(This article was first emailed on August 28th, 2024 to fans who had registered an interest in finding out more about our Tricorder.)

Adorned in a command jacket, Amy, the Energize Lounge host, welcomed guests who had walked across the road from the conference centre or one of the nearby Paramount venues in sunny San Diego, with the words, “Hey nerds! Welcome to the Energize Lounge!”

Amongst the various Paramount venues there were screen-used props from the Star Trek universe, and a whole range of other interesting artefacts on display. We met up with Marian Cordry,  Paramount’s Director of Star Trek Brand Management. Marian has been a massive support to us throughout the project, giving advice and guidance and trawling tirelessly through the archives to recover original voice stems needed for our complete set of Captain’s Logs. We got to see some of the props up close and personal, even got to take command and jump into Captain Pike’s chair.

We were excited to be exhibiting the tricorder at the Energize Lounge with the Hero Within team. The latest Engineering Prototype (EP) just completed by the factory, had already been tested, disassembled and reassembled twice, before being used as a showpiece as part of the exhibition, and was the unit on display in the Lounge. We used two of the previous prototype units to demonstrate the tricorder and its features to the fans.

These older prototypes had been even more used and abused, but they performed flawlessly while we gave unrehearsed demonstration routines three times a day, to a different crowd of fans each time, all eager to see the tricorder firsthand. However, we did notice some fans returning in various cosplay disguises, although the identity of the Gorn is still a mystery. Extended testing like this is an important part of the development and examining the accelerated wear and tear on these Engineering Prototype units allows us to make adjustments to the construction to increase the product’s robustness. Being able to hand the tricorders around to the fans and gather feedback was great, it also meant that each demo was full of surprises – thanks to Aaron and Jim from TrekCore for the live drop-test after one such demo! For reference, that EP sample lives on, with no damage sustained from the incident.

Some fans mentioned that they had seen Chris demonstrate the tricorder in the Adam Savage Tested review and that they just had to see it for themselves in real life. It was pleasing to receive such positive feedback after what has been such a long development journey for us – James has been working tirelessly on this complex project for almost five years. For me the work has been less extreme. Most of the mechanical work was completed much earlier. This has allowed me to focus on refining the tricorder build and the chance to work on projects like our Poké Balls and more recently our Fallout TV show Pip-Boy.

Between demonstration sessions, we were free to explore the various Comic-Con halls, and breakout events, meet up with old friends, and make new friends and connections. I think that there is no event truly like San Diego Comic-Con; so if you ever have the opportunity to go, I highly recommend it.

A special thanks and recognition go out to Tony Kim and his team from Hero Within for hosting our tricorder and our demonstrations. The Hero Within team’s stamina is legendary. Right after the show, they went straight on to do it all over again at Star Trek, Las Vegas. We were exhausted, and although we would have loved to go with them and demonstrate the tricorder in Las Vegas and meet more fans, home was calling us with more work to complete as the tricorder moves through its final stages of preproduction into full production.

Now, four weeks post-show, we have collated feedback and suggestions and used these Engineering Prototype units to pass the electromagnetic radiation emission tests that allow us to move on to the last stage of work before production begins: the manufacture of a small batch of Final Engineering Prototypes (FEP). The factory will use these 60 or so units to ensure that their equipment is fully ready so they can begin gearing up for the actual Pilot Production (PP) run of tricorders.

The most asked questions from our demonstration sessions:

When will the tricorder be ready?
Our aim is to be ready to take preorders later this year, for shipping to fans as early as possible in Q1 2025. If you have registered for updates here then you will receive the email update with pre-order information when that information is available.

How much will it cost?
We have been working hard to maintain a target price of $350.

Wow, the tricorder costs less than we thought, can we buy two or more?
We understand that we could have asked a higher price, but we have worked hard to make this more accessible and affordable for all our fans. We may have a limit on numbers, but we currently envisage you being able to purchase up to three.

LLAP

Andrew Stockdale

Coming next time

Close up photos of the tricorder

Fans who register with us will be the first to read our news and the progress of this exciting Tricorder development and, later, where and when to purchase it. You can catch up with the story so far here on this blog, but if you haven’t already done so, why not register your interest in the Tricorder – you’ll then receive a personalised registration certificate and early access to these updates (before we publish them on our website).