Stargate theme?

[grizzlyironbear]

Stargate is my wife's FAVE scifi show and then she is also an egyptian buff, so i was thinking it would be kinda neat to try to build her a comp. however, since this is me talking, i usually end up going WAAAAAY overboard in details up front and get in over my head. i have almost gotten all the details worked out on it, including a working "eye" to serve as the CDROM bay covers. my idea basically is to custom create a pyramid, and after a bit of researching i found out that they encased the tops in copper. (PERFECT!) this works due to the fact that i want to have the heat flushed out of the top anyways. was also thinking of doing a 70/30 mix of 70% natural egyptian pyramid, and 30% of blasted/ showing spaceship details under the stone exterior...anyways, my main idea for the eye is to try to follow the show's iris as much as possible in form. so ive got to learn how to make a circuit board that will light up the 7 symbols in succession as the interior wheel spins. then figure out how to get everything to stop, and then have the "iris" open to show the CDROM bays and maybe do a bit of frosted glass/plexiglass on the inside with blue and white leds? this may take a while as i am also trying to start my own business in lawn care so my free time is extremely limited. not to mention that i am FLAT broke atm, so im prolly only going to be able to do a cardboard mock up, to show you guys my idea...but ANY ideas, helpful comments, kind critisism would be greatly appreciated.

[halcyonforever]

I really like it. I'd love to try and hammer out some of the design ideas with you.

That rotating circle is going to be an interesting one. If you want it to do full rotations we would basically design the outer edge or inner surface with two tracks for the electrical connections. Then you can set a motor to spin it endlessly. If you want the wheel to stop at specific locations like a combination lock, that will require some pretty tight programming on a servo control. Rigging the lights to come on in sequence is pretty straight forward. The lights are wired in parallel with relay delay switches between them. One turns on... switch heats up, triggers the relay, next comes on and repeats.

I like the copper top. I would love to see that turned into a copper heat exchanger... bit of manufacturing and copper isn't cheap right now, but could create a very functional cooling loop. Also if you rig it right you could actually use the natural system of hotter liquid rising/cooler falling to run the liquid cooling pumpless...

On the space ship portion, I would probably design some slats of the pyramid able to raise up to create vents in a fitting and in-obtrusive manner.

Oh the visions!

[grizzlyironbear]

well, my original thought on the spinning was to push a button, and let it spin non stop until the 7th symbol lights up. then have the iris open to reveal the cdroms...but to have it stop on each symbol...OOOOOooOOOooOO...droool...i was also thinking of the time it would take for it to open....maybe i should implement some sort of open lock for the iris? that way when its at home in use, that way she wont have to wait for the "light show" to go through the sequence just to insert or remove a disk.

[Cheron]

I would really like to see a working iris

[grizzlyironbear]

im currently trying to figure out a way to get it to work past just having 4 parts that fold out....id really like to have about 8....but, size of the servo's and engines might prove to be a prob...so i figure id better try this out on paper before i get too much father into the eye. the rest of the pyramid should be a cake walk compared to the iris....since its mostly going to be just eye candy...

[halcyonforever]

There was another mod that attempted an iris. The major issue became the extreme precision necessary to make the vanes line up correctly.

[Eclecticos]

I once started on a similar project myself, except it was the Mayan Temple Mod.
Here is a Link that may help you.

[gntlkilr]

I would love to see an iris work. I've thought it through at one time, but the work on the iris alone is a crazy amount of time for me.

In case it doesn't pan out, one thing you could do is a flap that opens outward. On the outside is a closed iris etching, the inside is a open iris. Mostly for ambiance and not functionality.

But of course, still go with the iris idea, that would be extreme hawtness

[grizzlyironbear]

well ive never been the sort to start slowly or easy, and if this pans out the way i want it to, ive got yet more insane ideas. MUAHAHAHAHAaaaaaaa......like a fully armed and lethal mech/computer (will have to check the local laws before i try that one) also have an idea of a 454 big block computer for a buddy of mine....but i might be able to rig the iris on multiple mini servo's to fire at the same time...opening the iris once the final light is lit....and since most of the components will be lower on the mod i would definately have the room for the size of the servos....will try to get a more detailed drawing of my ideas here soon.....just that i have pretty much resigned myself to working 16 hour days on the new lawn care business until it can clear 6 grand a month to cover my current bills.....once it does that, i can pretty much start buying the needed supplies to start building this. im thinking of encasing the entire components in clear plexiglass to start, then using some modeling putty/clay to cover the areas i need to cover for the whole pyramid look. that way i can also throw lights inside of the computer to show parts of the hardware if i need to. or maybe i can just do a bit of painting with some kit bashing for the electronics look...

[Luke122]

Check out the worklog for Motorized Madness by RendermanDan.. he did an iris in that project, and it looked amazing. I dont think he ended up using it on the final project though, but the whole iris build is in the worklog.