11th Doctor Metal Sonic Screwdriver Build WIP

[DexAntares]

Since you are such a wizard did you come up with a way to have sound too?

If I understand correctly, I think he intends to install the sound package from his CO 11th toy into his custom metal body. Which just makes things so much cooler: I think everybody's clamoring to see him complete this thing, so they.... sorry, *we* can start plying him with requests!!

 

[elvisgump]

If I understand correctly, I think he intends to install the sound package from his CO 11th toy into his custom metal body. Which just makes things so much cooler: I think everybody's clamoring to see him complete this thing, so they.... sorry, *we* can start plying him with requests!!

Well, I wasn't hinting to "buy one" which is I'm to understand somehow forbidden on most of these replica boards. My post did however elicit a response from the legendary CT. To whit through You Tube.

So this exchange is from YouTube where I messaged CT a while back. You can see the vitriol this fellow spews on there. I don't care if he makes the most accurate copy of a prop ever the way he behaves. He's so bitter that though banned here he scans it daily and I got this alert of a new message a bit ago under my screenname there mentalpix.
YouTube - Prototype Sound Board for Celestial Toystore sonic screwdriver

 

[NTBBCPD]

..................

 

[elvisgump]

You know, I've been trying not to think about the cost...
I'm using a Sherline Mini Lathe, only 14 inches in length and designed to do very detailed miniature items.

I also bought the parts to turn it into a Mill when I need to.
By the time the mill ends come in it will have set me back around $2370 Canadian, or about $1850 US. It took two years to save for it.

To turn it into a CNC unit would cost me another $1600 bucks. So in another year I can start popping out sonics.

As to sound, It's designed so that the core of a C.O. toy slides right inside. You can find sound chips that will fit into a sonic all over the internet. The hard part is finding a small enough speaker to fit. Oh, and you usually have to buy a lot of chips 50-100 at a time.

I guess we could post an interest run for a sound kit for sonics? or Russ could as he already has a source for them...

I spoke with Russ earlier this year who was very polite, but at the time his were cost prohibitive to just pulling one out of C.O. toy. I have hesitated to destroy a C.O. toy yet because it feels like I'm denying some kid of the one I would cannibalize. I'm weird that way.
But that's what it will come to.

I actually have a cheap powered toothbrush that comes with a sealed-in battery meant to be disposable that I used when I was on the road. I was comparing the sound of it running with my C.O. the other day and I've thought of putting it's motor in one of my prototype for the sound because it is so close. I would call this "The Lodger Sonic"...

You know one of the things I'm curious about I saw a picture somewhere recently that showed one of the original props and it looked like two A23 sized batteries powering it which is funny because I've been experimenting with an A23 12v to power a large blue LED & and cluster of smaller white LEDs to work on a side circuit to make it dual use sonic/flashlight.

Eager to learn, you are.. Willing to teach, am I

Ok, I know, a Star Wars reference in a Dr. Who thread?

The Doctor would say.... so you want to help?

Push that button untill I tell you to....RUN!!

Ha, I can see the Doctor saying "Umm, how long if you been holding down that button?"
"You told me to hold it down until you said let go!"
"How long ago was that?"
"20 minutes Doctor."
[cue crashing into an alternate Universe]

 

[geekluve]

This honestly looks SOOOOO amazing! It makes me wish i wasn't all thumbs... seriously can't wait for the final. I'd have to agree with everyone saying that this is better than the actual toy version.

 

[SJason]

Hi...just found this forum yesterday. I am quite excited to see other people being so creative with sonic screwdriver ideas. I am eager to see and do interesting things as such...though, my skills and abilities to actually make the cases and parts that I would like to, is extremely limited - but my ideas for micro-electronics and adding practical elements to them might be of some use to others ideas also...
Hello Dex, btw...

 

[elvisgump]

Hi...just found this forum yesterday. I am quite excited to see other people being so creative with sonic screwdriver ideas. I am eager to see and do interesting things as such...though, my skills and abilities to actually make the cases and parts that I would like to, is extremely limited - but my ideas for micro-electronics and adding practical elements to them might be of some use to others ideas also...
Hello Dex, btw...

Man, if you know how a to make or teach us how-to make some sort of sound chip that I could connect to a USB port to load custom sounds on for use in custom Sonics or other prop doodles, well I know I and many, many others here would beat a path to your door and call you hero.

