, except for McCoy’s, no hand-scanner is in use. And those used, apart from McCoy’s, were both non-functional and somewhat inconsistent. (the little tube with four buttons on the side was the most common.)
I suspect that Wand has an “agenda” here, though, and I’d encourage them if they did. They can sell this… a “science tricorder”… with the basic “normal” functionalities. This is SPOCK’S tricorder, essentially.
But, if it sells well (and I suspect it will), it would be pretty straightforward for them to produce another iteration, sharing many of the same parts but with different programming and accessories.
I’d rather get a good “Science tricorder” now, and maybe get another one… a “medical tricorder”… in a year or so.
Apart from those two main configurations, we also have the “psychotricorder” (and that would be pretty logical to merge into the medical tricorder release, I think) and the “geological tricorder” (which, while interesting, would be largely wasted, as it has little actual functionality that most of us would be interested in, and loses the “disks” feature in lieu of a blank flashing panel.)
I can easily see “Wand” making science and medical variations, however. The majority of the built-in-hardware is the same in both cases, but the programming would be almost entirely different. And in THAT case, yeah, I can see it shipping with a hand-scanner.
The disks would be a lot different. Maybe a disk for each species or biome? A disk with a lot of info on Vulcan physiology, another on human physiology, another on Klingon, etc. No “ships logs” (replaced with “medical logs”) and a much different “ship’s status” screen.
Stuff we might see could include Gary Mitchell’s and Elizabeth Dehner’s bio screens, as well as that on Anton Karidian… just for a couple of examples. “Personnel records” would make sense for a chief medical officer’s tricorder, after all.
The idea of a functional sensor built to look like a Trek sensor is… intriguing, but likely impractical. Sure, you could check pulse and blood oxygen levels by pressing it against the inside of the wrist, but that’s not how things were done in Trek. I’d prefer a “just for show” sensor, which just made sound and spun, personally. But that’s just me.
Spock reads the tricorder upside down does the screen flip?
I have not heard any about my pre-order tricorder when can I purchase it
It would be nice if there was a display for planetary displays, atmosphere, breathable or non breathable, etc.,
Another Ship’s Status scenario I thought of later would be if the saucer section has separated from the secondary hull.
Emergency hull separation! Yes! Get the whole saucer flashing!
Has a price been figured out yet, and are you taking any pre orders yet?
Not long now can’t wait looks absolutely class
We don’t really know how long though do we? I haven’t seen any indication that it will come by Christmas 2023.
Looking great! May the original series live on for many decades to come.
Although the name “dilithium” sounds like two atoms of lithium, in the world of Star Trek, dilithium is actually the name of an element, which according to a periodic table seen on TNG, has the symbol Dt. So really it should say “Dt CRYSTALS.”
Joe, good point, and yes we are looking at the description of the this line to make sure it is correct. Dt Crystals would certainly be more correct from an in-universe perspective, although I think that that description might have come from TNG, which would put it in the future from this Tricorder’s point of view
Ah, the joys of “hard-wiring” fictional “science.”
I think it would be best to avoid the confusion by just writing out “dilithium.” Writing it as you wrote it on the status screen is technically incorrect (aka “anti-science” in a real sense… and while much “science fiction” violates well-understood reality, Trek… classic Trek, anyway… seldom did so.)
On the other hand, the “Dt” nomenclature will prove confusing to the vast majority of people who’ll see that screen. I’m a massive Trek fan, and I had no idea about TNG having used that callout for this element, frankly. And if I don’t recognize it, I have to assume most end-users wouldn’t either.
So, play it safe. Write out Dilithium. It might require some tweaking of the screen layout, but it’ll make life easier for everyone in the long-run.
By the way, my name seems to keep falling off of the “subscription list.” This is the third of your updates I haven’t received via email. Each time I’ve “re-signed up” and gotten the next one, then the one after that failed to arrive. So, either someone there is deleting my name from the list (improbable, certainly, but not “impossible” per-se) or there’s a problem with your sign-up database.
