Now I am waiting for the 100mm red Arcade button which I ordered from for less than $7.- (I am expecting to wait three weeks). Based on the articles at and other sources on the web, I came up with the following dimensions for the panel. The very first step, is to come up with the dimensions for the face plate. So, my HAL will be made of wood – and it will use the arcade button for the eye, although with some improvements, as compared to the article. I also need to mention that I do not have access to any laser cutter or the tools for working with metal or aluminum. If, at the first glimpse, people are not able to distinguish my HAL from the original, this is good enough for me. In that spirit, I do not plan to go the extra mile to achieve a 100% replica, but I will be happy at the 97% level, if I can stay on a budget below $100. Then they simply shone a light through it. But how did they add the glow Simple they used the camera’s very own red filter (R60) which screws on to the back of the lens. In the Adfafruit article, they mention the 80/20 Rule (that 80% of a result stem from 20% of the effort). The on-screen HAL 9000 the single eye in blazing red was played by one of Nikon’s most extreme lenses, its 8mm f/8 fisheye.
Then, I found an article at in which they build a HAL replica, using a 4-inch Arcade button which looks very close to HAL’s eye. As discussed in the two links above, the original HAL features a rare Nikkor fish-eye 1:8 f=8mm lens which is beyond my budget, and which is not easy to replicate. The most important single detail is, of course, the eye. Great research has been made in a contribution at and another thread on that site has some additional resources on the measurements. On the web, I found some really nice inspirations. The first step is, of course, building the HAL panel. I will decide later on the exact details and functionality. The whole device will be operated by an Arduino and/or a Raspberry Pi. My goal is to build a pretty good replica of the HAL panel, and then take some freedom and mount this on a bigger plate that features a few displays and input devices (buttons, joystick). I am planning to build something more along the lines of the pod bay, where the HAL panel appears on the right side, next to a monitor. … but that’s beyond my scope/space/budget. The coolest thing would be to build that wall with two sets of four monitors on each side…
I plan to go a little beyond that, as I would like my HAL to have further functionality. When surfing the web, one finds many places where people have built the main panel with the red eye, the speaker grille, and the “HAL9000” decal. And I plan to use this blog to document all steps. I am pretty sure that there is wide agreement that this is the HAL9000 computer from Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”. From all Science Fiction movies, what is the most iconic item?
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