How do Combadges stick to uniforms? I never see what mechanism they use to keep them from falling off. I know behind the scenes they used magnets and Velcro. But for in-universe how do they stay on?
How do Combadges stick to uniforms?
- Thread starter Ensign Ricky
- Start date
Once you said it I got wondering. Perhaps they use glue to fuse them to the fabric, so its part of the tailoring. Although if you were relieved of duty you had to remove it so I'm back to square one.
Glue or stitch a magnet to the inside of the uniform? So it is removable but involves a strong magnet so it won't fall off while wrestling with the enemy. Yet if you're fired you can take it off.
Glue or stitch a magnet to the inside of the uniform? So it is removable but involves a strong magnet so it won't fall off while wrestling with the enemy. Yet if you're fired you can take it off.
They attach to civilian clothing, and Geordi once stuck a combadge on a bomb, so I don't think it's something in the uniform.
Ahh a font of knowledge. The mystery continues.
Love? [/Ally Sheedy from WarGames]
Something made-up like a textile adhesion field.
Simply gravitics?
I mean, they have mastered that particular art: their floors really suck and all that. Having low-level, short-range gravitational pull would be a truly universal way to attach to any arbitrary surface or object.
Plus a technology like that existing would explain why things don't usually fall off tables when a starship undergoes combat maneuvers or is hit by enemy fire. It wouldn't be able to hold Ensign Airborne's shoes to the deck, but they would prevent his collection of glass animals from falling from the shelf at his cabin all right.
Artificial gravity is extremely reliable in Star Trek and apparently doesn't require much power, so it would be a good way to keep commbadges attached. Hopefully, it also holds together the uniforms themselves (remember how they open where there are no visible seams or zippers?), so that we can keep on praying for a rare spatiotemporal anomaly that would unravel the fabric at an opportune moment.
Timo Saloniemi
I mean, they have mastered that particular art: their floors really suck and all that. Having low-level, short-range gravitational pull would be a truly universal way to attach to any arbitrary surface or object.
Plus a technology like that existing would explain why things don't usually fall off tables when a starship undergoes combat maneuvers or is hit by enemy fire. It wouldn't be able to hold Ensign Airborne's shoes to the deck, but they would prevent his collection of glass animals from falling from the shelf at his cabin all right.
Artificial gravity is extremely reliable in Star Trek and apparently doesn't require much power, so it would be a good way to keep commbadges attached. Hopefully, it also holds together the uniforms themselves (remember how they open where there are no visible seams or zippers?), so that we can keep on praying for a rare spatiotemporal anomaly that would unravel the fabric at an opportune moment.
Timo Saloniemi
Angry Fanboy
Chewing gum?
Chewing gum?
In Hollywood, chewing gum always works for attaching things to bombs or bombs to things, so that angle is covered. However, in Hollywood, chewing gum is impossible to remove from clothing without getting it to stick in your hair, so that one is not...
One issue of interest here is how one regulates the sticking and unsticking, in-universe. Does one have to squeeze a specific part of the badge to get it to loosen its grip or what? Mere pulling wouldn't appear to be enough, or else these things would constantly be shaking loose.
What else can be manipulated in a commbadge? Tapping is supposedly for activating, even though these things seem to be on all the time anyway. Is there a way to adjust reception, choose channels, engage scrambling etc. without opening the casing and pointing a doodad-with-blinkies-on at it?
Timo Saloniemi
One issue of interest here is how one regulates the sticking and unsticking, in-universe. Does one have to squeeze a specific part of the badge to get it to loosen its grip or what? Mere pulling wouldn't appear to be enough, or else these things would constantly be shaking loose.
What else can be manipulated in a commbadge? Tapping is supposedly for activating, even though these things seem to be on all the time anyway. Is there a way to adjust reception, choose channels, engage scrambling etc. without opening the casing and pointing a doodad-with-blinkies-on at it?
Timo Saloniemi
Angry Fanboy
Semi-interestingly on the subject of how a combadge is used, in the Shatner/Reeves-Stevens books they reference a few different ways to use them.
From memory the single tap obviously opens the channel as normal, holding fingers onto the surface forces an override (presumably if contact drops out due to a bad signal), I think two taps has the combadge begin recording and three taps triggers the playback.
I quite liked that.
Semi-interestingly on the subject of how a combadge is used, in the Shatner/Reeves-Stevens books they reference a few different ways to use them.
From memory the single tap obviously opens the channel as normal, holding fingers onto the surface forces an override (presumably if contact drops out due to a bad signal), I think two taps has the combadge begin recording and three taps triggers the playback.
I quite liked that.
Re: Angry Fanboy
I might be mis-remembering but doesn't a quick double-tap deactivate the combadge? (possible ref: DSN's "Past Tense")
Semi-interestingly on the subject of how a combadge is used, in the Shatner/Reeves-Stevens books they reference a few different ways to use them.
From memory the single tap obviously opens the channel as normal, holding fingers onto the surface forces an override (presumably if contact drops out due to a bad signal), I think two taps has the combadge begin recording and three taps triggers the playback.
I quite liked that.
I might be mis-remembering but doesn't a quick double-tap deactivate the combadge? (possible ref: DSN's "Past Tense")
They're riveted directly to the wearer's chest.
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As long as you don't attach it too close to the nipple...
Wasn't there an episode where someone took off their combadge and a small white square was left behind? (a prop thing I think)
How about magnetic-micro-velcro? Good for everything but plastic and wood!
Yeah, I was guessing that it was some sort of super-high-tech nano/smart-material thing build into the back of the badge.
