ST:ENT Hand Scanner Help & Suggestions

The pop up mechanism looks like it will work for your needs and it is a proven concept.

So update... as expected... I couldn't finish it by Halloween... but its a great prop to go with my ENT jumpsuit, communicator and phase pistol this year. Pictures below (just the scanner). Whats' it missing. Some fine tuning on the tabs that snap into the grips.. just a bit too tight. Also you can see there is no main spring for pop up action... there are no plain Hobby stores where I am at in MA... maybe the big home improvement stores will have springs. Hard time sizing with a true measurement. I used a sharpie to color the outside casing part black..not bad for a sharpie... and a red sharpie for the red button. Though final piece will be painted. Also this is another proto-type so the buttons near the screen are not correct but just for fitting. Any ways a little ways to go yet.. but I'm happy how things are going so far....

It looks like the prop is coming along nicely.

If at some point you are still considering adding an animated screen of some kind, there are fairly inexpensive alternatives.
Of coarse, since we are becoming more and more familiar with HD screens, this may not work as well visually, but for the
price and ease of use, it works well.



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propmaster2000 said:

It looks like the prop is coming along nicely.

If at some point you are still considering adding an animated screen of some kind, there are fairly inexpensive alternatives.
Of coarse, since we are becoming more and more familiar with HD screens, this may not work as well visually, but for the
price and ease of use, it works well.
.

Click to expand...

Thanks so much!!! I am still hoping to put a working screen in the scanner ultimately. That LCD screen looks awesome for what I'd use it for. What are the dimensions for the entire electronic set up? Looks no bigger than 1.5" wide. What is the model number for that set up? We have a great computer store in Cambridge,MA, or Amazon likely would have it.

The internal space once put together is 8 mm in depth and approximately 40-45 mm in width. Currently the screen size on the prop is 1.5 inches square, though I can adjust that to accommodate the LCD screen or crop the animation in such a way to fit the 1.5 in screen.

My thoughts on the screen would be a very simple 5-10 sec loop of the the radar like scanning display they used... I'll have to find a clip on you tube and copy here.. but the LCD screen you presented about would be great.

The LCD could also be rotated 90 degrees so I have more room for the main pop-up spring mechanism.

Again, thanks so much for all the suggestions propmaster2000 ... so helpful.

Sometime ago, I bought several versions of the MP4 players to see if I could adapt one to my own prop build and never really got around
to do anything with them.

The one I show in the most resent video seems like it has the best qualities. The only issue is there is no manufacture labeling.
I bought mine on eBay.
Portable 1.8 inch LCD screen Display 6th GEN. Music Media MP4 Player.
NOT the touch screen type. Buttons only.

Inside circuit board dimensions are:
Width = 2" (across screen)
Height = 1-5/8"
Thickness = 3/8" (screen and board)

The viewing screen is:
Across face width = 1-1/2"
Across face height = 1-1/8"

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Nice work so far....

Just checking to see if there has been any more advancements to this prop design?
Looking forward to anything you can share.
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Unfortunately no, but wow... i hadn't realized it had been an entire month ... time flies ... i did look at screens tho.
Thanks to your ideas to use little mp4 players screens i stumbled on to cheap (~$20) "i-watch" devices too that play mp4 videos... some were right at 1.5x1.5in ... dont remember if they had little speakers too? So im defintely going with an animated screen . Just need to pick one, buy it, measure for fit and adjust the 3D model and test print.

For quicker fitting tests I'll just print small boxes, test fit and take those measurements to the scanner model.

Ive been totaly deliquent on spring pop-up mechanism... just havent had a chance to get to a bigbox DIY store to look for springs. I believe i needed like 10cm x 1cm spring, But i will hopefully go this weekend. Online i found some but i dont need 200 of them... but i may get those if i cant get smaller quantities.

Thanks for checking in... been very busy at work and home... but you know how life gets.

No problems.
I know the holidays and the end of the year commitments are more important.
Update when you can.

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I have been watching this project for some time and have finally decided to comment.

I hope this project continues as this is the kind of project that made me love building things for years. Innovative *and* accurate.

Happy building guys.

So I hope to be making some progress on one front with the ENT scanner and that is the working screen. I got both these online and will see which is best for the scanner. Both were cheap at $11.

The grey one is a 1.8in screen ... looks like the one you did a video on Propmaster2000
The blue one is 1.5in screen.

Both are touch screens ... they don't have the best reviews but hey they are only $11. So why not give'em a try.

Thanks Propmaster2000 for the suggesting these mp3/mp4 players.

So the 1.8in screen got here early, and I'm messing around with it. Seems to like BMPs for images with a size of 160x128 pixels (screen res). I cannibalized some ENT LCARS I googled and made a "start up" screen. I think it looks really good for being an $11 dollar option. I'll have to take the outer casing apart and see how it fits in there but its only like ~1mm too thick so I think it'll just squeak in there . But boy howdy does that look Niftycool!

I have to convert movies to an AMV format. It does come with a converter exe in the player so that was nice. Now I just need to find ENT scanning movies... and convert them.

