Great interview with UK Maker MangyDog from SYFY WIRE.

Very few Star Trek fans have the engineering capabilities to boldly go where MangyDog has gone. The U.K.-based content creator with a background in 3D modeling and graphic design made headlines with a beautifully-detailed and fully-working tricorder inspired by the one depicted in Star Trek: Voyager, which ran for a total of seven seasons on UPN between 1995 and 2001.

Exclusively speaking with SYFY WIRE over email, Mangy explains that the unique undertaking was born out of three things: his love of Star Trek, a private commission from a friend, and a tragic personal loss.

“This project started several years ago with the creation of the prototype,” he recalls. “After losing my mother suddenly to a short cancer illness at the beginning of 2016, I needed something to focus on and put my efforts into, to help me through the grief. I’ve always been interested in electronics and programming, but before [this] I never really had the time to learn it. So I began learning what I could. Education projects like Arduino had really matured by this time, and hobby hardware design had really taken off. There were tons of resources for me to learn from, and I begun making my own projects.”

Read more.