I suspect it’s the latter, and has to do with the nature of Spectrum’s (formerly Time Warner’s) email address structure. I won’t give out my real email “in the clear” here, but the general format that TW/Spectrum uses is “myemailaddress@myregion.rr.com.” For instance, if you lived in Austin, TX, that would be “myemailaddress@austin.rr.com.”
Lots of “auto-scrubbing” programs, used to remove “bad emails,” don’t recognize this structure as legitimate, and I suspect that’s what’s happening here. But it’s not a “typo” despite many contracted programmers assuming it “has to be a typo” and flagging emails using this structure.
Spectrum is one of the biggest internet service providers in the USA, so if you’re “filtering out” emails using that structure, you’re “filtering out” a lot of your signups.
Just something you guys ought to look into. From my OWN perspective, it’s just frustrating to sign up for this, expecting to get the email news postings on this, and then repeatedly fail to receive it.
EDIT TO ABOVE: I’d suggest replacing “Di2 Crystals” with just “Dilithium.” Fans will know what you’re referring to (as would Scotty).
Why not label it as it is it is Li2 . A lithium element, but in a very rare combination. Di-Lithium Li2.
Chris,
I agree completely. Please stay with TOS line. This is going to be amazing…
Den
Man, very few comments here. It’s been so long I hope people haven’t lost interest. I agree on the medical readouts.
There’s a lot of interest over at the Replica Prop Forum. It seems not many people come over to the blog.
We’re all looking forward to the next update TWC!
hey, chris,
is the proto-type unit you had at the conventoin a few novembers ago going to be for sale as well
Love the detail and finetuning your team is putting into this. It looks like it will take me some time to go through everything you have engineered. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get my hands on one by Christmas.
No interest lost. No motivation displaced. The Tricorder is to be, like a ship Lost In Space.
Hello,
I am interested in this Star Trek Original Series Tricorder you are working on now.
I would like to get your updates on how soon it will be available & released now.
I hope to hear from you once read when one received this message.
Donald Szymanski
Hello,
I am interested in your Star Trek Tricorder you are still working on & hope it wil
Be available real at this point of time. I am looking forward hearing more updates.
Donald
Each time a blog episode for the Tricorder drops into my inbox, I instantly get “jumpy-up-and-down” excited. Takes me back to that 10-year-old me, looking through the window of our local newsagent at the newest Dinky or Corgi release.
And, similar to those far-off days of excitement, I repeatedly keep looking at my pocket money savings box to see how much I have managed to save up for the glorious day when I could walk into the shop with a box of half-crowns (showing my age, here) and point at the one I wanted.
Dear oh dearie me, I’ve been waiting for this since 1968. I can’t wait {8^D
Wondering if I can switch my email address for updates to my work address? Somehow I managed to miss the last two until just recently and am kicking myself profusely. I sense you are close to allowing pre-orders, and if I miss that opportunity it will be awful on a galactic scale. (Have I been dramatic enough?) Anyway, that address is below.
Hoping you all are well. This product and process is continues to be an example of hopefulness in an increasingly chaotic world. Having an item like this to which we can look forward, helps us all remember the hopefulness that Star Trek has always represented. A hopeful vision that says – we WILL make it out of this darkness and into a future that takes us to the Stars. That is at the heart of your work. It may seem grandiose and perhaps foolish, but in 1966 as a very young child, Star Trek infused me with that hope. Since then I have been reminded of that vision not only by the growth of the franchise, but by the efforts of you (Chris) and your team to basically write these love letters about the gift you are creating. Strange that a television show can do this, but I do not think I am alone. Thank you once again.
I most definitely would love to purchase at least three of these Tricorders when it becomes available for purchasing. How close are you to releasing the product at this time? I missed out on purchasing a phaser unfortunately. I do hope that you make another short product run on those as well for the 50th anniversary of Star Trek.
I’m looking forward to the next update about the Mechanical Fit and Finish. Now that Greg Jein’s collection has been sold, your Tricorder is based on what could be the last accurate measurements of an original TOS Tricorder that will be available, depending on who purchased it and it it will be on display (like a museum).
