element14 Presents

The Ben Heck Show team have been approached to repair and enhance a vintage Japanese arcade Pachinko machine! Have you built or repaired an arcade machine? Or what arcade machine would you want to make ? Let the team know on the element14 Community.

The Ben Heck Show team have been approached to repair and enhance a vintage Japanese arcade Pachinko machine! Pachinko machines are common gambling games which are played in Japan, and are still in use today! Most of the modern games have hidden features, hints and instant win mechanisms, so it makes sense that the team use their 3D Printing and microcontroller knowledge to bring this mechanical wood, plastic and metal version up to electronic standards for gaming fun. What's an arcade machine without sound and blinking lights anyway? This project becomes a great opportunity to look at logic states and how those can trigger events! Even if they make, strange and unusual noises... Have you built or repaired an arcade machine? Or what arcade machine would you want to make ? Let the team know on the element14 Community.

Ben, Felix and Karen finally make an accessibility controller for the PlayStation 4!

Technology should be accessible to everyone, especially gaming. That's why one of the popular requests received by the Ben Heck Show Team is to create custom controllers that are accessible to everyone. The current generation of games consoles have made this difficult, especially with the Playstation 4, and it wasn't until a recent third party controller came to market that Ben and Felix found an easy way to hack in custom parts! Watch in this episode as Felix tears down the controller and guides us through how they manufacture replacement trigger buttons and directional pad controls, while Ben shows us how to measure and model the controller as a design guide to create 3D printed or laser cut pieces. Then it's up to Ben and Karen to put the controller through its paces, what other controllers do you think the team should create? Or we should modify for accessibility? Let the team know on the element14 Community!

Ben compares the PS4 Pro to the XBox One, and the Playstation 4 Slim, and then answers the ultimate question on everyone's mind: "Why can't the Playstation 4 Pro do 4k blu-ray ?"

It's time to appraise Sony's design decisions that have gone into this new iteration of the popular Playstation console! Ben compares the PS4 Pro to the XBox One, and the Playstation 4 Slim, and then answers the ultimate question on everyone's mind: "Why can't the Playstation 4 Pro do 4k blu-ray ?" While taking apart the console, Ben also comes across some curious similarities to the XBox One, making us wonder: did Sony rip off some designs, or is it only coincidental? Also, why do so many versions of the Playstation 4 exist? You’ll have to watch the episode to find out the answers to these questions! What other console or even device hardware teardowns you would like to see? Perhaps networking hardware or other games consoles? Let the Ben Heck Show team know on the element14 Community!

Ben hacks apart a VTech baby monitor so that it's possible to listen to your favourite music with headphones, and be interrupted by what's important in your life, your little child.

You may not have wondered what Felix was like as a baby, but you're about to find out. Ben hacks apart a VTech baby monitor so that it's possible to listen to your favourite music with headphones, and be interrupted by what's important in your life, your little child. After breaking open the baby monitor, Ben finds suitable test pads on the PCB to find the perfect place for the digital logic level control and 555 timers to latch onto the audio signal and switch over from music, to wailing baby and back again. What devices do you need to make your life easier or more comfortable as a parent? Let the Ben Heck Show team know on the element14 community!

Karen is really wired, and this time we don't just mean hyper-active! In an effort to become wireless, Ben, Karen and Felix get together to talk about the essentials of wireless technology.

Karen is really wired, and this time we don't just mean hyper-active! In an effort to become wireless, Ben, Karen and Felix get together to talk about the essentials of wireless technology. There are many different ways for electronics to communicate information, from WiFi, xBee, Bluetooth, mobile networks to RFID and NFC. In this episode the team discuss them all! Each is put through an appraisal where the pro's and cons of each are compared, combined with an insight into their radio frequencies and bandwidth that they use in regulation by the FCC in America. What projects or hardware do you wish to be free from wired technology? Or do you have an interest in Software Defined Radio or Amateur HAM ? Let The Ben Heck Show team know on the element14 Community.

Now that the Nintendo Virtual Boy has been tore down and we know how it operates, Ben and Karen set to work on redesigning the console as a wearable virtual reality gaming headset.

Like the Six Million Dollar Man, Ben can rebuild it, the team have the technology! Now that the Nintendo Virtual Boy has been tore down and we know how it operates, Ben and Karen set to work on redesigning the console as a wearable virtual reality gaming headset. To do so, Ben has to redesign the enclosure, so it is time to bust out the vector graphics software and show us the tips and tricks necessary to get accurate measurements to laser cut a new design. It's not all about 3D printing mounts and laser cutting though, Karen steps in with her wearable know-how to help attach the Virtual Boy to the frame to be able to mount it on your face! All designs encounter some flaws and problems though, and this is no different, find out how Karen and Ben overcome them in today's episode and help the Virtual Boy, become a Virtual Man! What did you think of the build? Or what should the team make wearable? Let us know on the element14 Community!

Join Ben as he leaves the workshop behind and goes on a journey to Portland's Retro Gaming Expo! Though with some happy distractions, Ben gets another chance to repair the Nintendo Playstation console!