TOS Communicator Build

[Mr. E Man]

There may also be an option of having metal or nylon gears printed by PCB Way. They seem to be very reasonable with their pricing and have a quick turnaround time.


E

 

[turner3d]

There may also be an option of having metal or nylon gears printed by PCB Way. They seem to be very reasonable with their pricing and have a quick turnaround time.


E

I'm already going to be getting circuit boards printed by them - if I can't find a resin durable enough to print myself, I'll definitely give them the job. Really, all the gear has to put up with is the friction of having the little gear roll over its teeth - there's practically no torque being put on it

 

[turner3d]

I'm torn: should I run the moire smoothly, or should I simulate the ticking of the original props?

Examining footage of stopwatch-driven moires frame by frame, each tick starts off very fast, decelerates for the first half of the tick, and comes to a stop, resting for the last half. This happens 6 times per second, assuming that the info I've gathered on Alpha's original Telmex Trading Co stopwatch is accurate. It is very difficult to quantify its behavior, since it only shows up for 8.5 seconds TOTAL across all 3 seasons of the show. Here is all of the footage that exists of Alpha's moire:

Much of what I've learned about stopwatch-driven moires has come from footage of fan-built replicas. I've been working on the code to make the stepper motor simulate the motion produced by the original stopwatch - it's not perfect, but I think I'm zeroing in on it.

Emulating this ticking means accelerating the moire platter very quickly and decelerating to a stop 6 times a second. There are a couple of down sides to this. While the moire doesn't weigh much and spins very freely on a carbon steel bearing, the teeth in the outer ring gear are less than 1/2mm apart. They are so tiny that I couldn't even see if they printed or not prior to washing off the excess resin. The constant starting and stopping will undoubtedly wear things out much faster than spinning it smoothly. The other down is that this also makes the motor it slightly audible. It's not much, but it's also not nothing.

There is one other advantage to running it smoothly - it looks absolutely hypnotic. I'd love to know what you guys think. Should I try to stay canon, or do I make it smooth?

 

[Leinads]

Wow - your moire looks fantastic! Based on the factors you just outlined, and for the sake of simplicity, I would go for running it smoothly. You can always modify this at a later time or as an option. It does look pretty cool though.

 

[Simonized]

I noticed the rhinestones you got from bluestreak crystals aren't swarovski. Do the Estella range you bought have the same quality in shimmer etc?

 

[turner3d]

I noticed the rhinestones you got from bluestreak crystals aren't swarovski. Do the Estella range you bought have the same quality in shimmer etc?

I'm afraid I don't know - I have pretty much no experience with rhinestones. I just searched until I found a reputable retailer that had ss16 size stones in Siam, Olivine AB, and Crystal AB. I can't say how their quality or sparkle compares to others, but they're pretty!

I read that the discontinued Swarovski model 2000 stones have 8 facets and these have 10, and the Bluestreak profile is a tiny bit taller. I tried like crazy to get Swarovskis for the sake of authenticity, but nobody will let you even look at a catalog anymore if you don't have some sort of commercial manufacturing license.

I can't find anything wrong with them and I think they look really good, but like I said - I don't really know what I'm talking about on this one

 

[Simonized]

I'm afraid I don't know - I have pretty much no experience with rhinestones. I just searched until I found a reputable retailer that had ss16 size stones in Siam, Olivine AB, and Crystal AB. I can't say how their quality or sparkle compares to others, but they're pretty!

I read that the discontinued Swarovski model 2000 stones have 8 facets and these have 10, and the Bluestreak profile is a tiny bit taller. I tried like crazy to get Swarovskis for the sake of authenticity, but nobody will let you even look at a catalog anymore if you don't have some sort of commercial manufacturing license.

I can't find anything wrong with them and I think they look really good, but like I said - I don't really know what I'm talking about on this one

I have access to a the 2000 range but they're limited in supply for obvious reasons, I’ve got them on all my modded wand comms as well as the correct vintage transistor radio mesh
I just need to add the brass grill to some of them.

The ones you have look great too!

I have an issue trying to drill the size hole I need in the aluminium t jets ... if anyone has a good idea on how to keep them in place and not spin round with the drill and without scratching or damaging them please chime in lol, otherwise it's taking me forever.