When will the next update occur?
Seems like it’s a couple of months overdue, based on the previous updates. I was hoping that the pre-production testing might include an appearance at a convention or two by now, but haven’t seen that either.
I’m guessing we won’t be seeing this until the New Year. And that’s fine, with Christmas occupying our credit cards! It would just be nice to get a rough ballpark within a couple of months of when this is going to drop, so we could be sure that we’ll have some money put aside to buy!
Would be nice to get an update! I am looking at this page now for almost 4 years. Love to see the progress and admire the love for the detail. Just checking in again. Continue to do the good work!
Going on 3 months since the last update. Chris, can you please update those waiting to be your number one customers?
v/r Mike
Dang, I missed this update .. it may have gone into my spam folder (although all the other ones from the very first one I do have) .. I added support@thewandcompany.com to my contacts list, Have to wait and see.
The Tricorder project is awesome, its capabilities and authenticity is off the charts .. So looking forward to this
Ok TWC, time for an update!
Yes please
Chris .. would you be so kind as to post a progress update please ?
Happy Holidays to the TWC team !
We hope to have more news in early 2024. Preproduction testing and software finalising continues.
Thanks for the reply Chris. What was the response to the status screen survey? Did you incorporate any customer ideas?
jim
Great to hear of your progress. Looking forward to your next updates.
Thanks Chris!
I’m guessing there is the usual lunar New Year delays and vacation on their end. ANY updates are ALWAYS greatly appreciated. Four months is a pretty long drought for those wanting to buy your product. Please do better.
Hope you guys had a great holiday season!
v/r Mike
for a seperate medical scanner what about modifying an existing oxymeter that shows oxygen and heartbeat levels, it would be a working gimic to go with the tricorder
I have been watching with great interest. I cannot wait to see and purchase the prop when it drops.
Thank you and your team for all the work and for staying true to the spirit of the show!
Because of the quality of the Communicator and Phaser that a lot of us have, I know we appears impatient for the Tricorder. I know you’re doing the best you can, but your delays are just as frustrating.to us as it is to you guys, As an IT guy I can appreciate technical and production delays but improved and more frequent updates would increase understanding and anticipation. Thanks
In July it will have been four years since the announcement was made about the tricorder being produced.
In October it had been two years since the “first reveal” at Londen’s Trek.
in just 3 months it will have been a year since pre-production was announced.
And now it has been six months since the last the last update was sent out.
I guess my question is this; what’s up with the project? Is it still being worked on? Is there any new information?
And so what? What are you out? Nobody has any money invested in this but them. TWC has said multiple times that they’re still hard at work on the Tricorder and will give an update when there’s something to report.
Thank you for your support. We are very close to a final product spec now and moving (inching towards) FEP… (final Engineering Production), the step before we press the button on full production. This has been a long road for everyone and we really appreciate the patience extended to us on this project. Thx
Chris, we’re all still with you, no worries.
The main thing people worry about is the “legalese” nonsense that inevitably goes along with dealing with a “company in chaos” like the Viacom/CBS/Paramount debacle. (“Junk rated” stock values, etc.)
We know you can’t talk about anything related to that, but WE all talk about it constantly. And whether Trek ends up owned by Skydance, Warner, or somehow Paramount manages to stay afloat and somehow keeps the IP is all beyond any of our… including your… control.
Just keep chugging away, and know that the CUSTOMERS are still anxiously awaiting this. (And while you’re at it, you might want to look into additional production runs for your already-released items… another contractual thing, no doubt, but with greater return for minimal investment, and I can guarantee that the market for classic Trek stuff remains, despite there being essentially no market for post-2009 Trek materials. I personally know people who’d but the no longer available items if they could find them anywhere.
Me, I have a phaser remote, 1st-gen communicator Bluetooth device, and the phaser-and-rock “mood light.” I missed out on the second-gen communicator, but as it seemed to be an incremental upgrade rather than a whole new item, I’m not TOO disappointed, though I’d have bought it if I’d known about it.
