This guy 3D printed a Pip-Boy 3000 with real-world features

Take our bottle caps!

In the Fallout videogames series, the Pip-Boy is an essential tool for surviving in the wasteland. Your character wears it to monitor their health, organise their inventory, navigate maps, listen to the radio, and even keep an eye out for nuclear radiation.

For the release of Fallout 4, Bethesda released a limited edition physical Pip-Boy 3000 that was compatible with the game because it used the smartphone companion app (available for iOS and Android). It’s quite rare so DIY hobbyists have been 3D printing their own but nobody has made one as featured-packed as Will Sweatman.

Rather than designing a device that merely holds the game’s companion app, Will Sweatman 3D printed his own Pip-Boy 3000 that has real-world features worthy of a journey through the wasteland. It’s a labour of love and we’re really impressed by the authentic look and feel of the whole project. Take a look:

So what exactly does it do? Instead of holding a smartphone, it has its own touchscreen for interactive with all the hardware inside and there really is a lot of it. There’s a flashlight for when you’re raiding during the night; a GPS module so you know where you are in the wasteland; a barometer and temperature sensors for weather prediction; a music player; a TV killer to turn off any monitors; and even a laser because everything needs lasers.

The attention to detail is incredible and there’s a lot more tech than you might expect. The screen displays custom menus for the different sensors and gadgets. There’s also a gyroscope, accelerometer, light sensor, and even a methane gas sensor to measure “rads” like the radiation sensors in the game world. Check out the different screens here:

It’s one of those projects where people will ask “why?” and the correct response is of course “why not?” If you want your own there are two options. Firstly, you can head over to Instructables to see how to make it yourself. The second option is to wait for Will to put the device on eBay but we warn you, it’s likely going to cost a lot of bottle caps.

Main image © Will Sweatman