Frund's Computer

[DeckardKane]

Frund's Computer is a character, played by Tevis, and at first he will look like part of the set. The vibe to start is "smooth featureless monolith that happens to be a computer".

However, at a certain point, the computer will fully activate, and Tevis will stand up to reveal that he's more of a robot, with arms! I get TARS/CASE vibes from Interstellar with the design here.

It will have LEDs - we discussed with Tevis, we were thinking LED strips along the perimeter of the whole shape (Tevis is also handling LEDs in the helmet). Could be interesting to also have LEDs on the "chest" panel, but only light them up once Tevis has stood up/separated his arms to reveal his more robot form.

One really big note here is that barring a major design change, all LED control for this element will likely have to be remote - Tevis does not have much freedom of motion in the current setup.

Functions

• [ ] Needs to react to command lines spoken by Frund - don't necessarily need different reactions for each line (could just simply pulse in affirmation), but it'd be fun!
• [ ] Different LED configurations based on what "form" it's currently in (Need to discuss further with Tevis)

[DeckardKane]

3/19/24 Update

Had a discussion with Tevis today - we are hoping to mount LED strips to the arms tomorrow night. Tevis and I both agree that we actually kind of like the way the coroplast diffuses the strips as is, without any additional material (it almost looks like pixel art to me!), and we think we're going to mount the strips approximately on the third "channel" of corrugation on each side (see below).

[DeckardKane]

3/20/24 LIT Workshop Update

We did some work prepping the LED strips for mounting in the arms of Frund's Computer. Each arm will have two strips of LEDs, 47 pixels long. These should really be wired up before mounting - during the production meeting it was also pointed out that we should definitely add quick connects between the arms and the chest/the chest and the head.

[DeckardKane]

3/27/24 LIT Workshop Update

• @EstherWhang and Derek F made some excellent progress today, and were able to wire and mount the LED strips in the arms. Things have been made robust with hot glue and heat shrink!
• We're still deliberating on a quick connector to use between the arms and the chest, that is TBD.
• Hopefully LED strands for the chest will be happening in the next week or two.