(Bybl the way, if you ever do a third version of that, please consider including a functional leather (or leather-like? Tough and protective, in other words!) belt holster with a belt clip. The cover provided with the first version (and presumably the second) was… unfortunate. Not really useful for real life usage at all.)
But the market for these, albeit “niche” in nature, is very present. Far, far moreso than the market for anything under the Bad Robot/Secret Hideout license. The IP holder thinks the market is gone, based upon “post-2009 new material” sales. But they’re wrong.
Posted on their FaceBook page one day ago:
“Kevin We’re still diligently working on the Star Trek Tricorder. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we know we haven’t been able to provide an update recently, but we hope to have more news we can share publicly very soon”!
And:
Michael said:
“I bet it’s been put in a back room somewhere with the note on the door saying “maybe one day ”
TWC Reply:
“Michael Definitely not in a back room! The Tricorder Replica is still 100% happening. The development has taken us longer than anticipated and we’ve hit a lot of bumps along the way, but our development team has put their blood, sweat, and tears into this project and we hope to have an update we can publicly share soon. We appreciate everyone’s patience”.
This has taken longer than we expected, but we have not given up, instead, we have reviewed and chased down each of the many issues that always dog a project like this and we hope we are nearly there. The issue with constant updates, is how many times can we say we are nearly there? Best just to wait and then when we are actually manufacturing, announce the fact… there have been too many false dawns… so hang tight, it is still coming.
Hi Chris,
Thank you for that update. I continue in my anticipation to be both excited and enthusiastic. As I’ve said in prior comments, I have your Phaser and Communicator, and know what you produce is well worth the wait. The Tricorder will add to my collection. Please let your team know that we have the fullest confidence in you building a great product.
I think it would be great just to get the periodic updates on developments going again, whether design and/or capability. If there are so many changes happening, you would think it would make for some interesting reporting for those of us who can read along and live the evolution of the product. The updates always made you feel like things were progressing, even if they were not. At least it is something better than utter cold vacuum of silence. No one can hear your updates in a vacuum.
Still as fired up for it as I was 4 years ago……. it sounds like its going to be magnificent and worth the wait!
Thank you… it is looking that way
Chris, and JiminSTLouis:
(If you can still laugh at things)
Since you’ve told us that “our development team has put their blood, sweat, and tears into this project.” I just want you to know I don’t mind waiting a little longer for a clean one, Personally I’d rather not have a tricorder covered in bodily fluids, regardless of the species.
For those of you that don’t see the humor in that remember, Spock told us,
“Logic is a little tweeting bird chirping in a meadow. Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell bad. Are you sure your circuits are registering correctly? Your ears are green.”
FYI being patient and mature stinks.
Stamping my foot like a little kid “I WANT MY TRICORDER!”
I’m honestly trying to be patient but I have been waiting since 1972 (the earliest age I remember watching the original series in reruns on TV).
Dan… this project is an engineering experiment aimed at finding everyone’s breaking strain!
Is there a ballpark Chris? Even a cautious “it might take this long” worst-case scenario? The last update was August, and even though you’re very good about coming on here and assuaging us restless natives, I agree with Mike L. that even a regular one paragraph with “Issues with the plastic supply chain”, or “new software BIOS needed after the media tweak”. Doesn’t matter how small, we’re just curious to know what the roadbumps are. In a strange way, knowing these things makes having the ultimate prize all that more precious when we look at it on the shelf.
We on it and the software is getting snagged at the moment. If you have ever worked on software (to be fair, I hadn’t been so intimately involved with it until this project) then you’ll know that snagging it throws up all kinds of issues that need dealing with… sometimes those issues might even need a hardware change and the throws all the estimated timelines of whack again.
Still waiting and ready to buy whenever it appears. I check back every couple of months half fearing there will be an announcement that it’s no longer happening, so it’s good to know it’s still in the works.
Yes it is very much still happening. We got samples of the new harder Tritan screen lens moulding today… we are inching into full production. Thank you for your patience.
