Build Your Own HAL 9000 with the Ruiz Brothers' Guide and an Adafruit RP2040 Prop Maker Feather

The Ruiz Brothers have penned a guide on recreating one of science fiction's most memorable back-talking somewhat-murderous artificial intelligences: HAL 9000, the very-much-not-an-IBM from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

"Powered by the Adafruit RP2040 Prop-Maker Feather and CircuitPython, this project uses Adafruit's biggest arcade button to trigger audio samples," the Ruiz Brothers explain of their latest project for Adafruit's educational portal. "Thanks to advanced built-in capabilities of the Prop-Maker feather, we don't even have to do any soldering in this project, all wiring can be done with the terminal blocks and a screwdriver!"

It's not the first time Adafruit has hosted a guide on building your own HAL 9000: an earlier incarnation designed by Phillip Burgess was powered by an Arduino UNO and an Adafruit Wave Shield, and required some light soldering. A move to the Adafruit RP2040 Prop-Maker Feather, though, means a simplified circuit — and no soldering required.

"The enclosure is comprised of 3D-printed parts that are fastened together with machine screws," the Ruiz Brothers write of the compact desktop housing for the infamous machine, which author Arthur C. Clarke always denied was inspired by the output of IBM — despite the letters "HAL" each being one back in the alphabet from the company's name. "The Feather's USB port is accessible on the side of the prop for powering and reprogramming."

The Adafruit RP2040 Prop-Maker Feather was designed specifically to make it easier to build projects involving light and sound, combining a Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller with a screw-terminal NeoPixel LED port, a three-watt Class D amplifier, an accelerometer with tap detection, and a servo connector. To this, the project adds a speaker, a light-up 100mm (around 3.94") arcade button which also serves as HAL's glowing "eye," and quick-connect wires to bring everything together.

Once built, the CircuitPython-powered project plays pre-recorded samples, created using the text-to-speech functionality built into Apple's macOS, each time the button is hit — and supports additional audio files, should you wish to create your own or take samples from the film itself.

The full guide is now available on Adafruit's learning portal.