Tinycorder Isn’t Quite a Tricorder, But…

The Star Trek tricorder was a good example of a McGuffin. It did anything needed to support the plot or, in some cases, couldn’t do things also in support of …read more

Apr 28, 2025 - 21:04

Tinycorder Isn’t Quite a Tricorder, But…

The Star Trek tricorder was a good example of a McGuffin. It did anything needed to support the plot or, in some cases, couldn’t do things also in support of the plot. We know [SirGalaxy] was thinking about the tricorder when he named the Tinycorder, but the little device has a number of well-defined features. You can see a brief video of it working below the break.

The portable device has a tiny ESP32 and a battery. The 400×240 display is handy, but has low power consumption. In addition to the sensors built into the ESP32, the Tinycorder has an AS7341 light sensor, an air quality sensor, and a weather sensor. An odd combination, but like its namesake, it can do lots of unrelated things.

The whole thing goes together in a two-part printed case. This is one of those projects where you might not want an exact copy, but you very well might use it as a base to build your own firmware. Even [SirGalaxy] has plans for future developments, such as adding a buzzer and a battery indicator.

This physically reminded us of those ubiquitous component testers. That another multi-purpose tester that started simple and gets more features through software.