Coming soon to a theater near you… “Barnado-heimer” The untold story of the Wand Company Tricorder.
No one could be more eager to get this into peoples hands than you and your team…for many reasons, I’m sure. I’d love to know someday what all the struggles were in bringing the tricorder to market. I’m sure, as complicated as I might think things are, I really can’t fully appreciate the entire challenge. Thanks for all your efforts. I’m super excited to see this happen.
I already own two Communicators and the Phaser. Looking forward to adding the Tricorder to my nightstand display.
Steven,
I’ll see your two Communicatiors, and one Phaser, and I’ll raise you one Star Trek Rock Moodlight.
This is looking really cool! Just one thing though, please don’t forget to add events for shuttlecraft launches!a Also any idea when the next blog post will come out? I’m looking forward to reading the mechanical fit and finish article.
I would have loved to have written that article sooner, but I have been very busy putting a few other products to bed, hopefully I will be able to take some lovely images of the latest prepro samples very soon ad then post an article about the fit and finish.
Chris,
Whatever happened to the Mechanical fit and finish article?
…..and yet, the questions goes unanswered, again. Other products appear on their website (with veracity) and we are left even without an update on the Tricorder. If it comes to pass, that the promise is false, then there will only be one person to blame. I understand there is complexity, but what I don’t understand is why we are left wanting for so long for a simple update on the project. Passion has its demands and as a consumer and a fan, we have waited a LONG time for this product to come to market. I’ve tried to balance challenge with time, but the least TWC could do is throw us a bone every now and then. Even penning this post proves it takes but a few minuets to update the community. Yet, we are left wondering why it is a 2-3 month of silence to get ANYTHING from TWC on the Tricorder production process.
When you think about it, the Tricorder first appearing in a desert surrounded by sand is about as applicable as one might imagine based on its history and certainly current events. Chris, prove me wrong, or don’t. I’ll wait another 3 months.
Mike L.
Mike L… what gives? When there is news as I have said a few times, we will let everyone know. Just to reconfirm, yes, we are still working on the project and the Tricorder is still just about to start manufacturing. However, I have also said on a few occasions, I find it pointless giving updates to say that I am still waiting for the software to get finished while it is still being finished. At each stage when the software can be checked more thoroughly we find more niggles to resolve. As I, and no one else on the project, knows what those wrinkles might be until we find them, and we can’t find them until we have more and more finished software to check through, giving updates to say that “at present there are no new firm estimates of the full manufacturing” every couple of months seems pointless, when it still stands that as soon as I have an update I will post an update. So please continue to be patient, or not patient as the case may be, but any hassle posted here, or the use of CAPITAL LETTERS, or apportioning of blame on whomever… will not remotely make us work any harder on it than we already are. Finally, given the time and effort we have had to lavish on the tricorder, if it wasn’t for those other products we seem to be releasing with veracity, there would definitely be no Wand Company left and thus definitely no tricorder.
BRAVO Chris… perfect response!
chris,
what gives? frustration more than anything else. minor updates may seem pointless to you but they do offer well received moments of hope as we continue to grind through to the delivery of the product. not asking for a dissertation, just a simple note or post on occasion. monthly would be nice. something, anything.
Unnecessary. Many people, myself included, can read upside down.
I presume Spock was like this as well, and so was Pavel Chekov, as memory serves.
It might be a nice feature, granted, but unless they already designed for that, which I doubt, I wouldn’t encourage them to go back to the drawing board to add it.
Just my 2¢
Thanks Chris,
It needed to be said, and well said at that.
V/R
Dan
Mike, those articles take a long time to research and write and I have been very busy with a number of other projects that needed my full attention so have been unable to write that article. However, as soon as I have a finished tricorder in my hands I will take some photos and post an update.
Thanks for the update and keep up the great work Chris!
chris, roger that and thanks.
