View new posts | View your posts EGB PKE Meter discoveries

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This is in part copied and pasted from my post in the EGB forum. I was watching trough EGB again and i started noticing the PKE meter really closely, and saw alot of new things about it. Common belief is that they are just the rgb meters with new anntena, and some have even noticed that there is one less knob on the meter, but after carefully watching all the episodes and taking screen caps i have come to realise they did redesign the meter, its just sutble and the poor animation did a fine job hiding it. Here is a list of all the differences
1. The screen (but it is a digital display that can be changed back, and really it reminds me of the pke screen from the video game.)
2. The Antennes
3. No carribeaner on the bottom of the handle, but the back can somehow clip onto a belt.
4. 3 knobs not 4 (one on the front and one on each side, and the side knobs have diferent designs now)
5. The small screw and light that were next to the front knob have been replaced by two buttons
6. The wire that ran from the front to the back between the knobs on the right side has been removed
7. The glare shield(for lack of a better term) now seems to have sharper corners and is solid with the body of the meter as opposed to the old one which was a separte piece.
8. The bottom right corner has been clipped off to match the bottom left corner
9. The top of the back was clipped off at an angle slightly less than the angle of the glare shield and the antennes acctually come up from the angle not the top of the meter
So its pretty obvious that they did a full redesign of the meter.

Way ahead of you on the angled back and corners



Still have a little bit more work to do to it but slowly it will be there.

The PKE meter in both shows was drawn differently all the time but the RGB PKE meter did in fact have both lower corners angled like the PKE meter toy. Also the glare shield shows up bent a couple times.

Oh and doesn't the first episode of EGB show Egon taking apart the RGB PKEs and fixing them to be the EGB PKE meters? Yep.

Actually... it doesn't. Two partially-dismantled PKE Meters appear (just as the paranormal wave starts washing over Manhattan), but the old meters being converted into new meters isn't seen on-screen.


I like the fact that despite how lazily drawn XGB was a lot of the time, there's a nice attention to detail in the fact they've included a hole for a grub screw in the main knob on the front of the XGB PKE.

Well that's really the problem with prop analysis from this show, the constantly changing art. Heck even drawing the RGB meters for the show they screwed them up constantly. What I did though was go through and find the most consistent way things were drawn, and ignored obvious mistakes to try and make it into a coherent reproducible prop idea. No you never do see them make the new meters, they just show up with the new antennas, which is probably why they were so long thought to just be carried over from the RGB days. they do share many design similarities though. I think if all the equipment kept this close to their original counterparts we would see a lot more EGB packs. I could be wrong about the lower corners on the RGB PKE I was basing that off my bad memory and just a couple of pics like these.
maybe I should go back and watch some more RGB just to make sure though.
Slimershomie that is a nice looking meter, good job
Kingpin I really have to agree with you there was surprising attention to detail through out the entire show, just very poorly executed is all :/

Here's a screen cap:




And here's my RGB PKE build:



Eventually it will have a working screen via photo viewer, moving arms and sound. It's painted in three or four shades of blue to kind of give it that cartoon color look. The red and green buttons are actually switches that work.

Nice, you gonna do a run of those? Good screen cap, I guess my eyes where just tricking me (or they drew it both ways, the kinda like the EGB art screw ups ) but that's defiantly got me putting my thinking cap back on, thanks of the screen shot .

Thank's. Here's a little secret, it's just a scaled up RGB PKE toy. I took mesurements off the toy and scaled it up to fit a picture viewer then expanded it from there. The toy looked like it was a good replica of the show. The knobs are vintage HP knobs, the crank version can be seen on the Sony packs for the video game promo.

Cyland:
How did you make the antenna? Do you have a CNC?

That's brilliant, scaling up the toy, no wonder it looks so good . I once did this for the RGB ghost trap (complete with plans), its somewhere in the depths of the trap forum but that's just great, can't wait to see it done

My buddy has been a model maker / prop maker / set maker in Hollywood for well into 25 yrs and he doesn't have a CNC machine. Point is, you don't need a CNC to do machining.

That said, it's not machined. The antenna is several parts the mast is five parts top, bottom, two side and a butt plate that bolts to the body, all brass, silver soldered together. The arms are brass tube with those cliplite covers on the ends they are attached to two gears that mesh

Sorry, when I said antenna, I meant the grey portion of it... the mast I guess you call it.

When you say top and bottom, do you mean facing the front and back of the PKE? That's the bit I was wondering about, and it doesn't look like it's made from multiple parts, and I can't figure out how you could have cut that shape out of sheet metal without a CNC or without bending the crap out of it. If you cut it by hand with a hacksaw and filed it down, it looks damn near perfect.

"Point is, you don't need a CNC to do machining."

I suppose not, but my machining experience is limited to using a handheld power drill, a hacksaw, and file, so I don't know what one can do if one has the right tools. I guess it's that, with a thicker piece, I can see how you could get to that shape without mangling the crap out of it, but I had a hell of a time just drilling holes in some cabinet latches that were the same thickness you have there without destroying them.

Use a jeweler's saw.


One of my top 5 most useful tools.

I used .032" brass, a bandsaw and a file. I wanted it to be pretty solid because it does stick out there

For thinner stuff you might want to get a hand punch made for metal. A sharp drill bit and a drill press helps as well.

Ah, the jeweler's saw. The one tool of many I don't have. Did you use that to cut the slots out of the middle as well?

Wait, you said you used a bandsaw. Like a power tool?

And if that's brass, it must be painted then? Couldn't tell!

No jewelers saw here, I just drilled out several holes and used needle files to make them slots. The basic shape of the mast was cut out using a band saw, vintage Craftsman from the 60's and then a file was used to straighten it up. Yep it's painted, Dull aluminum by Krylon.

I have a small collection of vintage Craftsman tools. My Tablesaw, Bandsaw and Metal lathe are all from the same era. The Bandsaw and Tablesaw are both decorated the same, gold with machine swirl plates. The Lathe is a Craftsman built by Atlas, I have no idea what the original color was because it is stained:



This actually use to be at a very prominent prop shop in L.A. and made parts for Star Trek props. I also have a smaller lathe that is now in my shop on a swing down mount so I can swing it up out of the way:



Ok, back on topic..