Markus
Sr Member
It's so nice to see that there have been so many "2001: A Space Odyssey" related builds and discussions in these forums recently, including quite a few builds of the HAL 9000 face plate. And I have built one of those before, sitting on a 2-inch thick black box. With an IR motion sensor triggering an mp3 sound player module, it is able to play all of HAL's sound bytes from the movie which makes it a beautiful companion in my office.
Now, I decided to go beyond that and build a HAL 9000 unit that features some of the surrounding area from the movie set. In a previous thread (here), I compiled the different locations in which HAL 9000 face plates appear in the movie.
Personally, I find unit #7 in the memory room really tempting. With the 38 illuminated memory modules it would be an impressive prop - but again, it would be huge, and probably expensive to build (in particular the 38 mechanisms to move the modules).
Unit #6 features only the face plate - and this is somehow what I already got from my previous build.
So, what remains are unit #2, with its white frame sitting in the rotating hallway, and unit #3 in the pod bay room with its single computer screen that displays the recognizable images from the movie. These are the ones that I am planning to build.
I am starting with unit #2 from the rotating hallway. That should be some rather straightforward wood work.
Afterwards, I will approach unit #3 from the pod bay room. That one will require some real programming to produce the images on the computer screen.
Disclaimer:
In these builds, I will only focus on the surrounding area. In my previous build, I made four HAL units, somehow assuming that I could find somebody locally who would buy one - but I was wrong.
So, I will reuse two of those for this project. I know very well about their shortcomings, including the poor approximation of the eye (the 100 mm push button) and the front that is too glossy. When I build those, I was rather happy - but now, inspired by all the ongoing discussions. I think these could be substantially improved. But that is something I keep for later.
All details of the builds are also collected on my blog: Part I and Part II.
Now, I decided to go beyond that and build a HAL 9000 unit that features some of the surrounding area from the movie set. In a previous thread (here), I compiled the different locations in which HAL 9000 face plates appear in the movie.
- The main console, with eight surrounding monitors.
- The unit in the rotating hallway with its white frame.
- The unit in the pod bay room featuring a single monitor.
- The unit in the room with a view to the outside - with eight monitors.
- The unit in the room next to the pod bay room, with its six monitors.
- The unit on top of the entrance to the memory room - this is just the plain face plate.
- The unit inside the memory room, next to the two rows of 19 acrylic memory modules each.
Personally, I find unit #7 in the memory room really tempting. With the 38 illuminated memory modules it would be an impressive prop - but again, it would be huge, and probably expensive to build (in particular the 38 mechanisms to move the modules).
Unit #6 features only the face plate - and this is somehow what I already got from my previous build.
So, what remains are unit #2, with its white frame sitting in the rotating hallway, and unit #3 in the pod bay room with its single computer screen that displays the recognizable images from the movie. These are the ones that I am planning to build.
I am starting with unit #2 from the rotating hallway. That should be some rather straightforward wood work.
Afterwards, I will approach unit #3 from the pod bay room. That one will require some real programming to produce the images on the computer screen.
Disclaimer:
In these builds, I will only focus on the surrounding area. In my previous build, I made four HAL units, somehow assuming that I could find somebody locally who would buy one - but I was wrong.
So, I will reuse two of those for this project. I know very well about their shortcomings, including the poor approximation of the eye (the 100 mm push button) and the front that is too glossy. When I build those, I was rather happy - but now, inspired by all the ongoing discussions. I think these could be substantially improved. But that is something I keep for later.
All details of the builds are also collected on my blog: Part I and Part II.
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