Building a tricorder: The Wand Company gives an update on its upcoming Star Trek replica

Promotional image for The Wand Company’s replica tricorder. Image The Wand Company

APRIL 29, 2021 - Last year, The Wand Company announced its plans to build a “functional” Star Trek tricorder replica from The Original Series. Originally slated for release this summer, it’s now expected to ship late 2021 or early next year. In the meantime, The Wand Company recently published two lengthy updates on the production of the replica. The updates give consumers an idea of the challenges of recreating a 50+ year old TV prop, even though the company is using modern technology. TrekCore.com brought us the details.

The Wand Company has gone to extraordinary lengths to recreate the tricorder, basing their design on photographs and high resolution 3D scans of an actual screen-used tricorder prop. The intention is that the replica will be able to scan radio frequencies, collect “environmental data”, and record audio, among other features. For The Wand Company, the idea is to build a product which not only looks and feels like the “real thing”, but one that also creates “a rich experience for the owner which immerses them in the optimistic expanses of the Star Trek universe.”

That process is more difficult than you might think.

To start, the decades old prop the production team is working from hasn’t exactly had a life of luxury. Some panels are misshapen. Others are loose, and some parts of the tricorder just aren’t there. The Wand Company is filling in the details with CAD and 3D printing.

Another challenge they face is simply getting all of the components to fit inside the tricorder housing. After a lengthy process of trial and error, The Wand Company came up with a tricorder that contains “68 injection moulded parts [...] 22 metal parts, a number of different sized screws, bolts, springs, and magnets, a hand-stitched leatherette strap, and more than 350 electronic components assembled [onto] six printed circuit boards.”

To learn more behind the process of building the Star Trek tricorder, check out tricorder updates three and four at TheWandCompany.com. While you’re there, you can also register your interest in the tricorder. Registering will give you email updates, as well as priority ordering when it becomes available.