YouTuber Who Built Tricorder That’s Better Than the Official Ones Explains How it Works

Some people believe that if you want something done right, you need to do it yourself. So that’s exactly what maker Mangy Dog dog did when they built a replica of a Star Trek tricorder that looks straight out of the 24th century. In a recent video, they show off even more of its wildly inventive functionality.

Mangy Dog’s creation first crossed our radar over a year ago with a series of impressive videos demonstrating the custom-designed, fan-made Star Trek tricorder. Although the cast of Star Trek: Voyager was forced to explore the distant Delta quadrant using tricorder props recycled from Star Trek: The Next Generation to help reduce production costs, Mangy Dog felt the series deserved better, and so used pre-production concept sketches created for Voyager to design and build an upgraded tricorder prop better suited for the Intrepid-class ship and its fictional crew.

It turns out we weren’t the only ones impressed with Mangy Dog’s Voyager tricorder, which features animated touchscreens, countless LEDs and buttons, and sound effects sourced from the various movies and TV shows. The maker actually ended up producing a handful of the replicas for die-hard (and well-funded) Star Trek fans and collectors.

Those of us who can’t spend quite as much on our Star Trek obsessions can at least spend 10 minutes taking a deeper dive into how Mangy Dog’s tricorder works, as they’ve created a tutorial video outlining more of its features and what the various buttons do. The physical buttons trigger multiple sound effects depending on how long you push them, while the animated touchscreen can cycle through various simulated diagnostic modes.

The tricorder also has custom functionality specifically designed for cosplayers and collectors, including the ability to adjust the screen brightness so it doesn’t get blown out in photos. There’s also a bypass for its rechargeable battery for those who want to keep it running in a display case without constantly having to remove it for a charge.