The previous comments bring up an interesting question. A few months ago you were building up ~30 pre-production units for testing. If there are significant changes to some of the parts, do those units get scrapped? Or do you tear them down and retro-fit them with the upgraded parts? I’d assume that if it’s a software issues that those unit could be “patched” via firmware if all else remained equal.
I’m as eager as anyone to have one of The Wand Company tricorders, but here are a few thoughts about the project that I don’t think anyone else has suggested. It is clearly an immense engineering challenge to make a functional original series tricorder incorporating modern technology into Wah Chang’s 1960s idea of how future technology would look and operate. Unlike a smart phone the tricorder has mechanical analogue controls, making it much more difficult to integrate with our 21st century tech. Most of that tech has to be crammed into the hood unit of the device, which makes the whole task even more problematic.
Also, the tricorder has a number of contradictory characteristics which need to be considered in its construction vis a vis its design language. It needs simultaneously to be complex yet simple, robust yet elegant – almost delicate. This is fairly straight forward with a static or minimal function prop such as the Master Replicas version, but an entirely different ball game for TWC unit. The hood requires a complex geared hinge system likely linked to a power-up switch; there are multiple jog and pressure switches; there’s the disc ejection system and the disc optical reader; even the moire stepper motor and switch must be engineered to be invisible and inaudible.
And face it, few of us are going to put our tricorders under a glass dome to be gazed at adoringly. Our inner 11-year-olds will instantly take over and we’re gonna play the crap out of these things ’til the cows come home. After a month of ownership that hood will have been opened and closed hundreds of times, the buttons will have been pushed and pulled every which way, the discs will be grubby and worn and the lens of the optical reader will somehow have gotten peanut butter on it.
Therefore, TWC has to ensure that each and every unit that goes out the door can withstand this type of love. After all, if something goes wrong with your tricorder there’s no nearby Starfleet technical depot to which it can be taken for maintenance. I’m willing to wager that if Apple or Samsung had somehow procured the rights to produce functioning tricorder replicas, they would either be doing it shoddily or not be doing it at all due to the complexity.
So, please continue to be patient. For a small company like TWC, this is the equivalent of mounting the Apollo missions!
Hi Chris,
I’m just glad this project is still alive.
Can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to getting the Tricorder in the same display cabinet with your Phaser and Communicator.
Keep up the good work.
Best,
Mark
Chris, I just re-read your Status Screens article. I was wondering, for us metrically challenged individuals will there be an option to switch between metric and imperial displays?
Thanks
jim
The development team here at Wand Company Towers all agreed quite early on that in the Star Trek future world the universal units were SI units… so I am afriad there is no current way of switching between imperial and metric built into the system… so I guess it is time to put the slide rule back in its gently patinated box and crack open the 23rd century.
. Well enough Chris!
Thanks for the reply.
jim
I registered back in October 2020? What’s going on with this Tricorder ?
Ed, read everything above.
Personally, I’m glad it’s taken so long.
This has given me the opportunity to syphon off the odd quid or two from under my wife’s tight control of the purse strings.
Chris, please don’t pander to the impatient, take your and I might just get away with my ‘evil’ plan. 🙂
😉 always like a bit of syphoning off of funds!
Thanks for taking on this project! I’m sure the wait will be well worth it.
Well I’m running out of patience got 400 pounds saved for the last two years when is this tricorder going to appear
Chris,
Thanks for the hard work of you and the team. I have the phaser, the two communicators and the mood rock. I am really excited for the Tricorder but I am happy to wait and get the best possible product. Will those who registered interest be guaranteed a chance to buy the product when it’s released?
Thanks again,
Glenn
The Tricorder will cost $300.00 US. Two years after I signed up for the tricorder, I thought about building my 1/350 Enterprise with the light kit. 9 months later it’s finished. I was waiting for good news from the wand co, not yet. I decided to build a large Star Destroyer model from Russia. After drilling well over 1200 windows, running F/O and lighting took 10 months. NO release date on the tricorder, getting bummed out now. Last year I decided to scratch build a model of The Invaders UFO scaling it up 3 times the size to 21″. I should get some good news from the wand before I finish this monster. As of today, it’s 80% complete and looks just like the small version. Nothing on the Tricorder.
