Bombshell: Star Trek "Cage" communicator circuit board is "found" object?

[phase pistol]

My friend Centralrepair has made an astonishing discovery while watching an episode called "Robot" of the original Sixties series "Mission Impossible"...

It seems that the circuit board in the original Communicator prop (first seen in "The Cage")... is a FOUND object!

Or at least many more boards were made than were used in comms. But we're leaning towards "found object".

Also the fabric from the Desk and Wall Comm panels can be seen in this episode.

framegrabs from "Robot"

 

[feek61]

Re: Bombshell: Star Trek "Cage" communicator board is "found" object?

Wow, you continue to amaze!!!! Very interesting and great pix. Clearly you sir are correct!!!!


Will

 

[Funky]

Re: Bombshell: Star Trek "Cage" communicator board is "found" object?

eek:eek Does this look familiar to anyone?

 

[micdavis]

Re: Bombshell: Star Trek "Cage" communicator board is "found" object?

Very cool find.

Since the Mission: Impossible and Star Trek production teams were the same it makes sense.

 

[Jedi-72]

Re: Bombshell: Star Trek "Cage" communicator board is "found" object?

Kenobi transistors?

 

[phase pistol]

Re: Bombshell: Star Trek "Cage" communicator board is "found" object?

Again, the credit here goes to Centralrepair, I am just posting the news.

The transistors and resistors seen on these circuit boards were quite common in those days; before the age of integrated circuit chips we have today.

The rotary "switch deck" (the round thing at the top of a Cage Comm) and glass tubes have long been known to be a found object, and the circuit card in the comm "seems" like it would have been found as well, but the Mission Impossible grabs are the first proof we've seen of these boards being used in anything else.

The Cage Comms were made from poured Lucite, so those boards are sealed in there.

Also "Star Trek" predates "Mission Impossible".. the pilot episode of Star Trek was filmed in late 1964, while Mission Impossible debuted in 1966.

- k

 

[WinstonWolf359]

Re: Bombshell: Star Trek "Cage" communicator board is "found" object?

Well Holy ****, that's an awesome discovery!

Congrats, and thanks for sharing!

 

[Serafino]

Re: Bombshell: Star Trek "Cage" communicator board is "found" object?

I buy the theory, and certainly see similarities, but there are also differences. At a glance there does not appear to be exact matches of the circuit boards, which implies that there may have been a class or family of devices which used very similar boards? The fabric is a head-scratcher, the lighting makes it seem slightly different but the main proportions seem right?

Cool find!

 

[IndyFanChuck]

Great discovery brother!!!!!!!!

 

[blufive]

Re: Bombshell: Star Trek "Cage" communicator board is "found" object?

There certainly are differences between the Cage boards and the ones used on MI. Scott (CentralRepair) is just saying they were probably found objects.

 

[SurferGeek]

Re: Bombshell: Star Trek "Cage" communicator board is "found" object?

Thanks CentralRepair and to Karl for posting this here.

Fits with and in a way kind of confirms my theory that I mentioned during the previous "research" threads on the comm here and at ASAP.

20+ years ago while in the Navy I went to 2M (micro-miniature) repair school which is the repair of circuit boards down to component level. Many of the practice boards we worked on were of similar size and layout. The boards are designed to give the student a chance to work on most of the types of components of the day as well as double sided boards and plated holes. The Navy schools are based on and use most of the same materials as civilian repair courses of training.

The boards in the comm look to be this same type of board. Explains why there are so many of them. As to why they have different components? During training students will sometimes no finish the project or will screw them up or the same cards will be used for later practice on removal or board repair.

 

[Nicksdad]

Very cool discovery. I have a few replica boards I need to cast into comm bodies but I would like to replace them with vintage boards if anyone locates any.

 

[CessnaDriver]

All those fat old thru hole resistors are giving me mnemonic memories...

Bad boys rape our young girls but violet gives willingly.

 

[SurferGeek]

All those fat old thru hole resistors are giving me mnemonic memories...

Bad boys rape our young girls but violet gives willingly.

I learned it just a bit differently...

Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls Behind Victory Garden Walls, Get Started Now.

The last part didn't make sense but it was the tolerances (Gold, Silver or None).

 

[KitSmasher]

The one Cessna Driver quoted was the one they taught in the Navy. :lol

It would appear that those boards are it, they're all different, but given that the boards in the Spock remote and the Cage comm differ from each other, that's not a big deal. They were probably different in every prop. Another piece of the puzzle found!

Excellent find! :thumbsup

 

[phase pistol]

I would say the boards are the same, because they have these similarities:

- same size
- same color
- same pattern of holes
- same 10 "tabs" at the bottom

Now each individual board has got different STUFF soldered to it... but that just fits what Surfergeek is telling us.

But the boards themselves... I'd say they match. :cool

- k

 

[centralrepair]

Thanks for posting the pics for me Karl. I know a person that is up on vintage equipment, and hoped to ask him if he reconizes the boards, but I haven't been able to contact him. I'll keep trying.. BTW, the slots at the top of the boards, hidden on a couple of them by the components are interesting, perhaps a method of securing the board after sliding into the fingered contacts at the bottom? Of course we know that the Cage comm had the mini tube leads threaded through those holes, and soldered to the back of the board...

 

[Apollo]

Cool find!

I still say the fabric used on the desk and wall comms are vintage Ampeg speaker cloth

 

[Illogical]

I'm surprised that no one has figured out that the material used in the Comm panels is just Grill Cloth. This material can be found on any "Fender" guitar amplifier of the day, and is still readily available. I have several Fender Twin Reverb's that have the same grill cloth as used in the Comm Panels. Have a looksie here at this link, midway down the page you can see the different styles:
http://www.ampwares.com/coverings.html

Bink

 

[centralrepair]

I am very aware of the cloth.

I use the reproduction version cloth on my wall and desktop replicas...have a large roll of it in my shop...pictures of the replicas on my site...
www.geocities.com/centralrepair