BioDoctor900's 11th/12th Doctor Sonic Conversion

[BioDoctor900]

Hi Guys,

So this is my latest project, I've dived in and I'm trying to convert my 11th/12th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver Remote. So I bought one for £40 off of eBay. I took apart the toy and I've started to work on the remote...





The top of the remote was easy enough to take apart. I had to take out the pins of the claws to get to the bolt that held the top together, once I unscrewed the bolt it came apart easily. It took a few hours to file down the cage and then I had to Dremel down the insides of the silver parts. I cut down the plastic on the toy and cut out the mid part of it. I still need to add on the extended button and tackle the handle and the spring loaded mechanism, and the core. So still a bit of work to do. But this is how it's looking so far....







Hopefully more soon. Thoughts??

BioDoctor900

[superrichi1a]

Bloody well done! I've tackled this myself and know how unexpectedly fiddly it can be! If I were to offer any advice: take all your metal pieces now that they are disassembled and strip the anodising/lacquer off, not quite sure what they used or how to do that but the information is all online somewhere (on the RPF for one). If you wanted to go the extra step after that you could also find some small golden plates to stick over the false rivets and very lightly rough up the white ceramic section and dirty it down with shoe polish. All this together really adds up to create something which looks far more like a prop, and far less than a converted remote. You may have already thought of doing that, or prefer not to, either way it's something I thought worked nicely on mine Which, in fairness, wasn't all my own work as you can probably gather from my text above
Some people also like to switch out the emitter for the CO, or recolour the standard one green - this is more a preference than anything else but don't fall into the trap of thinking it always has to be green! Strictly speaking the remote is a replica of the original "generation 3" prop Nick Robatto made for series 8 and the emitter on that one is actually a marbled looking swirly white and blue, and the colour comes from a green LED. Of course, you may have known all of his already, but it's been too long since I've talked sonics and I think it's only fair I pass on all of what I learned when I did this. Good luck with the conversion and I'm looking forward to learning something new and undoubtedly exciting

[mr mcgoo]

I love looking at these conversions, they're great.

Superrichi, did you do something about the centre ring between the handle and the sliding section? It looks a lot more tapered on yours.

[superrichi1a]

Superrichi, did you do something about the centre ring between the handle and the sliding section? It looks a lot more tapered on yours.

I didnt, not that I didn't try to think up ways to do it! (I think if you were to do it offering a replacement from Shapeways and trying to trim down the bottom of the cage and the screw thread would be the way to go). But it has to be said I think a large part of why that mid section's lesser taper is noticeable is because with the original finish it has a very high shine which draws attention to the bigger drop off between the centre ring and the cage. With less shine it all blends a bit better

[galacticprobe]

Wow! You've got some major surgery going on there, BioDoc! It's looking great so far. Are you planning to keep the spring-loaded extending bit, or are you thinking of another method of having the sonic stay retracted, extend with a flick of the wrist and then stay extended until you push it back to the retracted position again? (Where is the activation button on the remote? And how do you plan to run the wires from the button so it works in both extended and retracted positions without overly stressing the wires?)

Keep up the fantastic work! I can't wait to see the next update.

Dino.

[BioDoctor900]

Richard??

Think you've misread the thread Dino   

It's a little bit of a pain as the Remote is constructed differently to the Toy, So its not a case of extrapolating the ways of the toy to the remote. I'm learning as I'm going, It's a tad tricky just going by pictures though. Hopefully I'll be able to work some of it out

BioDoctor900

[galacticprobe]

Gaagh! Sorry, BioDoc! I had superrichi1a's comment stuck in my medicated head when I posted my comment. (Yeah... I do get confused easily sometimes - and this was one of them.)

That's still serious sonic surgery you're doing - bits all over the place! I've had equipment I used to work on looking like that, and kept a road map in my head of how it all went back together. Always managed to pull it off, but not these days with my short-term memory problems. (I can't even keep names straight between posts! Although, I think this was the first time in a long while that I've done that.) And so as not to confuse any new members that might read through this topic, I've edited my previous comment so it has the correct name in it now.

Dino.

[BioDoctor900]

Hi Guys,

Well, I've been tinkering a bit with the sonic and got a bit further with it 

I've put the original emitter back in as its actually brighter than having the CO version in it, plus it means that I don't have to try and wedge it in. I had a massive fight with the handle, and had a lot of shouting and swearing with it trying to get the battery compartment out so that the electronic core would fit down the handle. The holes in the core helped for the silver cage section to sit on it and it slides well, although I shouldn't have cut the tip off of it as I do actually need it, so I'm going to have to get some green 10mm acrylic tubing from college and drill a hole down the middle in place. I've still got to wire up a momentary switch, put it in the handle, and wire it to the core. I've then got to replace the section that holds the two parts together as its too narrow and will be difficult to hollow out. Then I need to get some magnets to put in the handle and then get the claws working, which I may let my friend Richard look at and sort out.



Thoughts??

More Soon

BioDoctor900

[galacticprobe]

Well? It doesn't look at painful as it did in that workbench photo. It still sounds like you've got some major surgery to perform in it yet. And I'm guessing the magnets in the handle are for holding things in the 'extended' and 'retracted' positions? (Has anyone done that before? I'm just curious because usually magnets and programmed chips - sound or otherwise - usually don't get along well with each other... the magnets can end up erasing what's on the chip. Sort of like getting a magnet too close to a hard drive or an EEPROM, and information on the drive or EEPROM goes bye-bye.

Dino.

[BioDoctor900]

Hmmm, I must admit I'd not thought of that. When I messed Kurosawa on the RPF, he said that the ones he made were held together by friction, so the claws did just sit in place, but I have a feeling that my way of making it is a bit different to how he has made it, so I may cut down the electronic core a bit and put that in the handle and then make a new core out of acrylic and drill a hole down the middle for the LED to feed through to the emitter. Dunno yet though, so will have to take a look

BioDoctor900

[BioDoctor900]

Hi Guys, Hope you all had a good Christmas. I've finally got it to a point where I'm happy with it. This is what it looks like.....





And this is a Video I made to explain and show it better....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS6bKRteFkg&feature=youtu.be

Thoughts??

BioDoctor900

[mr mcgoo]

Very nice. This has motivated me enough to finally push on and finish mine (started a year ago). Just need to put in the time now.

[BioDoctor900]

Well Mr. McGoo, If your TARDIS is anything to go by, it will come out amazingly. Would like to see your progress pics 

BioDoctor900

[galacticprobe]

It looks great, BioDoc! (Your second photo didn't come through, though.) Was that a photo of it in the extended position?

Dino.

[BioDoctor900]

There you go Dino 

BioDoctor900