Hi Chris,
I hope all is going well. I was wondering if you are working to achieve minimum viable product (MVP) and then push updated across the web (via sprints and small feature updates) as do other software developers. That is one way to early release while ensuring that the product continues to improve. Perfection is a difficult thing to achieve, especially in software. Having an update release train in place ensures that the product can be released within a reasonable timebox while assuring that a continual improvement lifecycle is in place to perform minor fixes for glitches. There is no software manufacturer out there that can release their product “bug free”, they rely on updates, hotfixes, and patching, to keep up with release quality. I am as jazzed to obtain the tricorder as I was the first time I learned you guys were building it. Know that we are behind you all the way.
Put me down for two when they become available. Hopefully it will be sometime this year.
Be great to get a blog update soon.
Seriously, put me down for two…
LLAP everyone
It’s time for update #20. Thanks.
Okay. Honest response, Chris.
Just saw the Fallout Pip-Boy announcement (and I’m thinking of getting one.)
But did time and resources at Wand get shunted over from the Tricorder to give the Pip-Boy priority, in order to capitalise on the Fallout TV show?
Honestly, I wouldn’t blame you guys if you did. It makes sound business sense, and you’re likely to sell a ton. Which can only be healthy for Wand in the long run.
It would just give us some sense of explanation.
Thanks!
Guys, re: the Tricorder… they’re working on it. They’ve said it MANY times. But to make and sell the Tricorder we all want, they have pay the bills and keep the lights on. And to do that, they have to sell other products. Patience! I can’t imagine ANYTHING about the project is simple.
It was great seeing Chris and Adam Savage discussing the evolution of the newest Pip-Boy prop replica. It would be great to see a similar video about the Tricorder.
Doug, this was posted on FB about reviewing the Tricorder with Adam Savage. I hope the video will be posted soon. Maybe that’s the announcement that’s coming in the days ahead.
Jeromy Warner
Chris barnardo and I went to San Fran to show it off at Tested with Adam Savage.
I had a reply to a similar post on the Tested Pip-Boy review and Adam had replied to say that the Tricorder review was coming and then today Wand made announcement about the upcoming Tested review is coming on June 3rd.
I had made a comment in the Youtube Pip-boy review on Tested about hoping that they would do something similar for the Tricorder and Adam replied to “stand by”, so he hinted at the Tricorder review that is coming up on June 3rd
This was posted on the Pip-Boy FB post yesterday in response to a comment about resources.
The Wand Company
Lynn, there’s some truth in what you’re saying but if we had focused on just the Tricorder we could have done it in half the time and then been out of business because we need other projects that generate revenue to fund the tricorder project. Stay tuned for more information in the next few days though.
The Status Screens of the Enterprise from a portable unit is kind of silly. Also…having every Captain’s log is seems also kind of am effort that is misdirected.
It is an away team device. A few clips memorable voice clips would suffice. One does not need all of them. The Edith Keeler clips would be a keeper though.
Anyway…this rather long pause is either a no news is good news and a fantastic omen to be followed by a big release announcement or an ominous one, where the project team is realizing this endeavor is more complicated that original thought especially if the it is to fall within a price point that will be reasonably affordable for most people. I’m guessing the pricepoint will be double what they originally last predicted.
Jeff, the Tricorder isn’t just an away team device. In Dagger of the Mind Kirk records a log entry on a Tricorder then hands it to a crewman. It’s probably like an iCloud device, similar to an iPhone. Data can be shared, stored and accessed back and forth.
Last updated August 2023 🙁 … I sure hope you are still working on this project.
Back in 2021 Update #10 stated that you were trying to keep the cost around $300 , With all the functionalities in this I suspect that is going to be far from the mark , more like $500 dollars, maybe more … Still, for this kind of quality it’s well worth it , I’m sure I’m not the only one that would think so.
Monday June 4th Adam Savage’s Tested showing him the Tricorder !!! Dude! 🙂