HAL 9000 - beyond the face plate

[phase pistol]

Thanks! It was my pleasure to work with the London Design museum on that project.

 

[Markus]

Thanks! It was my pleasure to work with the London Design museum on that project.

That looks terrific! Would you mind telling us a little about how you achieved this in hardware and software?

 

[phase pistol]

The London Design Museum mockup was done VERY quickly, I think we had maybe a week to plan it, the monitors and hardware were ordered from Amazon UK and sent direct to the museum. There was one error I'm aware of, the white rubdown lettering was misplaced outside the monitor insets, but oh well. And there was a malfunction in that the outer casing was not ventilated, and the monitors would overheat and shut down. Definitely a pro tip for anyone else trying to built one of these beasts.

 

[phase pistol]

The electronics and interface to the monitors was done by our genius electronics engineer, Bob Petersen. I do not know those details except for that they were four media players based on the Raspberry Pi, one for each monitor. I had previously designed and animated the HAL status displays for the MRG "HAL Screensaver" product, so I rendered out the graphics as short videos and Bob made it all sing and dance with programming.

 

[Markus]

The London Design Museum mockup was done VERY quickly, I think we had maybe a week to plan it, the monitors and hardware were ordered from Amazon UK and sent direct to the museum. There was one error I'm aware of, the white rubdown lettering was misplaced outside the monitor insets, but oh well. And there was a malfunction in that the outer casing was not ventilated, and the monitors would overheat and shut down. Definitely a pro tip for anyone else trying to built one of these beasts.

Thanks a lot! These images are very valuable. Just a few postings above, I mentioned that it would make sense to use four wide-screen monitors with a few Raspberry Pi's - and this is exactly what you did here. Very nice - and thanks for sharing.

 

[phase pistol]

Thanks a lot! These images are very valuable. Just a few postings above, I mentioned that it would make sense to use four wide-screen monitors with a few Raspberry Pi's - and this is exactly what you did here. Very nice - and thanks for sharing.

Thank you! And yours seems to be well on the way, I look forward to seeing what you do with it!

 

[Markus]

Thank you! And yours seems to be well on the way, I look forward to seeing what you do with it!

Well, the first one (in the rotating corridor) will just be a face plate sitting on a white case.
But for the second one (from the Pod Bay room) with it's screen, I am planning to do some work on nice graphics. And this is where I will benefit from all possible input!

 

[phase pistol]

well if it helps, here's the best reference I can find on the Pod Bay console. Do you have all the recent books? The Bizony "Making of Kubrick's 2001" by Taschen is a gold mine, as are Adam K Johnson's two "Lost Science" volumes.

 

[Markus]

well if it helps, here's the best reference I can find on the Pod Bay console. Do you have all the recent books? The Bizony "Making of Kubrick's 2001" by Taschen is a gold mine, as are Adam K Johnson's two "Lost Science" volumes.

These are good sources! But for the Pod Bay console, the screen captures from the Blu Ray are already pretty good.

 

[phase pistol]

These are good sources! But for the Pod Bay console, the screen captures from the Blu Ray are already pretty good.

Yeah the 4K UHD is a gold mine if you have the computer that can play it and take frame grabs.

 

[Markus]

The first steps in building the unit in the rotating hallway.
All the pieces are cut from 3/16" plywood with a laser cutter.
Here are the front plates.

The back plate with the structures to hold the front plates - and, again, with the sides added.

Then some spackling and sanding, to round the inner corners.

 

[j_holtslander]

well if it helps, here's the best reference I can find on the Pod Bay console.

Hmm. This I might be able to do myself.

The first steps in building the unit in the rotating hallway.
All the pieces are cut from 3/16" plywood with a laser cutter.

Damn that was fast. I’m so jealous of people with laser cutters. What one do you have?

 

[Markus]

Hmm. This I might be able to do myself.


Damn that was fast. I’m so jealous of people with laser cutters. What one do you have?

I don't own one - it would be way above my budget. But I have (occasional) access to a nice one from Jamieson. And, yes, this makes a huge difference for my builds.

 

[joberg]

Great start already Markus

 

[Markus]

The area below the slits is painted dark gray (I could have used black, but I still had that gray available).

The inner sides of the slits are painted white before they are added. It is easier to do this first, as these will be harder to reach afterwards.

Then, more spackling/sanding needs to be applied to the new edges.

 

[Darth Lars]

My bad. I thought they were 4:3

They were 4:3 in the sequel though, but in normal orientation ... Those looked like small TV screens.

 

[j_holtslander]

They were 4:3 in the sequel though, but in normal orientation ... Those looked like small TV screens.

That’s probably how I got mixed up. Watched 2010 the other day.

 

[joberg]

That’s probably how I got mixed up. Watched 2010 the other day.

How could you? Never saw the entire movie: too many errors inside the sets of Discovery

 

[j_holtslander]

too many errors inside the sets of Discovery

Yeah it’s a bit cringe inducing. I was mainly listening to it.

 

[joberg]

Yeah it’s a bit cringe inducing. I was mainly listening to it.

My man Btw, saw that pic of Stanley looking to set-up a shot and saw those lenses on the sill...is the one on the left a Nikkor?