 

[SJason]

well, as for sound chips...myself, I haven't come across one yet small enough to fit in current sonic bodies, that I am aware(recall). Most seem too big - unless someone makes their own body and can accomodate something larger. And as for using micro-controllers to access sounds from an SD chip - I haven't had time at all to learn how to program them yet, though I've asked a few people that mentioned perhaps using some kind of MP3 chip - but haven't checked into that yet...basically, for possibly most other prop applications, they may have room to fit a good sound effect chip.
Other options though that i have come across for including in a sonic though, are those of the tv-b-gone and similar short range IR remote control microcontrollers(mine has a 5 channel IR R/C - with the blue light changed sort of somewhat - to accomodate the IR LED)...can't recall some other things at the moment - i have a list somewhere, hehe...
though, I can typically also take parts someone might want to put into one, and design it into a very small 'footprint' of sorts, as it were - so that they will fit in places/spaces not otherwise considered for putting something such.
anyway, sorry if this post might be a bit wordy...getting tired and mind concentrating on too many other things also, hehe...
though, if anyone has any quick examples for such also, I'll see what I can come up with...

 

[elvisgump]

Well, if you develop some aptitude in those areas, you will as I say be a hero for it. I'd like to have a sonic that could control things like TVs or unlock a car door.

The funniest bit I was able to 'do' with my C.O sonic last year was when this ding-bat girl was outside work with the rest of us as we used to congregate and talk around the picnic tables before heading home. She was gibbering away with a gaggle of girls, forgot her car keys and wandered off to her car several yards away and began asking if anyone had a coat-hanger because she mistakenly thought she'd locked them in.

I nodded to a friend who saw the keys and said "Let's have fun" The keys had a remote unlock fob thingy so I made sure I could locate the unlock button by touch, pocketed them and we sauntered over to where a small crowd had gathered. I pulled out the sonic and twiddled it at the door for a moment or two failing utterly to hit the unlock, but rather make it try to relock itself. I pretended like I'd made a mistake on the sonic 'settings'. "What year model is it?" She stammered it out and I pretended. "Oh, well that would make a difference" tried again and that time I was able to hit the fob unlock button in my pocket while they were all transfixed by the shiny blue light in my other pocket. As they say in magic, it's all in the misdirection. I then pretended to help find the keys which I 'magically' located in the passenger floorboard.

I imagine if one could build a universal car-door unlocker chip - probably highly illegal I imagine - it would none the less be a great way to garner awe from bystanders while doing a good deed. Turning off the annoying tvs in a bar would be a close second! One must only use one's sonicing for good.

I tell you the crappy shelves I've had over the years would probably look a lot better if someone could program the odd sonic chip to understand the instructions that come with said shelves. My shelving could only be improved by sonicing...

 

[SJason]

hehe nice story...
...as long as the shelves work, is what I think - only ones I know of that care otherwise are the women folk - oh well, hehe...
If your car unlocker thing though has an 8pin IC, and very few other auxilliary parts, then I'm positive one could put theirs into their sonic.

 

[elvisgump]

hehe nice story...
...as long as the shelves work, is what I think - only ones I know of that care otherwise are the women folk - oh well, hehe...
If your car unlocker thing though has an 8pin IC, and very few other auxilliary parts, then I'm positive one could put theirs into their sonic.

Tell me more about this 8pin IC of which you speak...

 

[SJason]

Tell me more about this 8pin IC of which you speak...

well, I guess I'm referring to standard 8-pin DIP IC's...I have some vids on youtube of my initial sonic mods from a couple years back (have moved since and having to rebuild electronics workstation stuff - ever so slowly it seems, hehe.)
...under username saturnjason...
I've had a lot of new ideas since though - just having to gather and source components and parts, however...(looking for a small amount of pyralux or kapton copper clad circuit board also, if anyone knows a source for a few square inches or such...)

 

[Merrick]

Excited to see how this turns out too. I knew there'd be someone making one on here.

 

[DexAntares]

Well, if you develop some aptitude in those areas, you will as I say be a hero for it. I'd like to have a sonic that could control things like TVs or unlock a car door.

The funniest bit I was able to 'do' with my C.O sonic last year was when this ding-bat girl was outside work with the rest of us as we used to congregate and talk around the picnic tables before heading home. She was gibbering away with a gaggle of girls, forgot her car keys and wandered off to her car several yards away and began asking if anyone had a coat-hanger because she mistakenly thought she'd locked them in.

