Packaging
Before looking at the Phaser itself a word on the presentation. Arriving in a cardboard box you might wonder what’s so large inside, after all the Phaser is a handgun. Brilliantly The Wand Company have taken that idea and run with it, creating a Starfleet issue case for the Phaser, the sort you see assassins and spy types making use of in films. Opening the case you’ll see a disassembled Phaser laid out into it’s key components, it’s a brilliant introduction that shows the level of details they’ve put into this.
As well as the Phaser you’ll also find instructions, a USB cable for charging and a magnetic display stand. The stand works really well, allowing you to pop the beautifully crafted remote when not in use.
Assembling the Phaser
Before you can use the Phaser as a remote you’ll need to charge the Mark 1 unit for a couple of hours. However, before you do that you won’t be able to resist assembling the Phaser. It doesn’t take long and there is something very satisfying about clipping the Mark 1 and Mark 2 sections together. The handle is held in place with a screw and a little screw driver (Starfleet issued!) is included for this very task. The Phaser has a good weight in the hand, great as a prop but a little too heavy to consider using this as your main remote. Fortunately the smaller Phaser is quick and easy to detach, and being smaller it is the correct shape, size and weight to be used as a remote.Phaser Modes
The Phaser has 3 modes available:
Practice Mode – Allows you to get the hang of the gestures used to send out IR commands
Control Mode – Phaser is ‘live’ and can be used to fire out IR commands
FX Mode – Allows you to play a multitude of sound FX, great for using this as a prop or for cos play
Although there are 3 main modes there are a surprising number of features available, many of which had to be left out of the below review video to keep it from being too long. For example the Phaser can be locked to prevent others from using it, it can play sound FX from the USS Enterprise and it has an ‘Any-TV-Off’ function that allows you to turn off any TV without programming the Phaser with the corresponding power command. It’s well worth spending time reading the included instructions to ensure you don’t miss any of these available features.
Programming the Phaser
If you’ve used any of the previous Wand Company remotes you’ll be familiar with how to programme the Phaser to control your IR equipment. Pop it into programming mode, pull the trigger, do an action (e.g. flick up) and then press the corresponding button on your remote. The Phaser will confirm it’s learnt the commands and you can move on to the next. There are 4 memory banks of commands, Red, Green, Yellow and Blue, with each bank able to hold 9 commands. This gives you a total number of 36 commands that can be programmed in, and they don’t all need to be from the same remote so it’s possible to control your TV, set top box and amp with plenty of spare commands available for a second TV, HiFi etc. It’s a simple system that generally works well, although it can take a bit of trial and error. For example if you find that flicking down causes the screen to jump down two items then you’ve held the ‘down’ button for too long during programming. This is easy to rectify by reprogramming the misbehaving command.Are Universal Remotes Like the SPIN Remote SDC-1 Compatible with Other Devices, Such as the Wand Company Star Trek TOS Phaser Remote Control?
When it comes to the compatibility of devices, the SPIN Remote SDC-1 is a universal remote that offers versatility. In a universal remote review, it was found that the SPIN Remote SDC-1 is compatible with a wide range of devices, including the Wand Company Star Trek TOS Phaser Remote Control.
