TNG/DS9/VOY Type-II Phaser buttons and display - operational details?

[Sumghai]

From this non-canon source and what I understand from watching various episodes, there were three buttons on the Type-II Phaser from TNG onwards:

• Main trigger button
• Forward left for intensity
• Forward right for beam width

I also know that there are 16 power levels, ranging from mild stun to full disintegrate with the associated scrolling bar graph lights.


A number of questions remain unanswered, however:

• How many beam widths are there?
• What sequence does the beam width increase with each button press? (1-2-3-1-2-3 or 1-2-3-2-1?)
• How is the change in beam width denoted? A separate display? Beeps of increasing intensity?
• How would one remodulate the frequency for dealing with Borg? Is there a hidden adjustment interface in the phaser itself, or is an external tool used?
• How would one set the phaser on overload?

FYI, my favourite phaser design is the Dolphin variant from Nemesis.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

Re: TNG/DS9/VOY Type-II Phaser buttons and display - operational detai

You could ask Rick Sternbach for his opinion on such details, since he was the one who came up with the initial TNG phaser designs and settings.

 

[Sumghai]

Re: TNG/DS9/VOY Type-II Phaser buttons and display - operational detai

I found his email address on his website, as well as the fact that he's a forum regular. I've also noticed that he does from time to time answer questions here.

What would be the most polite way of asking him? Ideally, I would detail my request and direct him to this thread so that other people could benefit from his answer to my question, but I don't want to come across as rude.

 

[Albertese]

Re: TNG/DS9/VOY Type-II Phaser buttons and display - operational detai

I've found that he's a pretty cool guy and that just invoking the name of "Rick Sternbach" is often enough to catch his attention. Your OP pretty much asks the questions, I'm not sure how much more polite you could make it...

--Alex

 

[Rick Sternbach]

Re: TNG/DS9/VOY Type-II Phaser buttons and display - operational detai

From this non-canon source and what I understand from watching various episodes, there were three buttons on the Type-II Phaser from TNG onwards:

• Main trigger button
• Forward left for intensity
• Forward right for beam width

I also know that there are 16 power levels, ranging from mild stun to full disintegrate with the associated scrolling bar graph lights.


A number of questions remain unanswered, however:

• How many beam widths are there?
• What sequence does the beam width increase with each button press? (1-2-3-1-2-3 or 1-2-3-2-1?)
• How is the change in beam width denoted? A separate display? Beeps of increasing intensity?
• How would one remodulate the frequency for dealing with Borg? Is there a hidden adjustment interface in the phaser itself, or is an external tool used?
• How would one set the phaser on overload?

FYI, my favourite phaser design is the Dolphin variant from Nemesis.

If you push all three buttons at once, it's the same as Ctrl-Alt-Del. If you continue to hold them, you get the phaser reconfiguration confirmation beep, and then you can reset-- sorry, what was the question?

Rick

 

[Sumghai]

Re: TNG/DS9/VOY Type-II Phaser buttons and display - operational detai

I do apologize for confusing you, Rick. To rephrase my query:

In TNG/DS9/VOY I've seen Starfleet personnel change the beam intensity settings (stun->kill) by pushing the forward left button, which makes the little power meter LED go up and down as required.

What I'm interested in knowing is:

• Does pushing the forward right button change the beam width, to give users a choice of whether they want to target an individual or knock out an entire crowd?
• How many width settings are there? Is there only two (individual and wide area), or are there other widths in-between?
• How does the phaser show the current width setting?
• With each press of the width button, does the width increase to max width then decrease back down to min width, or does it increase to the maximum before directly jumping down to the minimum?
• What button(s) need to be pressed to put the phaser on continuous remodulation (to fight the Borg, for instance)?

• What button(s) need to be pressed to set the phaser on overload, as well as to cancel the overload?

 

[Timo]

Re: TNG/DS9/VOY Type-II Phaser buttons and display - operational detai

...And are the buttons simply "binary" input devices (press/don't press), or might one use each of them for more complex input (say, sliding one's finger along the surface, or pressing one of the edges rather than the middle)?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Boris Skrbic]

Re: TNG/DS9/VOY Type-II Phaser buttons and display - operational detai

I don't think such use was ever intended for those kinds of buttons. The following options are more consistent with the kind of technology portrayed on the show.

1) Simple keypress combinations; Data can help with the more advanced ones.
2) A tricorder interface.
3) An experimental voice-recognition chip as an addon.
4) A main-computer interface while on the ship.

 

[Sumghai]

Re: TNG/DS9/VOY Type-II Phaser buttons and display - operational detai

To further clarify my question, I found this screencap of Tuvok stunning the rest of the Voyager bridge crew with a TNG Type-II on wide beam setting (VOY: Cathexis)

And thus, the main question still is:

Which button did he press to go to wide beam (and back)?