I nodded to a friend who saw the keys and said "Let's have fun" The keys had a remote unlock fob thingy so I made sure I could locate the unlock button by touch, pocketed them and we sauntered over to where a small crowd had gathered. I pulled out the sonic and twiddled it at the door for a moment or two failing utterly to hit the unlock, but rather make it try to relock itself. I pretended like I'd made a mistake on the sonic 'settings'. "What year model is it?" She stammered it out and I pretended. "Oh, well that would make a difference" tried again and that time I was able to hit the fob unlock button in my pocket while they were all transfixed by the shiny blue light in my other pocket. As they say in magic, it's all in the misdirection. I then pretended to help find the keys which I 'magically' located in the passenger floorboard.

I imagine if one could build a universal car-door unlocker chip - probably highly illegal I imagine - it would none the less be a great way to garner awe from bystanders while doing a good deed. Turning off the annoying tvs in a bar would be a close second! One must only use one's sonicing for good.

I tell you the crappy shelves I've had over the years would probably look a lot better if someone could program the odd sonic chip to understand the instructions that come with said shelves. My shelving could only be improved by sonicing...

Dude, you're my new hero. At least until somebody dangles some keys in front of my face and I become distracted.

 

[elvisgump]

Dude, you're my new hero. At least until somebody dangles some keys in front of my face and I become distracted.

Ha, well it was just fortuitous timing really, being a very silly man - and other than a few fellow geeks no one around knew what a Sonic was. It was the closest thing to actually being the Doctor and feeling that AWE from a crowd of people the good Doctor would really get. You know, if he were real. I mean you can hardly get actors to give that kind of awe after a course of drama in school. It was the rush of having performed 'magic' I suppose.

Now this was with the CO 9/10 mind you. I ordered a CO 11 from those boffins at Galaxy Four when they were still pending shipping from anyplace stateside here. Still have the ordinary UK cardboard tube it came in pinned to my bulletin board; I mean it didn't come just by mail, it came by ROYAL MAIL which is quite something when you live in a dreary place so far from civilization like Mississippi. Might as well be on the Oort Cloud... Oh dear, I've digressed.

Anyway, brought that in secreted in my pocket to show off to the other Whovians. When I passed that monstrosity around the break room table it wasn't just awe, it instilled FEAR - as in "call HR, they are passing around a WEAPON!"

I really should keep a great coat with pockets full of yo-yos, rubber chickens, jelly babies, maybe a table tennis paddle, some jacks, packet of crisps, stethoscope and so forth that I can empty out when the police DO arrive in their sporting SWAT gear...

 

[elvisgump]

well, I guess I'm referring to standard 8-pin DIP IC's...I have some vids on youtube of my initial sonic mods from a couple years back (have moved since and having to rebuild electronics workstation stuff - ever so slowly it seems, hehe.)
...under username saturnjason...
I've had a lot of new ideas since though - just having to gather and source components and parts, however...(looking for a small amount of pyralux or kapton copper clad circuit board also, if anyone knows a source for a few square inches or such...)

Calufrax? Krypton?
I'm sorry but you went right over my head with pyralux and kapton...

You had me at 'circuit'.

 

[elvisgump]

Say, that reminds me. Where's Eddy got off to? We seem to have usurped your thread! Very rude of us. Any progress? With your level of skills I say we'd marvel at any cheese sandwiches you've made in the interim, much less your Sonic build.

Eddy? Are you still out there?

 

[NTBBCPD]

........................

 

[SJason]

oi...if you don't know about kapton and pyralux then...hehe just kidding. I only learned about them a month or so again also. though finding a hobby piece, let alone at a reasonable price, is extremely difficult. basically its thin plastic bendable circuit board - useful for saving a lot of space in a sonic body.
can't think of much else...mind slowed due to flu. oh well...

 

[elvisgump]

Yes I am.

Sorry, between work, the mill bit mix up and my nephew getting married this weekend I haven't got much work done on the stuff I want to do.

When, yes when I win the lottery I'm going to buy a big building and setup a state of the art Props shop that all my friends can come to and make stuff.

A Doctor Who commune, with a big sound-stage instead of a barn perhaps? It would be an interesting idea, a place where fans could churn out an alternate Universe of Doctor Who films to fill those agonizingly long stretches between BBC series... Boy wouldn't that be fun? Except for the inevitable disquieting problem that would arise...

"I'm the Doctor."
"No I'M THE Doctor!"
"Rubbish, I'm clearly the Doctor!"
"Bollocks! Anyone can see I'm the Doctor."
"Hey guys, excuse me, the mail is here. Is there someone named Spartacus?"
"No, clearly that's the next commune down the road. Loads of Spartaci in that place. It's all blood and sandals, the bloody hippies."