Star Trek TOS Tricorder 50th Anniversary

** Update: MrAnderson4366 has asked me to incorporate the Geological Tricorder parts as a part of this model, which I am happy to oblige. Feel free to use this center section as an alternative to the original. Photos of this have also been added. Thanks to MrAnderson4366. Enjoy! **

Hi folks,

I wanted to do something special to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek (September 2016) so I recreated the original series tricorder for your downloading and printing pleasure. I had a blast making it and I'm happy to upload it here!

I don't have step-by-step directions, however I have provided several photos and will attempt to provide helpful descriptions on assembly. Once it's printed things should become clear to you as to where the parts go together. On the frame pieces that run from top to bottom there are pegs that fit into the holes of the cross section pieces. I printed most all parts at 100% infill because I wanted it to have some nice weight to it. I placed holes in the frame and in certain interior areas in case you wanted to add wires for lights and or sound.

This tricorder is basically standard size at 5.2" wide, 7" high, and 2.25" deep and weighs about 2 pounds with strap. For this project I used the following filament colors: Black, Silver, and Gold. For the main screen under the flip-up hood I used a 1/8" thick piece of semi-transparent plastic that I spray painted silver on the back side and glued onto the back side of the display panel. I debated whether or not to use a picture in the display but opted to just keep it blank since I wasn't going to wire it up.

I spray painted the cylinder (moire disks) silver. In between the cylinders I brushed in black acrylic (water-based) paint. Whatever paint got onto the outside silver area I simply wiped off with a paper towel. For the moire area, I printed this in black, painted the circular part of the moire back plate silver and used a fine point sharpie and made straight lines fanning out. I then cut out and placed a round piece of hard plastic and again drew lines fanning out and glued this clear disc to the inside of the moire ring which I then glued onto the moire back plate. It sounds confusing but basically one set of lines goes up and down and the other set goes left and right. I suppose you could also place a printed out paper moire as well.

The items I purchased are as follows:

The leather strap was purchased through Amazon and did not require any cutting. I just unstitched the loops of the metal clips. It was the perfect length and fits nicely into the tricorder side plates and can be found here and is 25mm in width (same as the tricorder side plate slots): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01E7ENR4K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

6mm x 3mm magnets were used to secure the doors to the body. For this, I made the appropriate holes in the doors already. Simply glue them into each door if this is the route you want to take. They can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I79ONIU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I found the watch crowns on ebay and paid $15 here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-Of-6-Vintage-NOS-Fancy-Dress-Watch-Crowns-4-1-4-9mm-Diameters-/371654963539?hash=item56885cb153:g:GJEAAOSwnNBXXv9e

For the back of the tricorder I've embossed a 50th anniversary Star Trek logo and then printed the center star gold and placed it into the logo which I've included in the files here. It was definitely a challenge to put this together. I didn't have a physical model and just used photos from the internet and a little guess work. This model isn't perfect but as the pictures show, it's definitely passable as a tricorder. There are definitely some mistakes with my version but I did my best to correct the errors before uploading here. The files here should be oriented correctly for printing. I printed the textured items standing straight up in the printer for a much better texture. I found that if they laid flat, the texture looked and felt really ugly. At any rate, have fun putting it together and let me know if you have questions, comments or concerns regarding this. I'll get to back you as soon as I can. Oh, and if you print it, please show it off here.

Live long and prosper and happy 50th Star Trek!