Real Working Star Trek TNG Tricorder - Vital Technologies mark 1 TR-107

[agliarept]

Hey all,

Over the weekend I got to meet Adam Savage and was able to show and gift him a rare piece of equipment that, to my surprise, he had never know about.

A real working tricorder designed in the 90's by Vital Technologies. It takes temperature, pressure, light and emf readings in real time, directly on the device. I figured if Adam didn't know this existed, it would be a good time to capture it here for posterity sake. There's an expansion port on the side, which shows a bunch of directories to the tricorder, but i've never done anything with it to experiment.

For huge nerds like me, there as a 5 minute news segment about this that appeared on the old sc fi network show "sci fi buzz" ( to which i've tried searching endlessly to find). In that interview, the manufacturers explains what the tricorder does and walked through the expansion port for future trek add ons like a handheld scanner. sadly, the tricorder is the only device they produced from this line.

It was very very fun to see Adams face light up when i showed him the device working. But even better when he was taking pics to find one, and I just gave him one of my spares lol.

 

[masterjedi322]

I thought this concept of a working tricorder was always a cool idea, but I was disappointed in how inaccurate the body design was. I’m sure they were limited by the electronics at the time. I wonder what could be done today…?

And congrats on meeting Adam! Meet him at FanExpo Denver last year! He’s so great with the fans!

Sean

 

[Apollo]

I remember when those came out very cool for the times!

 

[Sundowner]

I remember these being sold on QVC hahaha

 

[Ronldheld]

I remember when they came out, but not why I did not buy one.

 

[agliarept]

I wish there someone on this group who had any direct knowledge on it, especially the output serial port.

Would be great to rig something up to work with it somehow, tho my knowledge is limited.

Even the packaging was so well done on this.

 

[DonCarlos]

I thought this concept of a working tricorder was always a cool idea, but I was disappointed in how inaccurate the body design was.

Given the period and technical limitations, I find it more accurate than Factory Entertainment's Tricorder
At least they called it the TR-107, which implies it's not the same prop as the one from the series.

 

[TheDoctor]

I do remember these and saw one IRL. I wanted to get one, but I couldn't think of anything to do with the functions it measured as compared to the price (I was in high school at the time...). I would love to see a You Tube channel use the EMF function for 'ghost hunting'!

 

[agliarept]

it's really fun to use in the wild. I've been taking it with me on a lot of my travels, and did get to use it as a "ghost" meter in Transylvania while hiking the Hoia-Baciu Forest.

I can't speak to the accuracy of this dated tech, but it was really interesting to see it spike in specific areas where there was no electricity for miles. The temperature sensor does take a while to get you solid reading, but that could be the sensor being a bit old?

 

[DonCarlos]

it's really fun to use in the wild. I've been taking it with me on a lot of my travels, and did get to use it as a "ghost" meter in Transylvania while hiking the Hoia-Baciu Forest.

I can't speak to the accuracy of this dated tech, but it was really interesting to see it spike in specific areas where there was no electricity for miles. The temperature sensor does take a while to get you solid reading, but that could be the sensor being a bit old?

Ahh, I always wanted to be a member of an away team

Temperature readings can be tricky because the sensor also picks up your temperature. If you hold the device in your hand for a while, it warms up. If you keep it in your pocket, it also gets warm. This means the sensor takes some time to adjust to the air temperature and provide an accurate reading. It's probably just a simple thermistor, so it's not super accurate

 

[Wolfblade]

I actually worked on the Mark 1 as the developer when I worked for Vital.

We did use the serial port for some schools to be able to use it with PH meters, but we had to load a modified software, since the memory space was so small we couldn’t make it fit with the other sensors logic.

It is based on a Texas Instruments chip that had a custom software for development and then it would compile to machine language onto the main chip and a secondary memory chip for the main chip to read.

 

[publiusr]

Another step closer

New type of handheld detector for all types of ionizing radiation improves radiation safety

The University of Jyväskylä (Finland), in collaboration with the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), has developed a new type of handheld multi-purpose radiation detector that comprehensively detects all types of ionizing radiation. The device can be used by industrial and...

phys.org

 

[DonCarlos]

I actually worked on the Mark 1 as the developer when I worked for Vital.

We did use the serial port for some schools to be able to use it with PH meters, but we had to load a modified software, since the memory space was so small we couldn’t make it fit with the other sensors logic.

It is based on a Texas Instruments chip that had a custom software for development and then it would compile to machine language onto the main chip and a secondary memory chip for the main chip to read.

Great to meet you here, welcome to theRPF
I was wondering what is the serial port good for. Thanks for inside info.

 

[DonCarlos]

Another step closer

New type of handheld detector for all types of ionizing radiation improves radiation safety

The University of Jyväskylä (Finland), in collaboration with the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), has developed a new type of handheld multi-purpose radiation detector that comprehensively detects all types of ionizing radiation. The device can be used by industrial and...

phys.org

Reminds me Radiation Survey Meter aka Star Trek TOS Spectrum Analyzer

 

[agliarept]

I actually worked on the Mark 1 as the developer when I worked for Vital.

We did use the serial port for some schools to be able to use it with PH meters, but we had to load a modified software, since the memory space was so small we couldn’t make it fit with the other sensors logic.

It is based on a Texas Instruments chip that had a custom software for development and then it would compile to machine language onto the main chip and a secondary memory chip for the main chip to read.

This is great to know you're a member here, and thanks for sharing this!

Were there any cool things you guys got to do with the device while building it for testing? Any surprises on it's functionality? I've always been tempted to refresh some of it's sensors to see if it would improve it's readings.