Been a while but here's some updates.
The body
Replacement faceplates arrived from
Custom Engraving Plates and are a much better fit for my frame. I also ordered some small silver plates from them to use as a backing surface for my Moebius HAL 9000 decal.
Unfortunately I screwed up the application of the decal when it didn't align properly and then tore so I had to order some replacement decals from Moebius Models (aka
Pegasus Hobbies in California) and they kindly provided me with 2 more sets of decals at a reasonable charge and which arrived yesterday.
But the good news is I can see it taking shape now and it's look great so far.
Today I received my second aluminum frame for my other HAL but unfortunately my order was messed up and the extra sections of aluminum which are for the division in between the speaker grill and the faceplate were forgotten and absent from my package. Will have to get that sorted out still. Little irked with those guys to be honest. They're quite slow, and a tad tough to deal with.
Electronics
I've seen light and sound kits sold for the Moebius kit as well as people's jury-rigged solutions for sound but I didn't like any of them. They all either had an ugly physical switch which I didn't want to see visible, or they were playing randomized sounds, or they were made of the cheapest possible toy components, or they relied on poor quality recordings through a built in mic. etc.
I wanted to do better for mine. So my sound solution is quite complex comparatively speaking. It's an Arduino that runs off of AA batteries in a low power sleep mode so that it can be left on for extended periods of time and be woken with ease by activating the sounds which are stored on a microSD card inserted into a
DFPlayer Mini MP3 player. There will be an IR receiver hidden behind HAL's speaker grill which will receive signals from a small remote that can trigger up to 29 different sound files on demand. This is all hooked up to
a 3W 4Ohm speaker which pumps out decent sound at a good volume. I had an aquaintence assemble it for me since my confidence with wiring and soldering is low.
When one of the two HALs is given as a gift it will be already powered on and asleep inside the gift wrapped box and ready for remote triggering the moment the lid is opened. I'll just stand behind him with remote in hand and trigger it over his shoulder.
How convenient that HAL actually spoke the words "Happy Birthday" ;-)
I've decided to replace the LEDs that came with my glass lenses and were supposed to be replacements for the red Moebius LEDs. The color is a pure cool white which is meant to shine through the provided red filter material. But to me the cool white is too white and I'm going to use either a warm white, yellow, or orange LED instead which will shine through the red filter. I'll try them all and see what looks best but my instinct tells me a warm white will most closely match the bulb that was used for the actual prop.
The lens housing
No update here yet. I plan to phone my guy on Friday to check on things. Getting a bit anxious and he's been awfully quiet.
More updates soon.