Oddly enough the clip that holds it in your pocket is ~1.5in2... as it fits right in my screen area.. snuggles right in the space I have currently for the screen with a little wiggle.

Looking like an excellent option... here is a pick!

EDIT: I took off the metal covering with clip and slips right in the scanner. Its a bit wide but when i remove the plastic cover it should be able to fit in the screen area.

Tiny update.

Got the 1.5inch screen today. Its smaller but thicker in depth so I can't fit it in the prop, and I cannot easily remove the back panel.

Color is good, but its very simple, its harder to navigate in.. tho touch screen is better. The screen is so small (128x128 pixels) I think I'll go with the 1.8 inch one.

Here's a picture though...

Hey so I got some good news! I found what I think are really good springs for the scanner. I'll be placing it in the area as shown in the picture below. I found the spring on amazon

Music Wire Compression Spring, Steel, Metric, 8.63 mm OD, 0.63 mm Wire Size, 20.6 mm Compressed Length, 80.5 mm Free Length, 10.01 N Load Capacity, 0.17 N/mm Spring Rate (Pack of 10)

So the pics below show the spring placement and the screen placement (more on that coming up!) So I'll be redesigning the inside for the spring to fit and work .. I'm allowing 25mm for compression area. I'll allow it to expand to 75mm.. which should give it enough push to keep the scanner open. I'll also need a metal rod to keep the spring straight and somehow fit that rod under the screen on the right side...

I'll use this same spring just cut really small to provide push back on the grip button to activate the pop up action.



Now the screen ... I've cut off one side of the plastic casing to help fit it in the scanner under the screen area (best fit) as show above ... the screen fits perfectly inside the scanner depth wise... that was nothing but dumb luck... I want to keep as much of the mp3 plastic casing intact as it adds support for the buttons and keeps the screen cover with the black outer frame.. that's important for later. I'll also be adding supports structures to the inside to hold the screen in place.



now the screen will not fit exactly in the screen area as designed right now (you can see that from one of the pics above it'll be shifted to the right side) .... but that is not the end of the world... I think I can "fix" that and remain fairly accurate to the TV prop. The real prop had a much thicker screen border than I do currently. See image below for the actual prop from YouTube video. I'll mimic that border and that should "hide my crimes" as Adam Savage says. I've photo-shopped what I think it will look like when I'm all done.. there will be a little black border on the top/bottom but you may not notice it.. that's why I wanted to keep the mp3 together as much as possible. Oh and the image on the screen is static.. no moving scanner video yet...



So again thanks for all the great suggestions and help I've gotten. Great suggestion on the mp3 screen Propmaster2000!

I'm really thinking this will come together.. just a few bits and bobs to work out and see how to fit that metal support rod in.

So,

I've actually been fairly productive... as I type this I'm printing another proto-type screen part that will lock in the screen... I hope.


So pics below include my first screen section update. I thickened the boarder (4mm now) and put a bottom inner "shelf" to keep the screen in the position I wanted. I couldn't find my silver sharpie, I was gonna color the screen border for easier viewing but oh well. The print was crude but effective, and I'm updating it to lock it in (thus the current print). The pics show the view screen "hole," what the screen will look like when off ... If you hate those bars when watching 16:9 ratio on TV, this may drive you nuts... but once the screen is on its pretty good and I'm happy with it.



I've also redesigned some parts to hold the main spring and guide rod. I did find 150x2mm metal hobby rods used for RC planes. Accordingly, I've designed a cylindrical tube which will I'll fit the spring onto. Inside that cylinder is a 2mm hole for the rod. For the part that goes up/down the inner hole is 3mm for easier mobility. The rod will hug the corner an go under the screen... I'll know when the rods get here... in march!:angry



As always suggestions/improvements or what not are always welcome...

You indeed have made some real progress .

Looking good!

So Hazah!! I printed the second of the main spring receivers and put every thing together and it works. I press the button and it the screen pops up. It really works!!! Im super psyched!!!

It could really use the support rod to prevent the spring from really bending all to heck when I collapse it ... but it does work. Needs very minor improvement for the pin lock but that is easy. Currently, I have this neat angle to it.. but it just needs to be a straight edge to work better. I'll need to see if the current main spring design needs slight adjustment to align the "rod" holes but it visually looks great.. and both my 1.75 filament and paper clip seemed to work just fine... but they aren't a 2mm unbending unforgiving rod.. I'll know more in March or hopefully sooner.

So this is a very deceptive animated gif... it only pops up. it DOES NOT retract... and the button is on the left grip bottom bump. I used my right hand ring finger to push it... not my thumb.

It looks great, very cool.

Lt Washburn said:

It looks great, very cool.

Click to expand...

Thanks Lt. Washburn!

Here is a picture of what the main spring mechanism looks like inside just for reference. Sorry, but I have black PLA on the printer currently so that's what I printed it with.

So hopefully you can see the posts that the ends of the main spring fit over. And I ran some red PLA through the hole that the metal rod will go through.




EDIT: fixed typo