HAL/SAL 9000 Lens options

The HAL 9000's most defining visual characteristic is the eye. The original HAL 9000 eye was a Nikkor fish-eye lens and in my world, a fish-eye lens is characterized by the "bulbous" protrusion. Given that the original lens is very expensive and that alternatives come and go, I decided to see what I could find that allowed creating a good looking, inexpensive lens (eye) from components. In doing so, I came across LED projector lens (used in cars and projectors I believe). And so far I'm delighted with it.

I wanted the lens to be glass and preferrably, when complete, imitated the lens elements as well as the multi-coated coloring of a real lens. Hopefully someone here can help with that.

My personal goal it to create a very good imitation. For me, it doesn't need to be 100% perfect as long as it catches the essence. If you want 100%, have at it.

Everyone, feel free to add the conversation herein and build on the design. BTW ... this need not be used only for a HAL/SAL 9000. It may be usable for other props.

This builds on the phenomenal work here: https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=119324
Also credit due here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1805762 He uses clear plastic ornament bulbs cut to size.

The LED lens as received is a four piece assembly (Glass lens, reflector (blue in images from protective plastic), mounting ring and retaining ring). It was less than $9 delivered. Search eBay for "70mm Lens + 79mm Reflector Collimator" or similar.As I recall, there were other sizes that was a few mm +/- and may be more screen accurate in dimensions.

I'm not sure if I'll use all the components and are included here FYI.

Overall assembly



Mounting ring


Lens dimensions

Flange thickness


Below is the approximate lens height.


View attachment IMG_0477T.jpg

Inside dimension (where curve starts)


Outside dimension


Below is the reflector, still in blue plastic. Dimension shown is the center square. I'm not sure if this will be usable.


Since it is recessed, there is room for additional lens elements without needing (maybe) to go deeper into the prop. One problem, as I see it, with some of the camera lens options is that the lens protrudes from the back. And cutting a hole in the wall is not an option!!!

So there is the start. I hope this is fun and helpful.

- - - Updated - - -

Here are a couple more pictures:

Retaining ring


Mounting flange

So, it arrived !!! Great work . I'm popping over to eBay right now. Many thanks .

It looks like you can get that LED Collimator on Amazon now:
Nagulagu 70mm Lens + 79mm Reflector Collimator Base + 91mm Fixed Bracket for 20W-100W LED - - Amazon.com

I'm wondering if we could get better results building around one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Magnifying-Paperweight-Magnifier-Newspaper-Examination/dp/B07DWSYS6P/

or even... (be kind now)... one of these:
Amazon.com: Adafruit Massive Arcade Button with LED - 100mm Red [ADA1185]: Computers & Accessories

I had a breakthrough earlier this year. I bought this vintage slide projector because I thought it was cool. As I was taking it apart I found a perfect fisheye sense on the inside. It slipped right into my HAL.

Great find Valor and good looking HAL you have there! I used a clear Xmas ball that you can find at Michael's (two halves that you can decorate, inside and out) works like a charm!!

Valor said:

I had a breakthrough earlier this year. I bought this vintage slide projector because I thought it was cool. As I was taking it apart I found a perfect fisheye sense on the inside. It slipped right into my HAL.

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Cool. Are the rest of your build details posted somewhere? I might go this route as well.

BartmanEH said:

Cool. Are the rest of your build details posted somewhere? I might go this route as well.

Click to expand...

Sure. Here you go.

Valor said:

I had a breakthrough earlier this year. I bought this vintage slide projector because I thought it was cool. As I was taking it apart I found a perfect fisheye sense on the inside. It slipped right into my HAL.

Click to expand...

Great find! This looks fantastic. But there is one detail that I would suggest to improve. I would replace the red 5mm LED by a red 8mm straw hat LED (0.5W in a clear case). I will display my solution in another post.

I had been looking for a large glass lens for some time, but could not find one that was large enough. So, I based my HAL lens on the 100mm Adafruit arcade button, however, with a few details added to what they suggest on the Adafruit page.
Instead of the red button, I used the clear button - with a red LED. I think that this looks more like the real prop.

The base is spray painted in "metallic aluminum".

Then I made a disk from black cardboard, with a 5mm aperture, and I glued a flat clear marble over the hole.

This imitates an enclosed lens element. Then I made a holder for a red 0.5W 8mm straw hat LED with a clear case.

I added a PIR motion sensor, which triggers the LED. The 0.5W LED can be very bright, so in standard operation it is dimmed to a lower brightness. Whenever the PIR senses motion, the LED becomes brighter (for 2-3 seconds), and the Arduino plays one of HAL's sound clips through the DFPlayer mini module. The code ensures that the sound clips are not played more frequent than once every 4-6 minutes, to avoid that this gets annoying.

