YouTuber builds Star Trek Tricorder that puts Hollywood props to shame

Shawn Knight

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Staff member
Editor's take: A few years back we featured a device from researchers at Glasgow University that was inspired by Star Trek’s famous Tricorder medical device. While neat in practice, the researchers’ version didn’t really resemble the prop used in Star Trek. The latest creation from YouTuber Mangy_Dog, on the other hand, is arguably more polished than any prop Hollywood ever created for use in the show.

The YouTuber chronicled the build of his second-gen Tricorder in a three-part video series. Parts one and two were originally planned to be a single video but it ended up being 40 minutes long so he split them into two. The third segment is more of an unpolished bonus video where he goes into greater detail regarding the hardware engineering and software design of the project.

The whole thing took more than two years to complete, resulting in a bit of burnout by the end. Fortunately, he stuck with it and as you can see, the results are absolutely incredible.

This is the second major Tricorder build Mangy_Dog has completed. While this new model may look a lot like the original on the outside, you can really see the improvements made on the hardware side once the rear panel is removed.

The second and third videos should queue up automatically, but if they don’t, you can view them over on Mangy_Dog’s YouTube channel. He also has a Patreon if you’re interested in supporting his work.

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It's odd that Starfleet didn't have folding Smartphones with touchscreens instead of "hard buttons".

Smartphones were as sci-fi as tricorders when Voyager debuted. I think some early models came out while it was still on the air, like the Nokia Communicator (hmm..never noticed the irony there before). Frankly, I'll take physical controls over a touchscreen any day and I dearly miss the high-quality QWERTYphones of days past.
 
Smartphones were as sci-fi as tricorders when Voyager debuted. I think some early models came out while it was still on the air, like the Nokia Communicator (hmm..never noticed the irony there before). Frankly, I'll take physical controls over a touchscreen any day and I dearly miss the high-quality QWERTYphones of days past.
You may be in luck, BlackBerry found a different OEM and will be releasing a new security-centric QWERTY phone soon.
I personally have the Unihertz Titan Pocket, it's a fun little nugget and it's new enough that it still receives security updates. I have to say, starting to use a keyboard again after a decade of owning glass slabs feels weird and awkward.
 
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