I am still looking for a large glass lens, but if I have to make a compromise (plastic button in correct size vs. a smaller glass lens), I prefer the plastic button.

Markus said:

Great find! This looks fantastic. But there is one detail that I would suggest to improve. I would replace the red 5mm LED by a red 8mm straw hat LED (0.5W in a clear case). I will display my solution in another post.

Click to expand...

Thanks Marcus, I'll look into that. I'll return the suggestion: I see you're using a black woodgrain. The real HAL had a brushed black anodized panel. The best affordable substitute I found is a black brushed metallic vinyl. This is what I used and it looks much closer than the wood:

Even cheaper and probably exactly the same:
Amazon.com: Black Brushed 60 Inches x 1 Foot Car Wrap Vinyl Roll with Air Release 3MIL-VViViD8: Automotive

Markus said:

[...]I based my HAL lens on the 100mm Adafruit arcade button, however, [...]Instead of the red button, I used the clear button - with a red LED.[...]
View attachment 1243027

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I cannot find a "clear" button from Adafruit--"white" is the closest I can find. Maybe they don't offer a clear button anymore?

Also, not sure I would call what you glued onto the internal 'lens' aperture a 'marble' since it's not round, it looks more like one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Dophee-100Pcs-Crystal-Cabochon-Jewellery/dp/B01F8S1598

BartmanEH said:

I cannot find a "clear" button from Adafruit--"white" is the closest I can find. Maybe they don't offer a clear button anymore?

Also, not sure I would call what you glued onto the internal 'lens' aperture a 'marble' since it's not round, it looks more like one of these:
Amazon.com: Dophee 100Pcs Crystal Clear Round Cabochon Flat Back Glass Dome Tile Jewellery Making,12mm: Arts, Crafts & Sewing

Click to expand...

I used this 100mm button: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32554909560.html - they call it "white", and while it has a white backing plate (which I replaced with the black cardboard), it has a clear dome. And, yes, the glass domes from Amazon look exactly like the ones I used. I may have gotten mine from Hobby Lobby, but I don't remember exactly.

BartmanEH said:

Even cheaper and probably exactly the same:
Amazon.com: Black Brushed 60 Inches x 1 Foot Car Wrap Vinyl Roll with Air Release 3MIL-VViViD8: Automotive

Click to expand...

Yes I saw that too. But be careful, one of the reviews states that the brushed look is parallel to the 1ft-long side. This would not work for the HAL faceplate.

HAL 9000 sound clips
I found that the HAL sound clips that one finds on the web have widely varying volume levels, and often rather poor quality. Furthermore they are limited to the most famous phrases. For my HAL replica, I wanted (1) all of HAL's sound clips, (2) high quality, and (3) of course, consistent volume levels. So I extracted these myself. And the results are great - it is very helpful that the movie does not have much music during the HAL scenes. I am hesitant to share the set of mp3 files due to possible copyright issues. But I have compiled a detailed list of quotes, based on which I extracted the audio from the ripped DVD audio track. It's along list - in total these are 95 clips. I have put the list on my blog together with instructions how to rip the DVD audio track and isolate the sound clips using free software.

So there is no .zip file of all audio clips to DL? Just the instructions...... correct?


Thanks!

xl97 said:

So there is no .zip file of all audio clips to DL? Just the instructions...... correct?


Thanks!

Click to expand...

Yes, no audio files. I really don't want get into trouble with the copyright holders. Would you have any idea how this could be shared anonymously?

dropbox link?

google hosted?

Any sort of file sharing platform perhaps?

PM'ing links? (so you know who you shared it with)


To offer an alternate view..

A site called Saberfont.com actually MAKES MONEY off of copyright protected content. (people mix their ripped copyrighted audio files, and this site hosts them for the public to purchase.).. and as far as I know.. have never even got a C&D letter.

You arent making any money from this.... and (at most) will be used for personal user/projects.. (like most/all the copyrighted stuff posted here)

Shared for knowledge.. shared for personal use only..etc..

(I posted this in another forum - but it is also directly relevant for this thread - so I post it here again)
Based on the large interest, I have now uploaded the full set of HAL sound clips to a GitHub repository: mawob/HAL9000
The sound clips are numbered 001.mp3 - 096.mp3, corresponding to the list on my blog. The three-digit numbering with leading zeros was optimized, so it can directly be used in an Arduino-based DFPLayer setup, in mode #02 of the DFPlayer. I hope this will be helpful!

Thanks for this!

Now if there was a way to create new words in the HAL9000 voice. Because, my name isn't Dave